Friday, April 20, 2018

Write a Memoir/Autobiography

First of all, what's the difference between the two?

An autobiography focuses on the chronology of the writer's entire life, while a memoir covers one aspect of the writer's life. (Writer's Digest)

So if I were to write about my childhood, from when I was born, the years of my schooling, and about my odd jobs up until now, I'd be writing an autobiography. However, since I don't think I have lived long enough to write a decent autobiography, I wrote a memoir instead, focusing on my travels, specifically things that went wrong during my travels.

I named it (Mis)Adventures Abroad, and self-published it on Amazon because finding a conventional publisher was a total pain in the ass. It has its own ISBN  and everything :-D


Amazon provides a template where we could design a cover, for those who don't have the skill or the right software. And here's what it looks like:

Paperback
Kindle E-book


The font is horrible, I know, because they don't have many options. If you're wondering why I always hide my full name, it's not because I don't want you to know. You can probably figure it out from my e-mail address anyway. I hide it because I don't want this website to appear on search engines when people (and by people, I mean, Malay Muslim Malaysians) type my name. If you're Malaysian, I think you'd understand why.

Anyway, about the memoir, nobody has bought it yet, and good for them, really. It is actually an unedited draft. I thought it was good enough then, when I published it on Amazon. But how deluded I was! The writing is so dreadful, every time I try to reread it, I cringe and give up in the first chapter. So, take my advice: please please please, don't buy it, at least not until I'm done revising the entire thing and publishing it the traditional way.


Edit: I've taken it off Amazon.