8. A Conversation with Writing and Publishing Expert Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the most common craft issues she sees in memoir manuscripts, what writers often misunderstand about the industry, The Big Five, how to write memoir query letters, ways the publishing landscape has changed for memoirs, and so much more in this do-not-miss episode.

-Visit the Let's Talk Memoir Merch store: https://www.zazzle.com/store/letstalkmemoir

Also in this episode:

-the lowdown on platform

-protecting identities in memoir

-Jane Friedman’s why

Books mentioned in this episode:

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

Swing by Ashleigh Renard

Links to articles mentioned in this episode:

How to Use Real People in Your Writing Without Ending Up in Court:

https://helensedwick.com/how-to-use-real-people-in-your-writing/

Law & Authors: a conversation with Jacqui Lipton

https://youtu.be/GDydK3Z4aOI

How to and (Especially) How Not to Write About Family

https://www.janefriedman.com/write-about-family-memoir/

A Big Shitty Party: Six Parables of Writing About Other People

Millions of Followers? For Book Sales, ‘It’s Unreliable.’

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/books/social-media-following-book-publishing.html

Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman) has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in digital media strategy for authors and publishers. She is the publisher of The Hot Sheet, the essential newsletter on the publishing industry for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2019.

In addition to being a columnist for Publishers Weekly, Jane is a professor with The Great Courses, which released her 24-lecture series, How to Publish Your Book. Her book for creative writers, The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), received a starred review from Library Journal.

Jane speaks regularly at conferences and industry events such as BookExpo America, Digital Book World, and the AWP Conference, and has served on panels with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund. Find out more.

www.janefriedman.com

https://www.instagram.com/janefriedman/

Ronit’s essays and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and The Body Myth.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com

More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/

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Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography

Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Finger