Tag Archives: memoir

Memoir

A Tribute to My Girlfriends: A Memoir Moment

22 Comments

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

 

“Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.”- St. Thomas Aquinas

 

 

 

In my upcoming memoir, Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse, I show how my girlfriends give me strength and help me move forward in my life.

 

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Photo Credit: dreamstimefree

 

Martha tries to convince me not to marry when she hears my doubts. Sharon coaxes me up the stairs and out the door the day I leave my first husband because of his drinking.  Jean becomes a loving caretaker of my children as I find my way as a single parent. Judy supports me before, during and after both my divorces, Eileen opens my eyes to God’s presence in my life, Rosemary, Linda and Marilyn embrace us as family when we move to Wisconsin. Mary Sue and her family become my family away from my family in Missouri. Meredith and Denise rally around me when I escape from my second husband for fear of physical abuse…

 

These are a few of many who stood by me—steady and true—and tried to counsel and guide me.

 

I had to find my own way in my own time but in the words of a famous Beatles’ tune:

 

“I get by with a little help from my friends”

 

It is with gratitude and love that I pay tribute through my story to the presence of all my girlfriends in my life.

 

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Judy, 1987

 Excerpt from Chapter 31: Moving On , 1977

One day Judy stopped to see me on her way home from work. “Just wanted to stop by before I go home,” she said, standing in my kitchen. “How are you?”

She had worked all day teaching nursing classes at the university, yet her short, light-brown hair softly framed her face. Her tailored black skirt and crisp white blouse with the collar that stood up in the back of her neck made her look like she was just getting ready to do a presentation at a board meeting. Her dark-rimmed glasses gave her an air of authority though her ready smile and crystal-blue eyes telegraphed genuine concern. The simple silver choker and matching round silver earrings completed the picture.“I look a mess, Judy,” I said, wiping my forehead with the back of one of my dirty hands. My hair was falling in my eyes; I wore no make-up and a wrinkled T-shirt and jeans. Deeply entrenched in work-mode, I was taking down my storm windows in the dining room and replacing them with screens, a dreaded task due to the deteriorating condition of the windows and the screens.

“You know, I could never do what you do; take care of two kids, the house, change windows, a job, all alone like you do,” she said. “I really give you credit. You are much stronger than you realize.”

“I never thought of myself as the strong one, Judy,” I responded, blowing the hair out of my eyes while feeling surprised and yet honored by her declaration.

“Well, you are,” she said, then put her hand on the doorknob to leave. “Gotta go. I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”

“Thanks for stopping by,” I said. “I’m fine. I’ll get by with a little help from my friends.”

She turned and paused at the doorway then walked over to me with outstretched arms.

“You’re an inspiration to me,” she said, hugging me. “Take care. I’ll see you soon.”

 

***

 

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Girlfriends Cathy, Jean, Sharon and Eileen, 2001

 

 

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Mary Sue, 2004
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Meredith and Denise. 2004

 

 

How about you? What kind of girlfriend stories do you have to share?

 

I’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~

 

Next Week: 

Monday, 7/7/14:  “Interview with Artis Henderson:How to Transform Grief into Story by Dorit Sasson, author and radio host of ‘Giving Voice to Your Story.'”

 

***

 

 

 

Coming soon- memoir 4

Memoir

The 3 P’s of Publishing a Memoir

31 Comments

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

 

 “If you have a dream, don’t just sit there. Gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality.” 
― Roopleen

 

Now that the time is closing in on pushing that publish button for my memoir, Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse, I can share some lessons I’ve learned in the process.

 

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Photo Credit: dreamstimefree

 

When I think of what has brought me from the desire to write a book to publishing a memoir, I think of the 3 P’s:

 

 

Purpose-driven Passion:

 

The desire to find a story then share it with the world requires every bit of stamina, focus and commitment one can muster. Once I found my story of getting into and out of two emotionally abusive marriages, I was able to make a firm commitment (to myself) to get my story out there. I became connected to my purpose for writing and sharing a message of hope, resilience and courage for those who found themselves in similar circumstances. It is possible to climb out of the abyss of poor decisions and to move on to live life on your own terms. That connection to purpose fueled my passion and kept me moving toward publication. The passion helped me work my way around my self-doubt, my hesitancy to re-live the pain of poor decisions and my concern about what others would think or say. Five years worth of starts and stops and many edits later, I found my story taking shape. Passion for my story drove it forward.

 

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Purpose/flickr creative commons

 

 

Patience:

 

Ah, yes. I would never tell anyone they could write their memoir in six weeks or six months or even six years. I know Augusten Burroughs cranked out his memoir Running with Scissors in two weeks. There are always exceptions, and he is clearly one of them. I have found that it truly is a process and a journey, determined solely by the person who is writing the story. The story I started out writing is not the story I will end up publishing. I didn’t even find that story until I had written reams of vignettes over a three-year peroid, experimented with voice, tense and structure, received substantive feedback from beta readers and professional editors, and killed many of “my darlings” that did not add to the narrative. And I’ll admit, there were times I truly wondered if I would ever really end up publishing the story. I could not rush it. But, if I was patient and committed to writing, I found my story developed nicely and was getting groomed for publication. I had to be patient and let it find its own time.

All I needed to do was write from my heart and the story that needed to be told revealed itself to me.

 

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heart/ flickr creative commons

 

Perseverance:

 

Amen to this one. Once I had devoted the time and energy to my memoir, I knew I did not want to give up on it. I had already put in years of work, to say nothing of the emotional upheaval of facing past mistakes and gleaning lessons learned for  both myself and my readers. It began to shape itself into a story with a beginning, middle and an end. It had a message and a purpose. I couldn’t let it down. I had to persevere through the doubts, past my inner critic, through the learning curves, some steeper than others, and onward.

 

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Overcome Flickr Creative Commons

 

Ever Faithful to His Lead will be born very soon—July is the target month. Launch date TBA.

 

Passion for my story and its purpose, patience to let it unfold as it is meant to and perseverance to power through all the obstacles and challenges of publishing in the 21st century all helped me reach this milestone.

 

How about you? I’d love to hear what has powered you to reach your goal of publishing. Please leave your comments below~

 

 

 

This Week: 

 

Announcement: Congratulations to Louise Mathewson for being the winner of Nancy Sharp’s memoir, Both Sides Now: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Bold Living!

 

Monday, 06/02/14: I’m over at Susan Weidener’s Women’s Writing Circle blog with a guest post about a theme in my memoir: “Memoir Explores Woman as Caretaker.” Hope you’ll stop by and join in that conversation too.

 

Thursday, 06/05/14:  “Author Attitude : What Is it and Why Do I Need It? WOW Women on Writing Book Tour & Giveaway with Nina Amir.”

 

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Week #4 and 83%  funded!

My Pubslush Crowdfunding Campaign for my memoir, Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse ends at midnight on June 11.

 Thanks to your generous contributions, I’m so close and headed for the home stretch with only 9 more days to go!

By making a contribution you will help spread the messages of hope, resilience and courage to those seeking freedom from abuse. 

Here’s the link to the campaign:

http://pubslush.com/books/id/2076.

If you are unable to make a contribution, I’d love it if you would share this link with others.

Please join me in sharing the hope!

Thank you.

 

Writing a Dedication for a Memoir

A Dedication for Ever Faithful to His Lead: A Memoir Moment

35 Comments

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

 

The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.

 

 

As I close in on publishing my memoir, Ever Faithful to His Lead, I have been making lists of all the people who have helped me reach this milestone—family, friends, writing colleagues. Clearly, I have a host of wonderful people to recognize and thank for helping me achieve this lifelong dream of publishing a book.

 

I have also been giving serious thought to a dedication page for my memoir.

 

A few weeks back, while washing dishes, I glanced over at a lone dried long-stemmed red rose in a clear vase. It was a rose from my Aunt Rose’s funeral in April, 2012. The realization came to me like a bolt of lightening and I started crying.

 

 

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Long-stemmed Red Rose Kims Korners uploaded from Flickr

 

 

My memoir about my journey away from emotional abuse will be dedicated to my dear Aunt Rose who suffered needlessly for years at the hands of an abusive husband. I never realized the full extent until I sat at her bedside during her final days and she poured out her feelings. She held them in all those years.

 

Aunt Rose had been an important part of my life story for as long as I can remember. Here’s a glimpse of her from my five -year-old eyes when she created a magical moment that has stayed with me my entire life.

In later years, we spent a lot of time together, going out to lunch or reminiscing in her living room. This is the last time we were out together. It was April,2011, one year before she died of acute leukemia.

 

 

It is in tribute to my Aunt Rose who has always there for me with her love, her voice of reason and her fun-loving ways that I dedicate my memoir, Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse.

 

Let me tell you one of the stories she shared on her death bed:

 

Bittersweet Goodbyes, 2012

 

Her perfectly coifed, white hair is now straight and sticks out at the crown where her head lays dormant on the pillow. But her  clear, engaging blue eyes still draw us in.

 

She wants to hear the stories I’ve written. She’s heard them many times before. I often sat in her living room and she listened with her heart to the family tales.

 

When I finish reading the story about the warm summer nights under the peach tree, her crystal blue eyes, now even more prominent on her drawn face, are wide and sparkling. She tells me she remembers and my heart expands in my chest.

 

Her daughter Michele is sitting across from me. She smiles and recalls a memory of  her mom saving money to buy her a prom gown. Mike, her father, would never have approved of  this since it was $60. She told him it was $30.

 

 Michele shakes her head and says,” Mom is the strongest woman I know.”

 

Aunt Rose cringes. The mention of his name still haunts her.

 

Aunt Rose then starts talking about her three sons, my cousins, being beaten over minor infractions like being five minutes late for dinner or not knowing where their father’s hammer was. She wrinkles her nose and shakes her head as she recalls an incident involving six- year-old Michael and eight-year-old Dean.

 

“You’re lying,” Mike shouted as Michael and Dean shook their heads from side to side, shooting each other sideway glances.

 

“No, Daddy.” They shrugged their shoulders and looked at each other, confused and scared.

 

“He beat them so hard with his belt, they lost their breath.” Aunt Rose said, adding, “ I did everything I could to try to stop him.”

 

“He glared at me and said ‘Get away or you’ll be next.’ “

 

Then as if it had just happened, she said, “ When he was done, he walked out into the garage, leaving me with two broken little boys to console.”

 

“Soon, he returned from the garage.”

 

 “Well look at this,” Mike said, chuckling while holding up the hammer.“Look what I found.”

 

***

Our family felt the pain of her abuse, though the full extent was not revealed until she poured out these stories as we held vigil.

My heart goes out to Aunt Rose, my cousins and to all women and children who suffer at the hands of an abuser. He left when her fifth child was five months old but the scars remained until the end.

Although the abuse I write about in my memoir is emotional, it still is harmful.

 

If my memoir helps one person find their inner strength and courage to leave an abusive relationship, then I will feel my mission of increasing abuse awareness and prevention has been achieved.

 

It really is no surprise that my favorite song is “The Rose.” It reminds me that in the midst of all our sorrows, there is hope for new life and love.

 

This one’s for you, Aunt Rose. May you find the peace and happiness you deserve and may all your girlhood dreams be fulfilled in Heaven.

 

 

 

 

How about you? Dedicating a book to someone is a high personal matter. How have you or would you write a dedication page for your book?

 

I’d love to hear from you.

 

Please leave your comments below~

 

Announcement: Congratulations, Barbara Techel! Your name was selected in a random drawing of commenters to receive Cindi McVey’s memoir, To Live in Paradise: Dreams Found and Lost in the Heart of Africa.

 

This Week:

Monday, 5/18/14: “New Funding Options for Authors”, a guest post interview on Sharon Lippincott’s  The Heart and Craft of Lifewriting blog.

 

Thursday, 5/22/14:  “Google+Hangout Interview with Mary C. Gottschalk on Her New Novel, A Fitting Place”

 

***

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The  30-day Pubslush Crowdfunding Campaign for my memoir, Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse was launched on May 12. Now in its second week, it is 63% closer to its goal. The campaign ends at midnight on June 11.

 

By making a contribution you will help spread the messages of hope, resilience and courage to those seeking freedom from abuse. Here’s the link to the campaign:

 

http://pubslush.com/books/id/2076.

 

If you are unable to make a contribution, I’d love it if you would share this link with others.

 

Share the hope.

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling, Memoir, Memoir Writing Tips

Journaling as Seed for Memoir: A Memoir Moment

26 Comments

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

 

“The nicest part is being able to write down all my thoughts and feelings, otherwise I might suffocate.” Anne Frank from The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition.

 

It all started with the pink diary I received for my eleventh birthday. It had a key so I could lock away all my deepest secrets, like what boy I had a crush on in the sixth grade or all the fun I had at the girl scout camping trip even though those half-cooked hot dogs made me yearn for home.

I could write whatever I was thinking and feeling and nobody would ever know.

Now I am writing a memoir and the whole world will know what I am thinking and feeling. I can’t help but ponder how the transition- from guarding my thoughts with a lock and key to sharing my inner and outer story so openly- happened.

For me, it happened through journaling…

I have journaled for years and never realized that all those times I had poured out my feelings onto the pages of my journal , I was planting the seeds for my memoir.

I still have the blue cloth, three-ring notebook that I created for my senior English teacher, Miss Philips back in 1964. The page dividers have pictures depicting the sections: hopes, beliefs, thoughts, ideas with varied colored plastic tabs where the white labels were inserted.

At the time, it seemed like a silly project. What did Miss Philips know? I can still see her, pencil-thin frame, always dressed in some dark-colored–grey, navy blue or black–dowdy dress or suit. Standing so straight by her desk, she never smiled or wore makeup. Her brown hair was pulled back in a tight bun and her wire-rimmed glasses dangled at the end of her nose.

What in the world would I ever do with that silly notebook?

 

My First Journal
My First Journal

 

I packed the journal when I went to nursing school and every once in a while, I’d pull it out to glance through the sections. Sometimes, I’d even jot a few thoughts down. For the most part, it lay dormant.

But, as I began my career and started out on my path to contribute to society as an adult, the pages started beckoning me.

It turned out that I did plenty with Miss Philips’s notebook and if I had the chance, I would thank her for the gift of that handmade journal which provided me with a framework to fill in my life story. What started out as an assumption in my adolescent mind that my out-of-touch teacher was wasting my time became a slowly evolving admiration for a teacher who made a lasting difference in my life…

She planted a seed that has bloomed over and over again as I have worked my way through my life challenges.

Without realizing it at the time, I was planting the seeds for my life story.

 

I have journaled through the heartaches of relationship failures, the searing pain of divorce, the loneliness and exhaustion of being a single parent, the terror of dealing with an alcoholic son, the heart wrenching losses of my maternal grandmother, Nan and my best friend, Judy, my own diagnosis of cancer and the illness and death of my beloved father.

The seed journal has spawned many spiral notebooks and decorative journals to accommodate my evolving thoughts and feelings; to capture my moments of need, longing, passion, creativity, my life…the moments that will matter in my memoir.

The journal tells its own story.

*The pages sit blank and patient just waiting to receive my words. As the words fall on the page, the emotions get sorted out. There is something about labeling a feeling that helps to put it into perspective.

*The feelings that grip and gouge on the inside take on a different shape on the outside.

*Knowledge is power and when one becomes clear with one’s own feelings, there is a sense of empowerment.

*When I journaled my way through my father’s 11-day illness and death, I found clarity and solace in my own words. In sharing my deepest, heartfelt grief, I received support and love in return.

Journaling has become my pathway to healing and hope and has helped me to recall, relive and reflect upon the moments and times of my life that will make up my memoir.

Thank you Miss Philips for helping me plant the seeds that have yielded a garden of stories for my memoir.

 

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Look what is growing in my garden
Photo Credit: Nana

***

Here is a brief journal entry written in response to a writing prompt at a conference. It that has become a part of my first memoir, now in it’s final edits, Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Emotional Abuse:

” The lime green satin dress with the rhinestone design on the bodice slips over my gentle curves as I guide it over my head and wiggle it into place. I pull my stockings up each leg and attach them at the top with metal clasps on the girdle I don’t want to wear. But, it makes me feel grown up. I am twelve years old and getting ready for the cotillion at the end of Madame Helina’s ballroom dancing class. I pull my long,brown hair back into ponytail and slide into my patent leather flats, ready for a practice session into the dancing world of my approaching adolescence.”

***

On Tuesday evenings in May, I will be conducting an online workshop Journaling as Seed for Memoir for The National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW):

May 6-27 2014, 4 weeks (Tuesdays) 4PST, 5 MST, 6 CST, 7 EST

 

$125 for non-members

 

$110 for members

 

To write a memoir, you need to mine memories and get in touch the significant events in your life that have shaped you into the person you are today. It is a voyage of self-discovery. Journaling can help plant the seeds for the story you need to tell. It can become a pathway to healing and hope and help you to recall, relive and reflect upon the moments and times of your life that become your story.

 

What you will learn

 

  • Journaling as a creative process
  • The physical and psychological benefits of writing and journaling
  • Specific techniques for stimulating creativity
  • Methods for organizing a journaling routine
  • How to identify vignettes that can be turned into a larger story
  • How to identify possible themes of a memoir through your own writing

 

 

How it works-From Kathy

 

We’ll get together for four 60-minute telephone sessions. During each session, I’ll offer a lesson on journaling. Then each of you will have an opportunity to share your own journaling experiences and writing. By exploring your own journal entries, we will build a trusting, mutually supportive atmosphere. Between each session, you will write a brief assignment—a response from a writing prompt- and email them to all the class. Because we will be able to read your pieces on our own, you won’t need to read them aloud. We can use class time to work through issues and offer feedback. At every step during and between classes, I will offer guidance to help you discover the heart of your own story. By the end of the sessions, it is my hope that the vignettes you have gathered through writing prompts may become the seeds for your memoir.

 

You can sign up here.

 

How about you? Does journaling help you find your story?

 

I’d love to hear from you . Please leave your comments below~

 

 

Next Week :

 

Monday, 4/28/14: 

Sue William Silverman will be featured in a WOW!Women on Writing Book Tour and Giveaway for her new memoir, The Pat Boone Fan Club with a review and guest post on “Confessions of a Memoirist: My Serial Personalities.”

 

 

 

Memoir Writing Tips, Writing with Intention

7 Memoir Writing Tips for Writing with Intention

17 Comments

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

 

 

“ Writing with intention will give you a clear sense of purpose your book serves and what you’d like to do with it.”  Paula Margulies, Book Publicity and Promotion Expert from this  Writer’s Edge blog post.

 

 

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Writing with Intention
Photo credit: dreamstimefree

 

 

 

I found my word for 2014!

 

As many others announced the one word that would guide them in the new year, I came up empty.

 

But, the word “intention” has been bubbling inside of me for a while and I have claimed it as my guide for the year.

 

What a relief.  I was beginning to get frustrated with myself for not being able to identify the one word that would capture what I wanted and needed my writing to do as I move forward.

 

As I travel through the various phases of my own memoir writing, the terms intention, purpose, vision, mission keep coming up.

 

To me, intention requires being connected to my purpose for writing my memoir. It has served as my guide and has helped me answer the following questions:

 

 

* Why do I even want to write this book?

 

* Who is this book for?

 

* How will it help those who read it?

 

 

These are all questions any agent or publisher will ask, so I need to ask them for myself and be able to answer then succinctly, no matter which route to publication I take.

 

 

Here are 7 Memoir Writing Tips About Writing with Intention:

 

 

1. I have to find ways to get past my inner critic. You know, the one who says:

 

·         What makes you think anyone will want to read your story?

·         Your story isn’t unique.

·         You can’t write that well anyway.

·         Who cares?

 

I had to put my inner critic in her place. Her name is Gertrude. Here’s how I did it by writing out a dialogue with her.

 

2. I need to show up and write on a schedule.

Sometimes just the act of writing words unlocks the creative juices:

*     Free Write– helps when I’m stuck.  Writing words even if they don’t make sense.

*    Journal– writing thoughts, feelings, and reactions helps me to clarify and focus.

 

 

3.  I need to trust in the process.

 

Sometimes when I start to write, I have no idea how the story will unfold. I may start in the middle and if I let the writing flow, I eventually find the beginning and end.

After I show up, I need to get out the way of the story and let the words flow. I can go back and change later.

 

4. Writing with Intention has helped me to identify the main themes of my story.

 

Writing with intention has helped me find the heart of my story, I’ve been able to identify the themes to shape my story around.

 

This made it easier to stay true to the themes, which became the foundation for the story structure.

 

5. Taking time to pause and think has helped me be clear on my intention.

 

This has helped me to tap into memories and make connections about their meaning from my adult perspective. Sometimes my best ideas flow when I take time to walk in the garden or sit in church.

 

As writers know, we really are working when we’re staring out the window.

 

6. I need to keep my overall intention in mind as I revise.

 

If I am clear on my main message and the audience I am targeting, I can approach suggestions from editors and beta readers with a sense of purpose, staying true to my story while remaining open to constructive feedback.

 

7. Writing with intention has been my guiding light and is helping me get to the finish line:

 

I am taking the time to write it right because I do believe that I have a story to tell and that I am the only one who can tell it.

 

 

As I reflect on the past year, I realize, I have been writing with intention all along. Now I claim it as my focus for 2014 as I get ready to publish and market what I’ve written.

Of course, intention needs to be followed by action but I know being clear on my intentions will speed up the process.

 

 

How about you? Do you feel writing with intention has helped guide you?

 

I’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~

 

2/12: “Crossing the Cultural Divide: From Insanity to Serenity“, a guest post on Janet Given’s blog.

 

 

Next Week: Ken Myers, Memoir Writer, Blogger and Entrepreneur will discuss ” 8 Tips for Being Kind and Gentle When Writing Memoir.”

 

 

 

Crowdfunding a Memoir

Crowdfunding Your Memoir: 6 Ways To Know If Crowdfunding Is For You

14 Comments

A guest post by Justine Schofield/@PUBSLUSH posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

 

I am very pleased to feature Justine Schofield in this guest post. Justine is the communications coordinator of Pubslush, a global, crowdsourcing publishing platform for authors to raise funds and gauge the initial audience for new book ideas. Pubslush also operates an independent imprint that acquires books from the platform, and for every book sold, donates a children’s book to a child in need.

Justine is currently enrolled at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, earning her MFA in Creative Writing. She graduated from Emerson College in Boston, MA with a degree in Writing, Literature, and Publishing. She specializes in social media and public relations and has held various freelance editing and writing jobs, and her work has been published in many online and print publications. 

 She will discuss what Pubslush has to offer authors seeking way to fund their projects.

Although the focus of this post is on memoir writers, Pubslush’s service apply to all genre.  Of note: Pubslush Press’s debut title, a beautiful mess, is a memoir.

 

 

Welcome, Justine!

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Crowdfunding Your Memoir

As a memoirist, you pour your heart and soul into your work and that’s something you deserve to share with the world. Unfortunately, as writers, we know all too well that the publishing industry is very difficult to break into.

Self-publishing of course has become a great and even sometimes preferred—route, but that also comes with a financial risk.

Enter: crowdfunding.

 

Crowdfunding is a way for artists to mitigate financial risk and build their audience.

 

It has become a groundbreaking means of funding creative projects that otherwise wouldn’t have the means to become a reality, but even with the buzz around crowdfunding, it’s a very new concept that a lot of people have trouble understanding.

 

So how are you supposed to know if crowdfunding is right for you?

 

6 Ways to Know if Crowdfunding is for You:

 

* You have a built in network. This is where a lot of people go wrong in regards to crowdfunding. Some people believe all they have to do is throw their campaign up on a crowdfunding site and others will magically back them. This is how it would work in a perfect world, but, alas, that’s not the world we live in. Crowdfunding is a lot of work and a majority of people who support your campaign will be from your own personal network. Prior to the launch of your campaign you need to compile a list of everyone in your network you can reach out to.

 

*You’re not afraid to ask for support. Along the same lines, you have to be willing to ask your network to support you. Ask and     you shall receive—remember that saying? It’s definitely applicable to crowdfunding. Just casually mentioning your crowdfunding venture won’t yield results. You need to be proactive and ask people to support you. Also, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.  If you’re asking via e-mail be sure to include a link right to your campaign. People like easy.

 

*  You think outside the box. Yes, having a network is key, but developing new, creative ways to find your audience and gain support outside of your network is also extremely important. Especially being memoirists, there’s a niche market out there that you can tap into, you just have to figure out how to reach and sell yourself to that market.

 

*  You must know your goals. Different people have different goals when it comes to publishing. Some people just want to publish e-books through Amazon. Others want to conduct a full-scale publishing effort, including hiring an editor, cover designer, PR agent, etc. Obviously, your funding goal is going to depend on the scale of your publishing project. You need to have a solid idea of the outcome you’re hoping for at the end of your campaign so you can plan your goal and your reward levels accordingly.

 

*    You believe in your project. Crowdfunding is tough. You need to have the attitude that the world just won’t be the same if your book isn’t published. Especially with so many other crowdfunding projects bouncing around the Web, you need to be your own biggest advocate. If you believe in your book, others will, too. Passion in infectious.

 

*     Be familiar with crowdfunding. Since crowdfunding is so new, a lot of people aren’t even familiar with the concept. You’re going to have to explain crowdfunding in general to a lot of people before you even get to your own specific project. You have to be prepared to do so.

 

Pubslush offers an abundance of resources and information about crowdfunding and publishing in general. To learn more, visit Pubslush 101.

 

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Pubslush Press’s debut memoir: a beautiful mess by Ali Berlinski:

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Debut Pubslush Memoir, a beautiful mess by Ali Berlinski

 

Memoir Synopsis:

Imagine what your life would be like if you laughed through all the mayhem? Biracial and bicoastal, Berlinski spent her childhood flying between the dysfunctional families of her divorced parents, always feeling like an outsider. Fortunately, she never lost her sense of humor, which is apparent on every page of her debut story collection, a riotous and revealing exposé of the new normal and the consequences of too much air travel, cultural diversity, and conflicting and conflicted parents. With an open heart, she recounts her somewhat misspent youth and a wildly exciting (though equally torturous) love affair with the guy of her dreams, eventually leaving it all to start again abroad.

She’s Carrie Bradshaw reimagined as a third grade teacher in Brooklyn with zero interest in Manolo Blahnik. She’s a tough New Yorker with a tender twist of California sunshine whose journey will be oddly familiar and utterly unique to anyone who’s ever believed that love would save them – if not with this guy, then maybe with the next.

 

As her grandfather once said, “Well, it may not be the party you hoped for, but since we’re here, we might as well dance.” So now she lives in Spain and, despite everything, continues to dance through this messy, magnificent life. Say yes to your mess.

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Thank you Justine for letting us know about your services to writers and authors. It’s nice to know there are alternatives to ease the financial burdens of marketing both with traditional and self-publishing options. And I’m thrilled your debut title is a memoir!

 

How about you? Have you ever considered crowdfunding your writing project? 

 

We’d love to hear from you.  Pubslush has offered to give away three ebook versions of ” a beautiful mess” to three random commenters. For those who do not have an ereader, you can download Kindle or Barnes and Noble apps to your computers to access the ebook.

 

Please leave your questions and comments below~

 

 

Next Week:  Memoir Author Carol Bodensteiner will be featured in a guest post “Turning Mundane into Magic.” Carol will give away a copy of her memoir Growing Up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl” to a random commenter.