It can be intimidating to think about writing your life story. Relax. Memoir isn’t your entire life story. It’s a slice of life, not birth to death. Don’t confuse memoir with autobiography. Today the only autobiographies which find publishers are those written by presidential candidates, retired statesmen, and superstars. And typically written by authors who don’t trust biographers to paint their portrait in a flattering light. The classical forms of autobiography are called apologia, oration, and confession. Apologia are written as self-justifications for one’s actions. Orations are written to document one’s literary talents in description of one’s successes. And confessions are written about racy events or radical ideas with self-criticism like Augustine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. First-person accounts which serve to protect ego, flaunt id, or appease superego misses the mark of the memoir genre. Gore Vidal described memoir as how one remembers one’s own life experiences. It is not fiction even though the genre employs many of the same literary conventions and devices. If you want to start writing a memoir, start by closing your eyes and draw upon those crystal clear recollections from your lifespan. Moments you can’t forget. The ones that a smell can invoke. Memories jogged by the weather, or how a garment feels, or the taste of a seasonal dish. Engage your senses in the recollection. Begin here. With one snapshot moment from the past. Lisa Dale Norton calls these moments “shimmering images.” Those lucid memories that you can bring into the palm of your hand and can…

You need to consider using Facebook if your target audience uses Facebook. There are 1.11 billion users of Facebook, so there is a good chance some of your readers are there. It is a great tool if you are just beginning to build an audience platform; which should start a year before you submit a book proposal and two years before the publication date. Don’t wait to begin building an audience platform until after your book is written or published. So what is the difference between a personal profile and a page? Pages are different than Personal Profiles. Individual users have their own personal ‘Profile’ and network by ‘Friending’ those whom they know. Facebook Pages are created by businesses, nonprofit organizations, private groups and some government agencies. They do not have ‘Friends’ but fans who ‘Like’ them.  Your favorite restaurant, music group, movie star, local farmer, author, artist, or political group may have its own Page. So do you need an author Facebook Page? Probably not; unless you have previously published and have already created an audience platform from your Page.  If you’re just getting started, Facebook requires you begin with a personal profile before you can create a Page. Start with a Personal Profile. If you don’t already have a Facebook Page, don’t bother creating one now.Last year, those with Pages noticed their posts were viewed by only a fraction of the people who Liked their Page. Facebook changed its algorithm so that Pages had to pay to “promote” their…

This past Wednesday 25,000 volunteers gave away half a million books across America. World Book Night spreads the love of reading person to person. Why? Reading is fun. And reading changes lives, improves employment opportunities, social interaction, enfranchisement, and can have a positive effect on mental health and happiness. Book readers are more likely to participate in positive activities such as volunteering, attending cultural events, and even physical exercise. Each year on April 23 – William Shakespeare’s birthday and the International Day of the Book – people go out into their communities and give free paperbacks to light and non-readers. These aren’t children’s books. World Book Day started in the UK to distribute free books to children. The goal of World Book Night is to seek out adult readers wherever they are. As a volunteer again this year, I distributed 20 copies of Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity. Because I loved this book for the power of its story, I knew it would be easy to find takers for this gift. In October of 1943 a British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. The pilot and passenger are best friends. Maddie is left to die, and Verity is arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. It’s a mind-game of a novel about survival and how far true friends will go to save each other. It’s the kind of book that makes reading pure pleasure. So it was fun to drive through McDonald’s in Ithaca and surprise the cashier with a free book.…