Should You Write a Self-Help Book or a Memoir?
Have you been thinking of writing a memoir or autobiography?
A lot of my clients tell me that their book is all about their life and their journey, which is amazing right? Because it takes a lot of courage to just open up your heart and share your life struggles, the ups and downs and the wins, with others.
I know it’s not easy and having said that, here is my warning to all of you who are thinking of writing a book based on your life: Unless you are a celebrity, nobody is going to buy that book.
That is the problem that I see with first time authors who want to write a memoir or autobiography.
Now, there is a subtle difference between a memoir and an autobiography. An autobiography is when you’re writing about your entire life, from the time you were born until the present time.
While a memoir is typically one episode from your life. You go back in time and pick one phase of your life and talk about that.
In both cases, you are basically talking about your life.
My recommendation is that Authors need to think about their book from the point of view of the reader. This is because when a reader looks at a potential next read on Amazon, they are going to ask themselves: What’s in it for me?
If you are already a celebrity or somebody who comes on television every other day, then people who do not know you would still be interested in your life only because you’re a celebrity.
Otherwise, they’re going to ask themselves what’s in it for them? Why should they know the life story of somebody whom they have never met and they have never seen?
Therefore, it is your job as an Author to make sure that when you are sharing your life’s story, which I’m sure is truly amazing, make it all about the reader and for the reader. So how do you do this?
You need to repackage your memoir or autobiography into a self help book. By doing that, you are taking the important learnings and experiences from your life, and you’re teaching that to your reader, telling them that, “Hey, I have also gone through this. This is exactly what I did to overcome that.” So then what happens is, it’s not just about I, me, myself, but it’s about the reader. It’s about how somebody who’s going through a similar journey can get some tips, inspiration, and action items from your book and implement it in their life.
It makes the book actionable, implementable, something that people can immediately start using to improve their life.
So your question would be:
Should I just make it all about strategy?
Is there a step by step process to follow?
No, not really!
Although, I do encourage authors to have a mix of strategy and story. Strategy is all for the left brain, story is all for the right brain.
And your reader will appreciate it if the book has a mix of both, right?
It should give them enough tools, and strategies, and tips that they can act upon. But it should also feed their right brain. It should also be filled with your life stories, anecdotes, and stuff which will make the book an interesting read.
If you have already written your book or if you have an outline, please do a quick check and see if it has a good balance of story and strategy.
If it’s only about strategy, it makes it really boring. It makes the book look like a manual. But if it’s only the story, then it just feels like a novel. People are not going to take action after reading the book. They’re not going to find out more about you.
So if you’re an author who also has a business related to the book, then you should have a balance of story plus strategy.
If you’re planning to write a book about your life, that’s great, but don’t just make it about your life. Make it about the reader. Just repackage the book and make the reader feel that by reading this book, they can change something about their life.
Make sure your title and subtitle reflect that so that people do not misunderstand your book to be just any other autobiography.
So there you have it! I hope you found this to be useful for planning your next book!
If you have any questions, make sure you comment right below.
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And the most important thing, I would like to see you in my next Author Success Bootcamp, which happens inside our Facebook group. Head over to www.happyselfpublishing.com/tribe.
Join our Facebook group called Happy Authors Tribe and be a part of our next bootcamp!
Until then, Happy Authoring!
