Memoir/Biography, Self-Help, & Business Books All Have One Thing in Common

All well-written books support human stories 

When you work with me, I strive to make a strong connection with you. I want to know you as a person, which helps me understand what you are trying to say with your book. We don’t need to have endless lunches with heart-to-heart chats, but we will be connecting as humans—even if it’s via Zoom. Because of that personal care, my clients feel safe and trust that I’m on their team.

As you get to know me, you’ll find that I listen closely and try to hear not only what is said but what is left out, which helps my authors feel seen and to see their books differently. In this way, we build a team of two people who can solve the riddles their projects present.

This human-driven approach of mine has yielded a body of work in three distinct genres that may, at first, seem unrelated. Not true!

What kind of books do I edit? Here are my areas of expertise:

Memoir/Biography

If yours is a life story, one question I’ll be asking as your memoir editor is what is the overarching theme? What connects all these stories together? Especially if it’s a memoir, I’ll want to know what you make of it. What does this theme mean to you?

By building a story spine, the scenes you write have something for the reader to think about as they learn the lessons you impart. The spine gives them a reason to keep reading.

Self-Help

When I work as a self-help editor, I rely heavily on the experiences I gained while writing holistic healing articles for a now-defunct website. (Alas.) Though the modalities of these books are all different, every self-help book needs to hold its reader at the top of the priority list. Therefore, I constantly ask my self-help writers: Who are your readers and what problems can you solve for them? What doubts and fears can you allay through this work?

Business Books

With the personality-heavy approach to the first two categories here, business books may seem like that Sesame Street song, “Which One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other?” How can I also be a skilled business book editor? I’ll tell you. It’s because of my expertise with voice and story that my business writer clients seek me out. When I work on a book about finance or business management, I’m still looking for the personal details. Who is the person behind this transaction and what problem are they having? What did the humans involved experience, and how did their actual lives change because of this data tracking/management philosophy/valuation strategy/etc?

Whether yours is memoir/biography, self-help, or a business book, there are people behind the information. The human story is interesting in all its many facets, and that is why we read—to discover that we are not alone. Stick to that truth and your book will not be boring.

If you’re ready to take the next step and get an editor involved, reach out. I’d love to hear how your book is coming along.