You Should Really Write a Book~Review

As part of building my platform, I decided to read Regina Brooks and Brenda Lane Richardson's You Should Really Write a Book: How to Write, Sell, and Market Your Memoir.

This book not only talks about the categories of memoirs, it also talks about just what the title suggests. And the authors cover platform building. I highly recommend this book for anyone considering writing a memoir. The authors wrote this book to help out those of us unknowns, meaning we're not celebrities, who want a chance to get their memoirs written and into the hands of those who can publish it.

Brooks and Richardson lay out the groundwork in simplistic and easy to understand steps on how little known folks can get a shot at their book being read by the masses. The book is 290 pages and has many examples of memoirs that succeeded and those that could have done better.

This honest and detailed book is well worth the time for anyone wanting to gain insight on writing and publishing a memoir.

One of my main goals in reading You Should Really Write a Book was to find out how well the memoir sells, and to also learn about the categories. Not only did I read that memoirs are selling and selling well, but there are many more categories than I had imagined.

Major Memoir Categories:

• coming-of-age
• addiction and compulsion
• transformation
• travel and food 
• religion and spirituality

 Outlier Subgenres:

• biblio
• canine
• comedic
• family saga
• gardening
• grief
• incarceration
• information-based
• parenting
• romance
• venture

After reading You Should Really Write a Book, I have identified the category of the memoir that I am writing in a devotional style: spirituality/grief.

To rate this book, I'd start my own category of ratings and give it seven stars!

Until next time . . . read and write!