There is no one-size-fits-all way to write a memoir. In fact, any great memoirist will tailor, shape, and frame their memoir to fit their strengths and needs. Many CEOs and entrepreneurs, for example, prefer a straightforward yet uplifting approach, such as in Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, while budding activists or trauma survivors may choose to make their story known in an unflinching tell-all akin to Prince Harry’s Spare.

Whether you want your book to inspire readers, help people in your field, or simply make your struggle known, there is an audience who needs your book—and a press that wants to sell it! All you have to do is figure out how to use your memoir type to your advantage.

There are a lot of different ways to write a memoir, but they can all be narrowed down to just five types: The Inspirer, The Mentor, The Whistleblower, The Researcher, and the Record Keeper. Each type is equipped with a set of strengths, places to improve, and publishing paths in which your book is most likely to succeed.

The Inspirer

The Inspirer’s goal in writing a memoir is to, well, inspire people. They found success when the odds were stacked against them, and they want to share all of the life lessons along the way. They want readers hear they story and feel hopeful and motivated about their own challenges.

One of our recent clients wrote in length in their memoir about their life below the poverty line in LA. Though their book included harrowing details of drug abuse and violence, it also uplifted readers with the story of how they turned things around. Starting a football league changed their life—and their community—for the better. Eventually, they felt like they’d found their purpose—and immense joy—in the life they’d been given.

Stories from the Inspirer champion the underdog, and there’s a well-established market for them. Readers empathize with the author’s vulnerability as well as the life lessons revealed in the book. These books often have few problems finding a press to take their manuscript on.

The Mentor

Similarly, the Mentor wants to educate and help their readers, but they’re focused on reaching readers within their career field. The Mentor has achieved success and wants others who are just starting out to know all of the lessons, tricks of the trade, and insider advice they’ve gained through years of experience.

One of the world’s top-ranking CEOs, Indra Nooyi, published an excellent Mentor-style memoir: My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future. The book details her rigorous ascent from her work as a corporate consultant to becoming the first woman of color and immigrant to head a Fortune 50 company. But what makes her best-selling book stand out from the rest is her actionable throughline, encouraging executives—no matter their rank—to strive for a more eco-friendly and ethical economy.

Relative to the Inspirer, books by the Mentor have a niche audience, but their pool of potential book buyers is by no means small. There is a wealth of young professionals who want to get ahead and learn from the professionals who came before them. Books by the Mentor will have no problem selling, and selling well (and, therefore, helping out many readers).

The Whistleblower

The Whistleblower is a champion for justice—and they’re not afraid to expose those at fault. The Whistleblower is the witness—and often a victim—of oppressive and abusive people and systems. They want others to hear their story and work to prevent those same cycles from happening in their own lives and communities.

Chanel Miller made her debut as a whistleblower under the pseudonym “Emily Doe” when she released her victim impact statement during proceedings against her assailant, Brock Turner. Now, she’s released a memoir, Know My Name, to shine light on the shame, rejection, and accusations she received—as a victim. Her book calls unflinching attention to the way victims of sexual assault are viewed, treated, and talked and how it affects their healing.

The Whistleblower’s story is profound and astonishing, but, most of all, it calls for real change. Memoirs from the Whistleblower have the story, the evidence, and the passion for an intriguing and impactful book. There is a large audience of readers who love getting the raw details of unbelievable stories, but they will walk away from the book with new perspectives and passions of their own.

The Researcher

Passionate, detail-oriented, and dedicated to the truth, the Researcher constructs their story—or history, rather—from obscure newspaper clippings, letters, and documents. The Researcher knows that there are important things to learn from the past and has found that their own family played a part in it. Maybe their great uncle worked on the Manhattan project or their grandmother’s time as a secretary during WWII turned out to be anything but ordinary.

I had the privilege of writing the story of an author’s international, multicultural family saga after the author spent over a decade doing in-depth research. Now readers from all over the world can access the incredible and heart-wrenching story of how his father, growing up under Japanese rule in South Korea, and his mother, herself raised in the Soviet Union, formed an unlikely yet powerful union. The book continues to tell the story of how the author’s family came to be, their successes, and their hardships.

There’s a reason stories from our history exist in nearly every corner of the world—we cherish them. Not only can our history help us learn about the past (and what not to do in the future), but many readers find it exceptionally interesting. There are many dedicated and loyal readers for every niche of history, which means the Researcher’s story has a place on any bookstore, library, or even museum shelf.

The Record Keeper

Like the Researcher, the Record Keeper also has a story from history to tell. But, while readers from many walks of life will enjoy the story, the Record Keeper’s main goal is that their family can cherish it forever. The Record Keeper simply seeks to record their family’s stories while their family is still here to tell them, whether it’s the way their grandparents met, a snippet of life on their great-grandparents’ farm, or the story of a unique family member’s life.

Our very own Aaron Dechant, wrote the story of his late grandfather, in a heartfelt slice-of-life memoir and biography, Oil Man: From Farm Field to Oil Field. The book preserves his grandfather’s life as a German-Russian immigrant to Ellis County, Kansas. Not only does the book provide a glimpse into a small cultural community in rural Kansas but also into the life of a cherished family member.

The book is quaint and elegant in its simplicity, but it will also sit on the Dechant family’s bookshelves for many years to come. Their family’s story is preserved so that their memory may live on—and that is exactly what the Record Keeper wants most for their book.

What kind of memoir is best for you?

If you know what type of memoir you have on your hands, you know what lies ahead as far as publishing and marketing your book. It will help you know who your target audience is and how you can set yourself up for success—and a return on investment.

But authors don’t just write books for monetary value. Authors write because they care about their stories. Each memoir type has passion and ambition for their book, and assigning a type to your memoir can help you ensure that you are writing a book that fulfills your personal goals for the book. Otherwise, you risk writing a book strictly for an audience—and no longer for you.

The bottom line: taking time to define what your goals for your book are is a vital step toward writing a book you and your readers love. If you’d like to find out what subgenre your memoir fits into (no matter how far along you are), you can take our Book Strategy Quiz to find out your type and receive personalized advice on writing it. You may just discover something new about the very book you’re writing.

When my old dog was more social and energetic, we loved taking her to the dog park. She was a terrier-mix-mutt, and she loved sniffing around the various structures, chasing other dogs (or getting chased), and saying hello to the other pet owners. During my graduate school years, I took her to the dog park every single week. I would take my study materials and review while she played. In all of those many visits, I never once worried about her. The dog park was surrounded by a fence. Another fence divided the park down the middle, with the big dogs on one side and the little dogs on the other.

Sometimes we associate fences with limitations. But there’s something so freeing about knowing you’re in a safe space. When we’re surrounded by fences, we know where we can play and where we can’t. We don’t have to worry that we’ll stray too far and find ourselves in the middle of a busy street. We can frolic and sniff as much as we want without fear of roughhousing or aggression.

The fences at the dog park are a lot like boundaries. When we think of them out of context, they can seem cold and limiting. But in reality, a world without boundaries is an unfamiliar and scary place.

Freelance writers and editors need boundaries more than anyone. In our work, boundaries are absolutely crucial to maintaining a happy, healthy working environment for us and our clients. They’re absolutely essential to delivering the best final product to our clients.

Below are the three must-have boundaries for a happy, productive freelancing career.

1. Work Hours

Nobody is happiest when they’re working twenty hours a day. And yet, so many freelance editors fall into this trap.

You pick up your phone in the morning to find two new client requests, one follow-up from a current client, and a quick email from an author you worked with months ago. With a jolt of electricity, you grab your computer to reply.

An hour later, you start copyediting a book. Then you’ve gotta write some social media posts. A few more client emails roll in. You break for dinner. Then a client texts you (more on this later)—oops, you made a mistake on that document you sent yesterday—so you spring back to action to correct the error and return the manuscript. And that other client wanted their blog post back by tomorrow. It’s nagging at you, so you might as well just write it…

Before you know it, you’ve worked all day and all night. You fall back into bed exhausted, only to start all over tomorrow.

If this sounds at all familiar, you need time boundaries.

I start working around 8am and end at 5pm, with two hour-long breaks to eat and take a walk. On weekends, I don’t work at all—including email.

A 9-to-5 might not work for you, and that’s fine. Maybe you’re happier if you spend a few hours in the morning on the business side, take the day off, then write into the evening hours to finish up your contracted work. Maybe you prefer to start work at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and shut down show late at night.

Work whichever hours you like. But set your hours. Then stick to them. Relentlessly. No email, no phone calls, no client writing, no work at all outside of your regular business hours.

2. Communication Channels

One client likes to text. Another prefers to talk on the phone. Three others want to Zoom. Plus you’ve got a million emails, Facebook DMs, LinkedIn Mail messages, and the carrier pigeon just dropped off a revision request at your front door.

No wonder you feel overwhelmed.

When communication comes in so many forms, it’s impossible to stay organized. Things inevitably get lost in the shuffle, which leads to more messages. Before you know it, you’re spending more time organizing your various messages than you are actually serving clients.

A lack of communication channels can make you feel like your business is a house of cards.

But remember—it’s your business. Clients depend on you to guide them through their projects, and that includes communication. And when clients are communicating in a million different ways, you can’t do your best work.

Each new client who comes to my business gets a PDF with clear boundaries about communication channels (among other things). Here’s what the “Communication” section says:

• Please feel free to email us with any questions. If we can answer clearly in a reply, we’ll do so within two business days. For more complex answers, we may reply to confirm that we’ve added the question to our next meeting agenda.
• Email also works well for brief notes or quick clarifications about your project’s content. However, if you find your message expanding to more than a paragraph or two, it may be worth saving the comment for our next meeting. That way, we can collaborate to incorporate the new information in a way that meets industry standards. Please refrain from sending more than two emails at a time—multiple threads typically create more confusion than clarity.
• Our clients are of the utmost importance to us, but we also value our family and personal time. Therefore, we will not return calls or emails in the evenings, on weekends, or during holidays.

I’ve never had a client object to any of this and, by setting these expectations up front, I know I’m leading them toward the best possible version of the project. Sure, I could put up with rapid-fire messaging—one email per point—detailing every change the client wants to see in their project. In fact, I’ve done that in the past. But you know what I learned? When requests come in that way, I’m much more likely to miss one.

My clients didn’t want that and neither do yours.

So help them understand the best way to communicate. It’s for their own good and the good of the project.

3. After Service

We all know we need to set clear boundaries around the work we will and will not do. If a client wants a fourth round of revision but your contract only allows three, you send them a change order and an invoice, right? Right??

Yes. Of course.

But what happens after the work period ends? How much support are you willing to give as they move their project from one stage to the next?

As a ghostwriter, I’ve seen how a lack boundaries can lead to endless work. I would wrap up a book project and send the author off to query. Then I’d hear back.

“Bummer, another rejection,” the author would write.

“Shoot,” I’d respond. “Don’t give up!”

A week later, I’d get another message. “OMG, they want a partial!”

“Woohoo!” I’d reply.

I never minded replying to these brief messages…until the inevitable next message.

“Hey, I’m not sure what comes next,” a former client would write. “Can we talk real quick?”

Reader, I’m sure you’re wiser than I was when I started down this path. I’m sure you would reply with, “Yes, of course! Here’s a link to book a paid call!”

But I did not do that, at least not early in my freelancing career. Instead, I’d agree to just one phone call, just one coffee meeting, or just a couple (or fifteen) quick emails. Before I knew it, I found myself resenting former clients. And all that time on free calls and emails meant I had less time to market my business and bring in paying clients.

I needed a boundary around the end of service.

This one’s the simplest of all. All I had to do was decide what my policy would be and stick to it. For me, the most natural process was this:

The first time a former client asks a question (celebrations are always free!), I reply with the answer and a link to the sales page for my query coaching service.

That’s it.

In most cases, people are grateful that the service exists and they’re happy to pay me for my time. Not everyone purchases, but nobody has ever been upset or angry that I wouldn’t work for free.

Building Your Fence

Many freelancers are used to accommodating others at their own expense. It just comes with the territory.

But here’s the thing—our clients want us to do our best work. They don’t need us to be their friends. They don’t need us to be their mothers. And they certainly don’t need us to be a 24-hour drive-through.

Ultimately, our clients look to us for leadership. They don’t know how to do this job, and they don’t know what we need to do it well. That’s why they hire us in the first place.

Boundaries are one way we step up to lead them to an excellent finished project.

If I had taken my dog to a park without a fence, I would never have let her run free. I would have been on constant guard to make sure she didn’t run into traffic or get into a fight with a bigger dog. Back then, the fences allowed me to relax. And when I relaxed, I was able to get some good studying done!

The same is true in our businesses. If we let time, communication, and service get out of control—if we fail to put up fences for our clients’ and our own protection—we burn out. We can’t do our best work. We’re miserable. Our families get grumpy. And the cycle of negativity drains our energy, joy, and focus.

Setting boundaries can be scary, particularly if you’ve never done it before. But I promise, once you do, you’ll rediscover the joy of running free in your career.

Every writer finds themselves blocked from time to time. Maybe you’re overwhelmed. Maybe you’re tired. Maybe you’re just sick of telling the same old familiar stories from your own life.

Or maybe, like me, you love to peek into a new world. Seeing what life looks like through others’ eyes can explode your worldview. It not only provides excellent fodder for your writing–it also challenges your everyday assumptions.

But interviewing people can be challenging. As a PhD-trained social scientist, I spent years developing my approach. I needed to learn how to draw out people’s most profound experiences to push beyond the answers my research subjects had prepared. (Let’s face it–when you ask someone for an interview, most people prepare what they want to say.)

I wanted to get them raw, unfiltered, and honest.

As a ghostwriter, this skill is crucial. I have to build immediate rapport so my clients open up to me and tell me the truth, even when it hurts. Sometimes, an interview can be used almost word-for-word once restructured and edited. It took me a lot of practice to get to that point, and in this blog post, I want to share some of my secrets for getting the most out of an interview.

First, a note. While I’m writing this from the perspective of a ghostwriter, almost any kind of writer can benefit from developing their interview skills. Journalists are an obvious example–if they can’t get their subjects to loosen up and be straight with them, they’re not likely to find the real truth of the matter. But becoming a skilled interviewer can also help writers develop more natural dialogue, step inside different perspectives, and form lifelong friendships.

Fortunately, the world of qualitative social sciences has many research-backed tips for making every interview count.

Start with the Easy Stuff

The key to starting your interview right is to put your subject at ease. The best way to do that? Ask them to share something easy. When you find something your subject is just bursting to share, the wall of distrust falls away almost instantly.

How do you know what’s easy? Think about what your subject cares about.

For instance, when my co-author and I were researching our popular article on Beyoncé fandom, we had several topics we wanted to cover. We were actually interested in what these fans made of Lemonade, which had just come out a month earlier. Since that visual album is so rich with imagery about race, gender, and history, we hoped to get participants to open up about how the album shaped their perceptions of those topics.

But imagine we tried to start there. Imagine we started the interview by asking, “How did Lemonade shape your perspective on race, gender, and history?”

Uhhhhhh. To be honest, I’m not even sure I could answer that!

Instead, we started by getting folks talking. We opened by asking whether our subjects considered themselves Beyoncé fans (Duh! Obviously!) and how long they had listened to her music. We didn’t linger on that question long. We moved immediately into the gold–when did you first listen to Lemonade?

The answers poured out. People recounted where they were, who they were with, and how they felt–some even acted out their emotions, making vivid facial expressions. Many stopped speaking to us like interviewers and started talking to us like friends. From that point forward, every question just grew in intensity. We got them started on something they loved–who doesn’t love an opportunity to share your most exciting ideas with someone who is truly interested?!

Be Truly Interested

You want to know what your subject has to say, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of setting up the interview. But when life gets busy, it’s easy to get sucked into our own heads. We stop listening to our subjects, our minds focused on our to-do lists.

People can tell when you’re not really listening. Nothing shuts down a subject faster than an interviewer whose eyes have glazed over.

In conversations, we’re used to using our energy to give and take–we listen and reply, listen and reply, listen and reply. But interviews work best when you listen more and reply less. Try to really find the fascinating details of their answers.

The best way to approach this is by tapping into your curiosity. Yes, you’re trying to write a book or article. And, sure, you need to keep your subject on topic.

But often, we have no idea what our subject can teach us! I started many research studies believing I wanted to study one thing, only to find that my participants had other ideas–much, much better ideas!

Listening with curiosity takes some practice, but it’s a skill that pays off in every avenue of our lives. Sit back and try to relax as much as you can (I know you’re nervous and busy, so think of the interview as a safe haven–a chance to pause and be still). And when your subject says something interesting, tell them so. Your follow-up doesn’t need to be polished. It can be as simple as, “Oh, wow! That’s fascinating! Tell me more!” Nine times out of ten, your subject will pause, tilt their head to the side, and think for a few seconds. Then, they’ll share something exciting!

Share Things About Yourself

While it’s important to listen, the goal of any interview should be to create a relaxed, conversational environment–think of having coffee with a close friend. To do that, you’re going to have to share some things about yourself.

Do you love the same coffee cake their grandpa was hooked on? Are you, too, an avid knitter? Have you visited the rural school their sister attended?

If so, tell your subject.

That last example–having visited an unknown, rural school–really happened to me with a client. His sister had attended a tiny community college not far from my hometown. When I shared that, he said, “Oh wow. It’s almost like this was meant to be or something.”

True story. We were instantly bonded!

There’s research to back this up, by the way. We’re much more likely to be open and honest with people we see as like us. So go ahead and open up. Don’t dominate the conversation (see above!), but don’t pretend to be “objective” either. We all bring our experiences to every interview. When we show our subject we’re like them–and when we match their disclosure with our own–we build immediate rapport.

Have a Few Follow-Ups Ready

Social scientists have a few tricks up their sleeves when it comes to interviewing. My favorite? The “tour question.” When you ask a tour question, you ask your subject to proverbially show you around their memory. In reality, it might go something like this.

Subject: “We lived in this tiny house right at the edge of the city. [laughs] It was…something.”

Interviewer: “Oh? What was it like.”

Subject: “We were just really poor. My mom did her best, but that house was a mess.”

The subject isn’t sharing much, but they don’t seem to be hiding anything, either. They just aren’t sure how to tell you what the house was like.

This is the perfect time for a tour question.

Interviewer: “I totally get it. I want to get a better sense of the details. Can you imagine taking me on a tour of the house? When you walked in the front door, what was to your left?”

You’ll be surprised at how much easier it is for subjects to explain the juicy details when you give them a concrete framework. The tour question has never failed me! And the best part? It always sounds pretty much the same, so you don’t have to rack your brain for a follow-up. Just let the tour question pour out and watch the magic happen.

Other surprisingly effective catch-all follow-ups include:

“Oh, wow! Seriously?!” (I know, I know, this sounds ridiculous. But what you’re doing is giving your subject permission to lean into the extreme details of the story. In the right context, it works really well!)

“How did you deal with that?”

“Why do you think she said that?”

“What did you say?”

Yes, it’s good to have specific follow-ups, too, but having a few generic ones ready can come in handy.

Final Thoughts

Knowing how to interview people for a story is crucial for any journalist or writer. It is essential for getting accurate information, providing valuable insights and perspectives, developing compelling characters, establishing rapport with sources, and improving efficiency and effectiveness. Whether you are writing news, features, or fiction, knowing how to conduct compelling interviews is an essential part of the research process and can make a significant difference in the quality of your work.