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This isn't meant to discourage anyone from writing their life story. Instead, it's intended as some guidance on what to watch for when seeking a publisher for your life story. So, if you have or know of someone with a life story, hopefully this will be of use.
There's no way of knowing ahead of time just whose life story will be interesting to readers. Of course, readers do tend to gravitate toward those of people who went through amazing adventures or who happen to be celebrities. However, that doesn't mean your story is no less useful or interesting. After all, skillful retelling can make even a common life experience entertaining to read about. So, how does one go about writing their life story?
Well, that is usually one of the first things that folks encounter. Many, of course, recognize that they're not professional writers. Yet, you don't have to be a professional in order to write. Yes, that's right. You don't have to hire a ghostwriter to write your life story. But let's talk about ghostwriters for a moment.
There are many ghost writers available. They're easy to find on the Internet. Just use a search engine such as Google or Dogpile to search on the term "ghostwriter". You'll find plenty. Of course, you'll also find that they're expensive when you see their rates. After all, they're doing that for a living, so they have to charge enough to live on regardless of how much you believe they'll make from publishing your life story. The truth of the matter is that many such memoirs or fantastic escapes from death simply don't earn that much. Consequently, they have to make their money somewhere and that's probably going to be from you since you're the one who wants the story told. It's a different matter if you're the subject of a nationwide news story or happen to be a celebrity. Then there's usually enough public interest that a respected ghostwriter will seek you out to work for a share of the profits. However, this advice is for those whose stories are not nationwide news or are not celebrities. Thus, they don't have any choice but to pay or do they?
Actually, there's no rule that only professional writers can be published. That's right. Even you can be published without the need for any professional writers. Of course, you'll still have to meet professional standards, but that's not unobtainable. So, how do you start?
Well, think of it this way. If you worked with a professional ghostwriter, you'd still have to write out the facts about what happened since you'd have to deal with most of them by email. Otherwise, you'd have to telephone the ghostwriter and tell the whole story while the writer recorded it to play back later. So, why not just work from the notes you'd have to give him? And that's how you get started. Just start writing about what happened. Include the important things and exclude anything that had no significant bearing. Tell the story in the sequence in which it happened. Write it all down and don't worry at this point about spelling and grammar. You'll worry about those later. First, you want to get the story written because finishing the story is the most important thing you can do. If you can't reach that point, then you don't have anything to offer. Keep in mind that the end of the story isn't you reaching old age and dying. It's the point at which your life got past that life-threatening crisis.
"Okay, I've got it written down like you suggested. Now what?"
Good. You've reached a point at which many writers fail. You've got something finished. Now what you have to do is determine what kind of market it fits. Is it a book or a magazine article? Now before you start stating that it's X pages long, you need to know this. Book and magazine publishers usually count by words, not pages. This is because they can always change how many pages are needed by using a different size of print. If you doubt that, change the size of print for your story, which we'll guess you wrote on your computer. Then look at how many pages long it is. Changed, didn't it? By the way, if you handwrote your story, sooner or later you need to type it in so you might as well get started on that now. Then you can do a word count.
Most word processors have a feature that automatically counts words for you. The count will be close enough to the formulas used by publishers that there's no need to obsess over whether it's the same or not. Just get a word count and we'll use that to figure out what kind of publisher you should be seeking.
Okay, if your word count is under 20,000 words, then you'll probably be seeking a magazine publisher. Why? Because book publishers usually need more than that to fill a book. If they make the words too big in print, people will think the book is meant for children, not adults. While you're probably not excluding children from your market, the typical market for life stories is adult readers.
Okay, your word count is over 20,000 words, but is it more than 50,000 words? Why? Because book publishers want a book that readers will buy. Most do not want thin books because that looks to them like less value for their money. Yes, that leaves out a lot of life stories, namely those that are between 20,000 and 50,000 words in length, but we'll get back to them in a bit. For now, let's stay with anything over 50,000 because we need to know if it's over 120,000 words. If so, then you have big trouble. Most book publishers aren't interested in anything over 120,000 words in length because economics comes into play once more. The publisher wants to keep costs within reason, so many such books will be under 120,000 words. So, what can you do about being over 120,000 words? Quite simply, you read through your manuscript and seek out anything that's not important to telling your story. You remove those bits and pieces and keep doing a recount until your manuscript is within the limits that publishers want.
Believe it or not, you have several options. One, of course, is to do it yourself, but you already know that you don't have a lot of confidence in your spelling and grammar so we'll go on the assumption that you need assistance. So, where do you find that assistance?
Of course, there are numerous professional editors available. Many of these, including scams, are listed on the Internet and can be found using a search engine. Just remember that you want to find a good editor, so search for someone whose edited books have been successfully published. That will help you avoid many of the scams. Unfortunately, the downside of this is that truly qualified editors are expensive, so guess what? The size of your manuscript comes into play once more because many editors charge by the word and some go by the page. You'll want to determine what they consider to be a page before you try to calculate how much they might cost you. If you're seeking to have a magazine-size article edited, it might not be within your price range since magazine don't pay very much for life story articles unless you're a celebrity or nationally famous. So, if you're not famous or a celebrity, then you might find that an editor is too expensive for you to break even. If your manuscript is over 20,000 words or reaches book length, the cost might be even worse so you're still in the position of needing assistance which you still need to find.
Fortunately, it's all around you. It could be a neighbor, friend, or family member who writes well who's willing to help you. Again, there aren't any rules that someone who isn't a professional can't help you. They might even do it for free or a small fee plus a mention on the cover of your book listing them as an editor. It could be another writer or an English teacher in your area who's willing to do the editing for a flat rate and a mention on the cover as the editor. It can even be a writers' group where you seek help. There are many online that have no fees. All they ask is that you help them with their own writing in return. However, it's up to you what you choose. Also keep in mind that editing may be needed more than once or twice, so watch how much it costs if there is any expense involved. Publishing is not a quick route to riches. In fact, many books merely manage to break even. That means you won't make any profit. In some cases, it also means you won't end up in debt but don't count on it. Just keep this all in mind if you're looking for a way to handle your current debts because it can take years to reach that breakeven point.
Well, first of all, it doesn't mean your story isn't worthwhile. What it means is there are others who have written similar stories that happened to reach that agent first. The agent may already represent a story like yours and feel it would dilute his efforts by trying to sell one that would be in competition with the other. Or yours isn't quite the book length he prefers to represent. Or yours simply didn't enthuse him. Or yours might not have been as well written. For any of these reasons or many others, he just can't offer your manuscript representation. Well, that's how it is. There's no changing it even if that agent was one of your preferred selections. When it comes down to it, you want an agent who's enthusiastic about your story. If he's not, then don't push the issue. He can only sell what he feels comfortable about representing. Asking him to do otherwise is akin to dooming your manuscript's chances in the market. There are other agents, so consider them and submit according to their guidelines.
So now we reach the point that you've submitted to at least twenty or thirty legitimate agents who like to represent life stories and no one expressed an interest. Furthermore, you can't identify any other agents who represent life stories. Is there no future for your manuscript?
Actually, you're not done yet. You still have options. Remember, there are many publishers who will look at unagented work provided its finished. By the way, before we move on, let's also point out that article-length life stories that are more suitable for magazines don't use agents. Magazines almost always prefer that writers submit directly to them. So, since you don't have an agent, you've decided to submit directly. Let's get a feel for that.
Well, let me give you the good news. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Let me repeat that in bold print. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Legitimate publishers whose books are available in real book stores pay you to publish your book. They're known as commercial trade publishers. They pay you. You don't pay them. Be careful, though. There are some vanity publishers who have disguised their payment system so they can claim not to be vanity publishers. Don't be fooled by them.
Of course, there's some bad news. You're in competition with every other life story on the market, so they're only going to accept the ones that are the most interesting and entertaining. Don't even worry about life stories concerning celebrities and famous people. You're not in competition with them. Their stories get published anyway. So, does this mean you're finally out of luck if your story isn't good enough or interesting enough?
There's more good news here. You're in luck because there are still ways to be published without paying a small fortune even though your book won't reach most retail stores, if any. There are some self-publishing outlets that will publish you for a setup fee that's truly affordable instead of having inflated book prices that chase away readers. There are also online publishers who are more willing to publish life stories without a fee because they publish online and don't have the expenses that print publishers incur. What's more, both of these kinds of outlets are more willing to publish life stories of any length. Again, these can be found by doing an Internet search. However, two of the self-publishing print publishers are very reputable and affordable. Those are Lulu and Café Press. All they'll charge is the price of your book that you set according to their formulas which already contains a profit margin for them and the cost of shipping. What's more, with those two in particular, you retain all the rights to your story. That's important should your story become popular and someone want to option the movie rights or even arrange a contract with you for regular publishing with a commercial trade publisher. Remember, that's the kind of publisher that pays you. Don't be fooled by any publisher claiming to be a traditional publisher. That's not a real publishing term. It's a word typically used only by clueless or scam publishers.
Sure, you can still go with a vanity publisher and there are a few good ones even though most are expensive. In fact, some, like Vantage, have been in business for decades so you know they'll actually deliver on what they promise. Just be sure you read their publishing information carefully because that will generally explain what they're offering and sometimes what they're not offering to you. It's those things they're not offering that can often make a self-published book fail and put you in serious debt. You have to realize from the beginning that you alone will be responsible for those other things, most often sales to retailers if you obtain any, distribution, shipping, and returns. Yes, some vanity publishers will arrange those for you, but there's an added charge and no guarantee that your book will reach those retail outlets.
Just remember, you can be published without incurring large debts, but it's up to you to remember that many books do not succeed and thus do not make huge wads of cash for their authors. In fact, many writers are fortunate just to make a few bucks for their efforts. Based on a wage scale, they're actually making less per hour than the person across the counter asking if you'd like fries with your meal.