I give writing lectures to non-writers: hypnotists, numerologists, psychics, housewives, businessmen and women, and people who often tell me I should write about them because “they’ve had very interesting lives.” I start my talks with a question. The first question I always ask is, “Who wants to write their autobiography?” About three quarters of all audiences raise their hands. My next question is: “Can you tell me who will buy your autobiography?” Generally, most of the hands go down, the audience looks uncomfortable, and the shoulders begin to shrug. That second question is the first question you should ask yourself when considering writing in the area of (auto)biography.
The people who write autobiographies, or have others write their biographies for them, are men and women who have done something truly special in their lives. They were famous movie stars. They were national or international politicians. They were presidents and first ladies. They were amazing fashion designers. They built great dams and bridges. They were successful generals.
Even achieving high status does not guarantee a biography. William Henry Harrison was only president for 31 days. He did nothing as president other than catch pneumonia at his inauguration and die. So even being president doesn’t guarantee a biography. There are a billion generals in history, but most of us can count the few we’ve heard of without running out of digits. If you want to test that theory, Google “Civil War Generals” and see how many there were and how many names you recognize. Even Custer probably would have been a ‘too served’ if he hadn’t had a last stand.
The first rule of (auto)biography is: “An (auto)biography is not about a person, it is about what a person did.” If Audrey Hepburn had been a housewife, she would not have spawned a biography no matter how beautiful she was. Katharine Hepburn might not have spawned a biography without Spencer Tracy.
The second rule of biography addresses the question, “What did the topic of the biography do that would interest an identifiable market that is willing to spend money buying the book?” Books are easier to sell to identified markets than to general markets. Even if you haven’t done something big in your life, if you’ve done something small that several thousand people are expected to want to read about, you can probably publish a book or sell a self-published book.
Occasionally someone related to a famous person will generate a biography for the famous person, which is actually their autobiography which has a huge market due to the parent’s fame, especially if there is a twist in fame. An example of this was Christina Crawford, who wrote “Mommy Dearest”. Her mother, Joan Crawford, was a terribly abusive mother. In this case the answer to the question “who will buy your book?” it’s people interested in nasty gossip that will make a relatively famous movie star look really bad. Joan Crawford became less known for her successful career in Hollywood than for the harm she did to her daughter. It is quite likely that Joan Crawford would never have been the subject of a biography without such abuse. It is an absolute fact that Christina Crawford would not have merited a biography without the abuse of a relatively famous mother.
For years I thought books were about writing. Are not. It’s about selling. 80% of your time as a writer is spent selling your book; sell your book to an agent, sell your book to a publisher, and then sell your book to an identified market. If you don’t sell your book, you can’t quit your day job. It’s essential that you identify the people you think you can sell to and allow your market’s interest to inform your writing. Your book grows out of what you know people like you need or want to know.
The easiest way to sell your autobiography is to identify a market that wants to read about what you’ve done, write specifically for that market, and find organizations that are interested in that topic that you can use as a place to sell books to your members. For example, if her son survived a rare form of cancer, she can write about what he did to help that child survive. Write about all the information you learned during your child’s battle with cancer that would be interesting and helpful to other families facing a similar battle. Parents of children with cancer, and particularly that form of cancer, are their market. The organizations built around the fight against cancer, and that form of cancer in particular, are your marketing venues: the people you talk to, the people you sell your book to. Everything other parents should know about fighting this disease, how you felt and how you handled your feelings, the techniques you used to help your child cope with chemotherapy, needles and hospital stays, what you did to helping your other children deal with feelings of jealousy and abandonment, all of that is water for your mill. What you did, not who you are, is the stuff of (auto)biography.
You can also slip your (self)biography into “How To” books as part of the introduction that establishes you as an expert in your field. Approximately 20 pages, about what he learned and how he got to his level of experience, informing the reader why they should read what he has written is bio-introducing him. These biographical chapters often encapsulate the highest and most exciting parts of his life, which solves a problem about (auto) biography. Most of us live pretty dull lives with occasional spikes in excitement and activity. Most of us could write an article about the highlights of our lives instead of a book. If you turn what you’ve learned into a “How To” book and talk more about what it can teach and less about yourself and your life, it’s easier to write a biography.
Fictionalizing your biography is another way to write about yourself, interesting episodes in your life, and what interests you. In fiction, I usually write in the area of medical thriller or medical rescue. I’m a former New York City paramedic, which is a job that can be surprisingly tedious. It’s a ‘hurry up and wait’ profession with a lot of very boring transport between some extremely exciting rescues. In my books I slide on high points from the ambulance. I describe people I found interesting, situations that fascinated me, amazing accidents and rescues I was involved in or heard other paramedics talk about, techniques we use in the field, things we studied that I imagined using in the field. It’s not exactly an autobiography, but it’s based on my life, my interests, and the lives of those around me. Turning what interests you into fiction increases the amount of material available to you.
Since you may be writing about a field of interest rather than yourself, you may want to research what has already been written on the topic. Just because there are other books in your area of expertise doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write in a certain area. Think of how many cookbooks there are. What you want to do is read everything that has been written in your area of interest or expertise and figure out what is missing or how you would handle the problem differently. At a minimum, you and your personal experiences are brought to the table. I wrote a little book called Date Rape: It’s Not Your Fault, inspired by my own rape. Are there other books on date rape? Of course there are. But those books didn’t include my story and how I handled my recovery and they didn’t reach the same market that I can reach.
To begin the process of writing a (auto)biography, start by answering the following questions:
- What have you done that other people would be interested in reading?
- Who would be interested in what you want to write? – be specific.
- How big is that potential market?
- How do you reach that potential market?
- Check Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Buzz, Yahoo, and MySpace to see if there are any groups that are interested in that topic.
- Are there organizations that might be interested in your topic?
- If so, please contact them. Get active in them. Make yourself known within them.
- What questions would people interested in your topic need or want to know?
- Make a list of those questions.
- Are there other books on your topic?
- If there are other books, how would you treat the topic differently?
- What information did other authors omit that you consider important?
- How can you organize your book to emphasize the differences in what you bring to the table?
These questions should help you get started and should lead to other questions that will help you write and organize books about yourself that will make you a successful writer.
