I was at the University of Alberta, faculty of English and Film Studies, waiting outside an office with a stack of pages I had worked diligently on, with no clue that my whole life was about to change. I was already calling myself a writer, though most of my living came from my job setting up stages for major concerts. I loved my job, it paid incredibly well, I had dozens of good friends who I worked with. I had even built up enough hours to become a full-fledged member of the union, which would have meant I would have a job for life. But for me, all that just wasn’t enough.
Despite numerous attempts on my dad’s part to discourage me, I had a deep longing to be a writer. Any kind of writer. Newspaper, magazine, film script. I would have even been happy writing advertising copy. Somehow, I felt I could create just as good if not better than the thousands of writers whose work I had read and mostly admired growing up.
During school, and then more so during an extended bout of unemployment in my early 20s, I read all the books I could get my hands on. As I started to make real attempts to become a writer, I devoured books and magazines about the writing craft. I had even published a few things here and there. One of my proudest moments at the time was getting my picture in The Edmonton Journal for an article I wrote about donating blood.
Even though I knew he was proud of me, my dad would say things like, “There are only two or three people in the country who can make a living writing.” Or “People like you who are considered exceptionally smart end up digging ditches.” Being at the U of A waiting to see a well-known author about a novel I was working on was just one small part of me proving him wrong. Just one small victory.
I had wanted to write most of my life. Even before I could read or write, my parents knew the best way to make me happy was to give me a blank pad of paper to draw comic stories on. By the time I reached high school I kind of had a plan mapped out. I wanted to eventually write thriller novels. It seemed they were the ones made into the coolest movies, they were the ones selling millions of copies, and they were also the kind of books I most liked to read.
But before I could get to that level — like just about any meaningful creative endeavor — I was aware I had to get in around 10,000 hours of practice to really master the job of writing. As time passed, I was to learn it would take that journey and so much more.
So, before I could write thrillers, I decided it would be best if I were to write a memoir, even though I was barely 21 years old. I figured that was a topic I really knew well, and that people just as a general rule like to talk about themselves. A few friends didn’t see the logic in it, they didn’t see how my own short life story could be a popular book. What they didn’t know was that I hid a dark secret which was enough to make my first book my most popular one, even now over 30 years after beginning to write it, and after publishing several others.
At the start, I knew nothing about the writing craft, except what I had learned in English classes in junior high and high school. All our teachers covered with us in class were mostly shorter forms, with the odd Shakespearean play or Canadian novel. So, the way I started, I planned out, outlined and wrote short stories. Then I started to see how obvious it was that I had some personal stake in the stories I wrote, so I switched to writing nonfiction short stories about my own life. Eventually I put them into a chronological order, but still it was rough. Months passed and I put together a bunch of stories.
The bad part of it was that, when I wrote these, I felt angry and hurt that my family and others didn’t do anything to help or support me through the isolation and poverty I was experiencing. But also, in a way, I felt that isolation and poverty added to my words. I remember showing the stories to my sister and her boyfriend who were academics, and they seemed to think highly of them.
At the time I had no clue about finding an editor, seeking out an agent, or researching and sending out manuscripts. I found ads for agents in writing magazines and sent one a copy of my book. They asked for $175 to represent me and offered no praise or guarantees. $175 at the time was simply out of the question. I wrote to them and mentioned I had heard it was improper for agents to ask for money up front. They wrote back simply saying, “Send self-addressed, stamped envelope for your manuscript or it will be discarded.”
It was some years later that I found myself at the University of Alberta in the office of the writer-in-residence. There was a woman waiting with me who was writing a book and was there to see the writer-in-residence as well.
Most universities, major libraries and colleges have a person filling this role. It is intended for them to spend half their time working on their own writing projects, and the rest of their time helping the public with their writing. I strongly suggest that, when someone has some writing they want to develop, they approach as many writers-in-residence as they can.
The woman waiting with me was kind and friendly, and I learned about her reasons for wanting to seek out help for her book. She was writing a personal memoir about herself and her family. She somehow knew she wouldn’t always be around to tell the stories about her family travelling to Alberta and what her aunts and uncles and grandparents did as they forged out a new life in what once was a very untamed part of the world. She had no desire to make money off the manuscript; all she wanted was to print up five copies on her printer and give them to members of her family. It seemed the perfect legacy.
After a short wait, a cheerful and polite young man came out and said he would see us within the next while. When I got in to see him, I was very surprised. His name was Richard Van Camp, and he had written an incredible book about a teenager growing up in Northern Canada loosely based on his own life. It was being made into a film, called “The Lesser Blessed,” and I was pretty much blown away by him, especially because he loved the work I brought him.
Soon Richard and I became good friends and stayed so over the years. But the most important thing I learned from him is that we all have a story to tell about ourselves, about something meaningful that can be important to share.
Eventually, after my first book came out, there were few people I could hide my dark secret from. I live with a severe mental illness that can cause me to do confusing and harmful things, to the point of needing to be hospitalized. I wrote my memoir firstly because I wanted people to understand that I didn’t ask to have a mental illness. I didn’t develop it because of drugs; it wasn’t the result of bad parenting or alcohol. It was just something one in a hundred people are afflicted with on average that can be incredibly disabling. I wrote trying to describe as realistically as possible how an illness took me over, how my thoughts went toxic, how hallucinations that fed those false thoughts and how paranoia made me feel I had to react in bizarre ways because I felt my life depended on the bizarre things I did.
This struggle was my main reason for writing early on. With time, the reasons changed. People can have many reasons why they would want to write a memoir. One of the things I discovered about my dad in the process of writing this book was that when he was younger, he had tried to become a writer himself. Once, I went to see him and my mom, and there was a short story sitting on his coffee table. I picked it up and started reading it, and it was good. In fact, it was incredible. But no amount of praise could stem the tide of my dad’s embarrassment over me looking at his story, which unfortunately turned to anger. Even after going through his property when he left us a few years back, I never saw another trace of his writing.
The truth is, I really wish now that I could have helped my dad develop his writing skills. What he had of fiction, I really can’t comment on other than to say he had insight and intelligence and a command of the language that few can lay claim to. My dad was the only member of his large family to leave Denmark for Canada after the Second World War. He was our only tie to relatives we barely knew. Each one of these people had a story, and often it was a humorous or interesting one. I had an uncle who was Knighted for his service to the Danish Navy. We had another uncle who was small in stature, who at one time went to kick-start his motorcycle, and it started up, then backfired, throwing him up and over the handlebars. The list of stories my dad shared with us on any occasion was endless, but perhaps what was the worst thing about my dad not leaving us any of his writing was how good my dad was at giving advice and knowing what to do in so many unique situations. Everything from building a fence and deck to driving a car across the continent. He really left a hole in so many lives when he passed, and if he had written more into a book like he had wanted, it would have helped us to grieve him, and even to have a part of him live on with all of us.
There are many decisions to be made about writing a memoir. I have written three, one about my teen years as I struggled with bipolar disorder, another about my long journey to recovery, and a third that talks about a hospital stay I had that was a result of a bad reaction to a medication.
When I wrote the first one, I made the decision to base the book on short stories I had written, but to go through them, modify them. One of the best things a writer can do for their work sometimes is to go through something called a “cold rewrite” where you set aside your most recent draft, not look at it, and write your work over from the beginning. As time went on, I did this to a few sections, and at least once to the whole book.
Some people can find the task of writing a book to be insurmountable. One of the things I learned about writing came in the form of advice from an engineer. He said his team of engineers would receive a large, complicated and difficult problem, but he would break this problem down into small chunks and work through them one at a time. The method I developed that helped me write many books was to set a word count for the day. Mine is high, I like to put out about 3,000 words in a day, especially if I want to complete a longer piece of work. The next day when I return to start work again, I first read and edit the previous day’s work. This quota not only helps improve the previous day’s writing but also gets me into the same state of mind I was in during the previous session, giving the story better continuity. Bit by bit, chunk by chunk, in a few months, a draft appears.
A Simple, Affordable Way to Get the Memoir Copyrighted Early On
When you have a draft, before proceeding, you should mail a copy to yourself, registered mail, and after you receive it, don’t open it. This process is the simplest and most affordable way to copyright a book you have written. If any question comes up as to who wrote the words first, you can bring the sealed envelope to court with the postmarked date on it and open it ‘on the stand’ in front of the judge.
Editing, Cover Design and Literary Agents
Aside from making sure your words are protected, one of the most important things you can do when you get to the stage of being near completing your memoir is to have it edited, which can cost a little or a lot. I spent a lot of money editing my first memoir because I had the money and it was important to me to make the book as professional looking as possible.
At this stage, it is also a good time to go over your options and decide if you want to conventionally publish or self-publish. Self-publishing can be expensive at first, and there is a great deal to learn regarding how to do it most effectively. If you are able to sell a good number of copies, however, it may be more financially rewarding than if you have a publisher put it out for you. Conventional publishing often will involve finding an agent. This is one more situation where a writer-in-residence can help you.
There are many aspects to putting a book out. The website www.fiverr.com used to keep lists of freelancers to do just about anything from editing to cover design at reasonable rates. Another option is, you can try finding a university student to help you with tasks like editing or cover design, either in the faculty of English or a faculty that relates to the work in progress. Students may work for less and do just as good a job.
I can’t emphasize enough how important a great cover can be to book sales. Again, a cover designer can be sought out on fiverr.com or on other freelancing websites. What I often do, which is a little easier for me because my dad used to have a display advertising company and I am also a fairly good photographer, is to either take a photo of my own which is relevant to the content of the book, or look at a stock photo service that has an appropriate image I can purchase. Depending on your level of computer skills, you may need a bit of help, but once you have the cover image, it is feasible to use software within self-publishing programs on platforms like Kindle Direct Publishing to put in the text of your cover.
Get a Blurb from Someone Relevant
A good comment (often called a ‘blurb’) — from a person who is either an established writer or a person who works in the field you are writing about — can really help sell books. One of my memoirs has a glowing comment from the CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada on the back. When I see someone read the back cover, I know I have a sale coming.
Formatting and Advance Reading Copies
The next steps will include having your work formatted for the way you plan to distribute it. In my most recent book, I printed up 20 ‘advance reading’ copies to give out free to friends and family. Everyone got a kick out of the special book, and I used the small print run to see how my formatting looked. After receiving these and going through them, I made some changes and ended up with a more polished manuscript. For those who self-publish, I often suggest going through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. You upload your files, (content, cover, details on the book size, what you want to sell it for) and then order as many copies as you like. Amazon will set your book up for sale on their website and send you royalty payments. One thing I feel is critical is to decide on a fair price in the main country (US/UK/Canada) you will be selling the book in, and print the price on the back of the book, it makes sales so much easier.
How to Avoid Lawsuits Harming People in the Memoir
Chances are you don’t want to harm anyone or cost them any money from what you write. You may have something incredibly important to say that casts a negative light on someone. I have heard the best thing to do is disguise the person. If they are male, make them female. Change their employment and what they did wrong and change their name. Put them down as having an English accent. I have never felt the need to do things this drastic, but I would feel differently if I lived in a more litigious country like the US. Even after changing or removing names, consider paying a lawyer to read your book before you publish/print copies. Leave no room for future harms to come to you or your work.
Outlining and Using Other Memoirs as References
There are also many choices a person must make as to how they will present the information in their memoir. In my first two memoirs I had a chronological outline, and I combed through memories as best I could. Each day, when I sat down to write, I knew what I would be doing. I followed this pattern and ended up with two great conventional books, “Through the Withering Storm” and “Inching Back to Sane,” which have both sold many copies.
Later in life, I read Susana Kayson’s incredible book, “Girl, Interrupted” which was made into a movie of the same name.
Editorial Note: Read our in-depth review of “Girl, Interrupted” here.
Without outright copying them, I used ideas from the way this book helped the reader to better understand the main character (who was the author). I started off with an introduction from my dad about what it was like to raise me, commentary from a friend who knows me well, and then a third foreword from my sister. I included glossaries of terms, clinical notes, essays and poetry I wrote. At the end of the book I scanned in copies of handwritten poetry I had written while a patient, with commentary to show what state of mind I was in. It made for a unique book that told a fascinating story of a hospitalization for psychosis. I had my psychiatrist read it, and he really liked it, but he requested I blank out any names of the clinic and hospital staff who wrote my medical notes, which I had no problem doing.
I really thought this book would be my breakout work, and be snatched up by a publisher, but I couldn’t find a regular publisher. In the writing world, unique also means not proven. I kept on selling these books, though, and many people have complimented them. To receive a free version of this book, navigate to www.edmontonwriter.com, then click on the photo of London’s Tower Bridge, and you will be taken to a page where you can read this book, “Alert and Oriented x3” online or download it, totally free of charge or obligation.
Sales Tactics
Once you have gone through all of that, especially if you are self-published, you will want to sell your book as much as you possibly can. I sell paperback copies, but I freely distribute PDF files of my “Alert and Oriented x3” book, and I honestly have not seen any evidence that free giveaways have taken anything away from my sales.
There are many ways of selling a book to the public. I started out going to farmer’s markets and renting a table for my books, then would go to bookstores for book signing events, and would often bring books along to clinic appointments to gently pitch to staff members I knew.
What you must do before you market a book is to understand the core appeal of the book and who the people are that it appeals to. Learning about sales can be a fascinating exploration into human nature, and it is surprising how many factors affect a person to make a commitment to pay for a book and commit to reading it. My books are about mental health, so some of my best places to sell them are at places like craft markets at the psychiatric hospital.
Public Speaking
One of the critical skills you can develop as a writer, especially if you write nonfiction, is to do as much public speaking as you can. I am fortunate to work for The Schizophrenia Society of Alberta as a community education presenter. This position allows me to speak to many kinds of groups: from 300-seat university lecture halls to 30-student high school classes, and even places like the Edmonton Police Recruit classes.
The funny thing is, most of the time I am able to gauge whether I really connected with my audience when I spoke, and the better the connection, the more chance I have of selling a book. Nonetheless, I still must follow certain basic rules of salesmanship when people approach me to consider my books.
Perhaps the most critical one is to not put any pressure or undue stress on the person looking at my writing. Often when I know people are on the fence about buying a book or two, I will tell them which ones are available in local libraries. It does mean a lot to me that a person reads my book, whether they get them from the library or from me.
It is so great to have all these presentations booked for me by my employer, but the ideal situation would be if you can connect with a local speaker’s bureau who will book larger events for you. My work with the Schizophrenia Society is fantastic, and I want to keep working with them until I retire. But, as a nonprofit, the pay is not nearly as good as some other possible opportunities like giving a keynote at a conference or being an MC at a graduation celebration or a fundraiser.
Sometimes what I will do is bring a couple of copies of my books, along with some business cards I had printed with my website and contact details listed. Then, during my presentation, I mention that one of the biggest parts of my recovery was writing books about my battle with mental illness and leave things open for people to look at my books after I speak.
Lately, I have been finding that there is a great deal of need for mental health books, and when you consider the appeal of writing and selling your own memoir, it can be critical for you to have a focus on a topic such as a battle with cancer, a life spent raising a child with Down Syndrome, or even what it is like to lose a child to addictions. In my own situation, the subject of wellness is coming to the forefront of so many conversations, and few people know much about it. I often travel to a medium-sized city near home, and it seems I never run out of places to sell my books. Funny enough, I went to the local library in this town, and they declined to buy my two latest books. But I did sell books to social service agencies, mental health clinics, and soon I will be going by the police department, and lately I have also had a great deal of luck approaching psychologist offices. With my job, I have a great way to get in the door. I use my job with the Schizophrenia Society to establish credibility and say something like this:
“I wanted to ask if you often deal with people who live with schizophrenia or related psychosis disorders. My name is Leif Gregersen, and I work for the Schizophrenia Society. We have a service where we will go to any size group and give a presentation about mental health and two people with lived experience will share their stories.”
I then give them my business card and mention that I also have some books I have written. Being one of the speakers at these presentations helps me to establish a relationship with an agency we present to. Several times, thanks to me being well-known as a writer, teacher and public speaker, word of mouth has helped me get work from writing a commissioned article for a magazine to being invited to cross the country to speak at a conference. All expenses were covered, and it was better than any vacation I have ever had. I have also been invited to give a talk at a conference in Calgary coming in November through similar word of mouth advertising.
Perhaps the most important part of being asked to speak is that I have become very comfortable with public speaking. This change has happened with time and experience, but also through an organization called Toastmasters. It’s a club where people practice and hone their public speaking skills, and I simply love attending. Going to the meetings is great, I have many friends there, and each time I go I learn more about myself. It has also been working miracles to help me with an anxiety disorder, and it looks great on a resume. I encourage any writer to develop public speaking skills.
For a few months, I also volunteered at a campus radio station called CJSR 88.5 FM. I made four shows each featuring local authors and interviewed a few psychiatrists for an audio documentary I was working on. I often wish I had the time to go back, it was so enjoyable, and I learned a great deal about the media.
All in all, the reality of writing is that you must push a little to succeed. What I see as my own success formula is to sell my books one on one. If someone approaches me at an event I sell books at, I simply ask them if they like to read. If they say yes, I ask them what type of books they like. Some people work in the mental health field and will already have an interest in my writing. Some people have no interest in my writing, but I treat them with the same respect and politeness as if they wanted to buy a dozen books. Showing respect and being mindful that most of my sales depend on my reputation, I am often approached by people interested in my books who I haven’t met before. My next step, if the person does show interest, is just to show them the books I have written, describe some of the stories, and explain my goals of being a mental health advocate with lived experience of mental illness. To me, writing is all about making people understand the people they know, or support, or even are loved ones of people who may be struggling with something my books can give them insight to.
The Overlap Between Becoming a Memoirist and Any Writing Career
So that is about it. If you want to consider writing for a living one day, use what you know first, then when you establish yourself, take on the challenge of writing what you have always wanted to write. Seek out books on writing, find workshops at libraries and colleges. Become a part of the writing community in your area.
Don’t delay either. Sit down and just start to string together words. You may write about your day or write out dialogue for characters you want to get to understand better. You might even want to try your hand at a poem.
Writer’s Digest has several great books on many writing topics, from writing for magazines to full length books. Writer’s Digest of course, is also a great magazine for anyone with a desire to write that can be found at most major newsstands.
My biggest suggestion is to start to write about yourself. Talk to the blank page like you are telling a fascinating true story you experienced to your best friend. When you get some momentum, seek out help from a writer-in-residence. As your book nears completion, find out what editing will cost through places like fiverr.com and after an editor goes through it, decide if you want to seek out an agent or self-publish.
The good thing is, people are less skeptical about self-published books lately. Through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, it is possible to set up printing and then publication of a book in just a few hours. The only expense you pay is for discounted author copies.
Marketing can be tricky, but it is a skill that can be learned. Marketing can include doing things such as developing your public speaking skills. Much of your learning can be begun through a local Toastmasters Club, and by taking part in as many events as you can, like writing workshops, Story Slam events, or even open-mic poetry readings.
The best time to start developing your skills is now. Start writing just as soon as you can get some pens and a notebook and let your thoughts, dreams, and adventures find a permanent home on the page.
Commitment is hard. Start with this free short story collection.
