There's more to writing a memoir than just writing your life story. A memoir isn't one long diary entry. Rather, it's a well-crafted story about a crucial, often exceptionally difficult, time in someone's life. Writing & Selling Your Memoir talks readers through the process of telling their most personal stories in a compelling, relatable, and readable manner. Unlike other books dedicated to the art and craft of writing memoir, it teaches readers how to approach the genre with love, respect, and know-how without sentimentalizing it. Drawing on her experience working with New York Times best-selling memoirists, literary agent Paula Balzer carefully explores the genre and provides readers with step-by-step instruction on how to: • Identify strong opening and closing points • Find and develop a strong central hook that readers can relate to • Structure a memoir to maximize readability • Use dialogue and pacing to enhance intimacy • Approach honesty and truthfulness • Build a successful author platform around their memoir • Get an agent's attention • Get published Full of tips, techniques, detailed exercises, and examples from best-selling memoirs as well as sidebars from well-known memoir authors, Writing & Selling Your Memoir teaches you how to approach an often tricky genre and tell your story without sentimentalizing it.

A Learning Annex Book.

Revised and enlarged by Professor W.T. Stearn, this major work first published in 1950 is still

A writers’ writer shares his secrets The author of 49 books and over 3,000 articles, Dennis Hensley shares his secrets for making it as an author. He discusses how to find a distinctive style, how to make time to write, and how to negotiate contracts. In easy-to-follow steps, the book outlines the keys to contacting agents, securing copyrights, and selling manuscripts to more than one market. Lots of people want to make it as writers. Hensley tells you how to do it — and enjoy the process.