Better on toast |
He’s the sort of person who goes to a party, family meeting
etc with a trunk load of copies of his book. “Don’t invite Harry for goodness
sake!!!”
She could tell a tale or two |
I'm assuming if you're thinking of taking advantage of the
self-publishing revolution and are writing an autobiography, you’re not in one
of these three categories – correct? So, if you're not one of life's notables,
does this mean that you've nothing worthwhile to say?
Not at all.
Especially since much of what makes a successful
autobiography is merely a matter of perspective. A monarch, president or
pop-star says that they like a particular brand of coffee and not only is it
front page news, they're probably paid a not-so-small fortune by the coffee
company for that five-second throwaway comment. Yet, if I now tell you my
favorite brand, you'll go "What's this idiot raving about? BORING!".
You see, what makes an
autobiography worth reading is often merely a matter of perspective.
Anyone outside the UK may not have seen the hilarious (yet
well-observed) series 'Ripping Yarns' which was written by Michael Palin and
Terry Jones. Although its Monty Python roots do make it somewhat over the top
(as you can imagine), one episode in particular illustrates my comment about it
not being a case of what you say, but who you are.
In 'The Testing of Eric Olthwaite', Eric (Michael Palin) is
the "World's Most Boring Person". At every opportunity, he proudly drones
on about his new shovel and the 'blackness' of his mother's black pudding
(‘apart from the white bits’), with the unsurprising consequence that people just
drive him off. At the end of the episode (and after he's involuntarily become famous),
everyone wants to hear his previously boring anecdotes. When a young boy in the
crowd that’s gathered around him subsequently grumbles about having to listen,
his mother clips his ear and tells him that it's extremely interesting and that
he should pay attention.
Thus, if you can’t be famous, you need to be entertaining.
In a nutshell, an autobiography written by one of us 'plebs' needs to be
something which will catch the attention of the reader and keep them
entertained. This means you have to build into it humor, pathos, emotion, love,
hate and all the other strong feelings. Besides this, it has to have an
identifiable storyline, just like fiction.
I thought it was interesting |
With that in mind, it's probably best to cut your teeth on
fiction. Make your mistakes with some short stories or novellas which won't
wound you so much if they don't rocket up the charts. If they do, then your
autobiography will sell itself, of course!
Another thing is that you've also got to consider your
starting point. Do you do it chronologically or do you organize it by
eventfulness? Always remember the need for it to lead the reader through and
keep them amused. Never labor points and maintain a light touch to your writing
- a page of dense text describing some trivial item in detail is undoubtedly going
to lose you your reader. The book needs to be ‘lean and mean’ because, if they
encounter self-indulgence, they'll simply start flicking pages and then, the
next thing, the book will get returned.
The real problem you're going to face is that no-one knows
who you are. Why would anyone buy a book about a 'nobody' (no offence
intended)? You've got to create interest - both with a catchy cover and title and
also with as much publicity as you can muster.
On that subject, large adverts cost a lot of money and if
you aren't selling what the buyer wants to buy (because you’re not famous),
you'll just end up wasting your hard-earned pennies. The solution is, instead
of pushing your book at people, get them to come looking for you.
But how do you do
this?
Obviously much is going to depend upon what the main
'selling' point of the book is but, in general terms, you should consider:- Contacting all your local newspapers
- Sending out a press release (remember, you need that angle)
- Befriending like-minded people, groups on Facebook - maybe get a few independent readers to look over what you've done
- Writing blog articles (like this one) and getting them put up on relevant sites
- Creating a website and blogging about your experiences
- Producing a short video which you can then embed in your blog
If you’ve taken your autobiography and shaped it into a
fascinating story which creates passion and depth of feeling in an independent
reader, your memoirs are now truly memorable.
Aiming True, the autobiography of Conrad Phillips has just
been published by Any Subject Books. While Conrad does manage to meet the
criterion of having been an actor for nearly 50 years, in his book he’s made excellent
use of humor and the lightness of touch that I’ve described in this blog.
Unlike many other such autobiographies, Aiming True’s not a barrage of
name-dropping. If you read it, you’ll see that his anecdotes manage to both
divert and entice you to read more – a goal for anyone writing up their life
story.
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