Writing My Biography

[toola]

I am writing my biography.I was started along this road,after a Facebook conversation with my two grandsons,it soon developed into a lifetime story,and up to the present I have penned some 70,600 words, what,or where can I get any help in turning it all into a book,?

[pixie373]

Buy or borrow "the writer's and artist's yearbook". It will give you details of the publishers. You could also think about paying to have it published, if you don't get any luck with them.

[bednobs]

you need to be honest with yourself is your life story interesting enough that people unrelated to you would want to read it? If not self publishing (vanity?) publishing i think it's called

[toola]

thank you pixie373,I will certainly do that,meanwhile I really need someone to help me with sorting it all out,the biography centers mainly around my working life as a posterwriter.

[naomi24]

Do get the Writers & Artists Yearbook - but be very cautious about self-publishing. Look carefully into what is being offered before entering into any agreement. It can cost a lot of money and you're likely to end up with a dozen or so copies of your book - and none on the shelves of Waterstones or W H Smith.

Publishing on the internet is an option.

[pixie373]

It doesn't need to be perfect to be accepted. Put it in chapters, it needs to be double-spaced and typed on one side of the page only. The publishers will proofread and edit as necessary, anyway. You also need a covering letter. I'm trying to remember the actual words, you need. I think-
I would like to offer you First British Serial rights. So you are guaranteeing it hasn't been offered or published by anyone else in Britain.
Good luck.

[toola]

Thank you Bednobs, my grandsons told me that they had enjoyed,our conversations on facebook,and suggested that i write more.also I was contacted by a rare book seller,based in London who told me that a story of a posterwriters would be welcome, as for the vanity angle I have never stood on that platform,and I have received a lot of satisfaction with writing .

[bednobs]

i suppose i am just saying if i was standing in a bookshop, would i want to hear the story of a posterwriter? would a life story of an "ordinary" life (sorry, that sounds so rude but i have no other way of putting it) make me want to part with 7 quid?

[toola]

Thank you Naomi, I am beginning to get a picture of what would be required, and it looks a formidable task,

[wolf63]

I saw a book on Goat Husbandry this afternoon.

toola - at the very least it will be a written record of your life and that alone is something special to leave your family.

[toola]

Thank you Bednobs,at the least you are talking some sense, 7 quid ? I have not given that a thought,I am just responding to other peoples suggestions,

[seadogg]

How true bednobs.

[toola]

Hello pixie373, you have just blown a gaping hole in the idea, the reason ?my story is written in longhand, so it looks as if that is where it will stay for my grandchildren to remember me by,thank you

[bednobs]

i only said 7 quid as that is how much i spent on my last book :)
i have to say (again it sounds so rude and i'm sorry) but i have no idea what a posterwriter even is :(

[pixie373]

I'm sorry! Don't say that! Get the yearbook. It's worth seeing if they'll see it in the way it's written. If not, your grandsons have a job to do;-)

[Tilly2]

If you are writing it, it will be your autobiography

[toola]

hello bed nobs, posterwriting is a dying art, It is the skill to write freehand posters,[I assume that you know what a poster is?] for cinemas, events, etc. it is signwriting, but not as durable, but much faster, and therefore cheaper

[bednobs]

i gathered it was something to do with writing posters but still don't really understand your description - freehand posters? you just get a piece of paper and draw stuff?

[toola]

Thank you tilly, Autobiography is correct

[DTCwordfan]

Depends on what/how you think it may pan out.....the traditional routes I would say are highly unlikely - a top author getting no more than 25% , the unknown one unlikely to see 5% return on net sales.

For consideration are specialist on-lines - they can offer 40-45% exclusive payments, maybe 10 to 25% non-exclusive and this very much depends on your genre.......EL James with the debatable 50 Shades of Grey launched through the the exclusive on-line route and then went public into mainstream.......

I have launched through exclusive and get 40 per cent which gives me a steady income on-line - and remember its global. Not enough to live on, but a nice supplement, given the genre involved.

[toola]

Hello bednobs, I shall give you an instance,of the poster writing that I have carried out .I was commissioned by greenhalls the brewers to wright a poster that covered one side of a four storie buildlng in the centre of warrington it was pictured in the sunday times,and also was used on an album cover for the c/w singers poacher,