Post #52 – Women’s Memoirs, Book Raves – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Welcome to Wednesday’s Memoir Book Review. Today’s post is a little different–it’s part book review, part news, and part book business. In May and June each year, several national book awards are announced, and we’re pleased that three of the authors we interviewed in the past year won these sought-after honors.
Janet Riehl‘s audio version of her book Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music won a San Francisco Book Festival Honorable Mention. Congratulations, Janet. In addition, Janet and her father, dueling writers, were interviewed by their newspaper, and the story was featured on the first page as a Father’s Day story. You can read the story to see how two generations have learned to work their craft and read to each other as a way to share love and respect.
Here’s the link to our book review of Sightlines: Click Here.
Judy Mandel‘s Replacement Child won the Indie Excellence, Finalist award. We wrote up her announcement last month in our post It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again.
Here’s the link to our book review of Replacement Child: Click Here.
Late-Breaking News!
This just in…literally as I’m putting this post to bed: Sue William Silverman–author of the memoirs Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You and Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction–reports that her writing craft book Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir has received an Honorable Mention in ForeWord Review’s Book-of-the-Year award competition in the category writing.
We reviewed Fearless Confessions just last month, and here’s the link.
What’s a book award worth to a memoir writer?
Now that you’ve had the book review and the news parts of this post, let me share the book business aspect. Writing a memoir is a challenge that takes years. No matter what type of story you have, writing a memoir means you will go deeply into your soul, turning inward before you can turn outward.
When your memoir is written and edited, then, if you want to publish it, you need to find a publisher or make the decision to self-publish. Kendra has written about this topic several times, but let me refer you to her blog that contains a number of references on this topic.
With a published memoir in hand, you need to find your audience and promote your book. Although we always suggest you start blogging and creating a platform for your future readers as soon as you start writing, there is no more delaying once the book is published. This unexpected promotion hat will be yours to wear independent of the size of your publisher. Submitting your book for awards, whether you do it or your publisher does it, is just one component of your promotion plan. Then, when you win, don’t expect the sales to increase dramatically unless…
You market the news about your award and use the increased buzz as one more component in your comprehensive plan. There are no silver bullets to success.
Janet Riehl, Judy Mandel and Sue Silverman all have done a great job of getting the word out about their new national book awards. That’s why we’re offering triple congratulations to all three authors–first for winning and second for letting potential buyers know about their honors. In addition, if you follow these authors, you’ll see that they consistently market their books and work to connect with readers.
memoir writing prompt
book awards
Janet Riehl
Judy Mandel
Sue William Silverman
book promotion
