To Write A Book
5 Tips on How to Write a Book About Your Mother
By Donna Monday
There are all types of mothers in the world, and there are many things that are written about mothers every day. Mothers have inspired everyone from world leaders to the kid down the block. Yet, most of these moms will never have their moment in the sun beyond their immediate circle of family and friends. By learning how to write a book about your mother, you have an opportunity to create something really special that will be a lasing tribute.
Tip One: Decide on a Memoir or Fictional Representation
To begin your journey of writing a book about your mom, you first need to know what type of book you want to write. You can write a memoir, which includes memories and stories about various aspects of your mother’s life.
Or, you can choose to make your mom a fictional character in a book that is inspired by her life story. Both choices will require you to know a lot of background information about your mother. A memoir will probably be more of an emotional experience for you than a fictional account.
Tip Two: Gather the Facts
Okay, now that you know which direction you’re going to take with this book, it’s time to gather lots of facts about mom. Sure, you grew up with her and have lots of memories, but you’re not the only one that she interacts with.
But still, you should start with your own special memories about her. Then you can go about interviewing various family, friends and acquaintances about what they know, or remember about her. You’ll be surprised at the things you don’t know about dear old mom.
If your book is not going to be a surprise gift for your mom, then go ahead and interview her about her life story. She’ll probably be more than happy to sit down with you over your favorite meal and chat about events from the past. Of course, if it is a gift, you can be sneaky and secretly record her memories.
Tip Three: Create an Outline
Even though you’re writing about your own mother, the book still needs to be organized in a way that makes it easy for readers. The easiest way would be to start from the beginning and take it all the way to the present day. Or, you can focus on a very specific time or event in her life, and use that as a basis for the book.
Each chapter will talk about a specific time and place or event.
For example, Chapter One: Running Errands for A Nickel and an Ice Cream Cone
This chapter sets up the story of how a mom often ran errands as a little girl, and had some funny things happen while doing it.
Tip Four: Stay Objective
Because you are so close to the subject of the book, you may at times get overly emotional and drift towards too much sentimental mush. Or, if you have a testy relationship with your mom, too much negativity can cloud a good story.
If you’re going to commit to being the author of your mother’s memoir, then think of yourself as a writer who has been hired to write this book. Your main goal is to write about your mother’s ups and downs in an entertaining and enlightening manner. You can only do this if you can keep your own deep emotions out of it. Save all of those pent up feelings for your own memoir.
Tip Five: Take Your Time
If other people are going to read this book, then take your time to do a good job of covering your mother’s story. If you are a first time author, you’ll quickly discover that writing a book is a step-by-step process that involves putting your thoughts into the right words.
I suggest that when working on the first draft, you just allow the words to flow out of you freely, without much thought about trying to make it perfect. This way, what you really want to say will come out of you a lot easier. You can always go back later and edit what you’ve written.
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I’ve seen that movie already.
How difficult is it to write and publish a book?
I want to write a book that acts as a rebuttal to everything that Ann Coulter has ever written. I’m going to call it. “Godly: The Government of Conservatism”
So, if I write this book, how hard would it be to publish? I’ll be as wicked and acid-tongued as Ann Coulter, I’ll just back up my statements with facts and try to make a more flattering face on the cover of my book.
I’ve written books before, and I think that it would be really, really fun to actually get this book written.
So, how do I go about this? I’m very serious. I want to do this. I’ll do whatever it takes.
What should be my first step after writing this? How do you find a serious publisher? How do you get your book distributed?
Thanks for your help, guys!
How do I start to write a book?
I was thinking of writing a book. The basic story is about a women who marries a man who she thinks is her soul mate. She is moved from her family and is forced into a life of submission, perpetual child bearing, and spiritual abuse. I can’t decide weather or not to write it from the point of view of an adult or a child leaving the abuse.
Take these steps….
1) Write your book…re-read…edit…edit again. Publishers want lines double spaced.
2) Get copy rights to your book before sending it out….Library Of Congress…cost approx. $30.00. Never send work out without a copy right.
3) Buy a book called “Writer’s Guide”, it is a must if you are serious. That book will list contact information to publishers, what genre they accept, if they accept 1st time authors, what format they accept and their guidelines.
4) Follow submission guidelines to the letter or you are wasting your time.
5) Again, before sending work…re-read and edit…do not waste their time by sending sloppy work.
6) From there it depends on the market and publishers you submit to.
BEST OF LUCK TO YOU!!!!
MOST IMPORTANT MAKE SURE YOUR QUERY LETTER AND SYNOPSIS SELL THEMSELVES! IF A PUBLISHER DOES NOT GET PAST THAT YOUR MANUSCRIPT WILL NOT BE SEEN. DO NOT SELF PUBLISH UNLESS YOU ARE DESPERATE! THAT IS CALLED VANITY PUBLISHING AND A REAL PUBLISHER WILL NOT TAKE YOU AS SERIOUS! A real Publisher pays “You”. Rarely does a first time author make a lot of money….however, after your first book is out it is easier to submit to a larger publishing house.
What should I write my book about and what should it be called?
My future is going to be a bookwriter and I write books all the time and right now i was wondering Why dont i let other people tell me what to write about! What should my book be called, and what should it be about?
Where can I write book reviews online?
I am in my teens and want to write book reviews on recent books I’ve read however I can’t find a website where I can post my reviews. I’ve tried amazon however it requires you to have an account. Any suggestions?
The only problem with using amazon is that i not only asks for an account but also for you to make a purchase which I would rather not do.
You should write a book about a teenage girl [ 16-17 ] that has an older boyfriend that abuses her & gets her hooked on drugs. There’s a lot of books on that subject, but not a lot of them are very good..
I’m not sure on what you should call it, but make it so in order to understand the title of the book, you have to read it.
I love books like that =]
Email me when you finish it, I’ll buy it =]
Why can’t you just make an amazon account then?
Or you could start your own website for reviews.
How much do publishers pay authors to write a non-fiction book?
So i was wondering how much do publishers pay authors to write a non-fiction book?
For example, how much authors receive for writing books for “For Dummies” series?
Do they pay them up-front like $20,000 or just royalties?
They get paid upfront via an advance, but it depends on the contract. Once the advance is paid back (through the author’s royalties in book sales) then the author will start collecting direct royalties from book sales, so it’s not either you get an advance or you get royalties. The author is paying you some of the royalties in advance. Once you start selling books, the publisher will keep your portion of the royalties until recoup their advance. When that happens is when you start getting direct royalties from each book sale yourself. If that makes sense.
How much you get paid in advance depends on too many variables. It depends on if it’s a hardcover or softcover. Whether you have an agent negotiating your contract or you’re doing it yourself; statistics show people with agents get paid more money. It depends on if the publisher is small, mid-sized, or large. Obviously the larger publishers have more money to pay you while a small publisher doesn’t.