Every single time we buy something on Amazon, we enrich Jeff Bezos and solidify Amazon’s stranglehold over small businesses, including publishers. This is just a reminder—we have other buying choices. Breaking the Amazon trance is good for the book industry, so buy elsewhere when you can!
Many of our lived experiences are depressing. And yet, it’s those most challenging of experiences we live through and survive that make us who we are, and which, by extension, fuel the desire to write.
Author platform matters. Because it’s not easy to sell books, an author’s built-in audience has long been a leverage point, the thing that might tip the scales for an author seeking a publishing deal, or make them a shoo-in if their platform were large enough. What are some ways you're currently building your own author platform?
We’re late to celebrate Grant’s new book, something out there in the distance, so we’re doing it this week, bringing on his co-collaborator on the project, Gail Butensky. Grant and Gail partnered up to create a beautiful and unusual project. This week’s show mixes things up a bit because Brooke interviews Grant, and Grant interviews Gail, and Grant shows up for his segments in all kinds of locations, including his mother’s apartment at her memory care facility. The show covers the power of intuition when it comes to both storytelling and photography, the risks indie presses can and do take, and why loving a good road-trip is a prerequisite to being Grant’s friend. And the trend this week, more state of mind than trend, is in celebration of indie books.
/podcast
This week on Substack I gather up as much as I know about blurbs (aka, endorsements) in a single post and give my best shot at best practices for writers. Writers and authors ask me about blurbs all the time, and this post reminded me that it involves a nuanced, multi-pronged approach. And blurbs matter, and the effort is worth it!
/p/the-gentle-art-of-nagging
A beautiful way to spend Mother’s Day weekend with the mama who made me and my cousins who’ve held family for me all these years. I’m so grateful to the matriarchs of our funny, down-to-earth, heart-centered clan. Honoring and remembering and missing Jogie Hansen who is always in our hearts and in our stories.
I have to say I enjoy everything I get to do related to the incredible org that is Habitat for Humanity because I’m this woman’s +1. We are lucky that we so appreciate each other’s industries. Habitat SF’s CEO Maureen Sedonaen did a phenomenal interview with Ezra Klein last night and wow do we need Habitat for Humanity more than ever. And government overhaul on housing. If you have money to donate, donate to your local Habitat. They need it and they make a real impact.
Writers are itching for new and exciting ways to tell stories, and there are countless role models to turn to. The writers I most admire aren’t blowing up the genre. They’re not breaking it. They’re adding to it, bending it, and blending it.
This month on Memoir Nation we're hosting Fauzia Burke to speak about Memoir Marketing. It's not always easy to find marketing and publicity professionals who will speak specifically to the memoir genre—what's unique about marketing these books, how you can grow your platform if you're not famous, and what kinds of things you should be doing pre- and post-publication. So join us for this special class on May 23! Find all the details at MemoirNation.com under UPCOMING CLASSES. We have amazing classes for memoir writers every single month.
Adopt an authorpreneur attitude. This involves shedding the shame associated with investing in yourself and adopting the mentality of successful business titans. People at the top of their game are celebrated for having the guts to believe in their work. As artists, we need to cultivate that same pride.
Writing changes the culture. Your story matters. I credit memoir (and personal narrative in all its forms) for showing us a breadth of human experience, for opening our eyes to the struggle that is ongoing and worth it—for equality, for freedom, and for staking a claim on behalf of your truth. Keep writing!
