Write What You Know: How to Write & Sell Your Personal Experiences

by Precious Williams

Shows beginning writers how to use their personal experiences to create salable articles and books. No other book on the market seriously discusses how to market and sell the personal essay -- they're too soft or literary.There are more markets and sales potential for personal essay than nearly any other genre. Personal essay has tremendous flexibility as a form, since it can be about nearly any topic (from cooking to spelunking to bungee jumping), and it can be targeted to nearly any type of magazine market. That's why so many beginners start out by writing personal essays.Author is a well-known celebrity interviewer who teaches online classesMake It Personal shows beginning writers how to mine their own life for story ideas that will captivate and offer editors a fresh perspective. A writer's life experiences, educational background, ethnic background, failed relationships, health status, triumphs, and weird and wonderful habits are all invaluable assets and fertile ground to root around in for saleable feature ideas. Readers will learn how to reach beyond the personal essay to sell stories that blend reported fact with opinion and experience. In today's voyeuristic climate, where the popularity of reality TV, blogs and confessional memoirs grows daily, being self-centered in your writing is a good thing. The market is wide open to subjective, highly personal features that showcase a person's unique voice and life experiences.

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

Contact Precious at www.facebook.com/preciouswilliamswriter

PRECIOUS WILLIAMS' first book, 'Precious, A True Story', published by Bloomsbury in August 2010, is a memoir about growing up in trans-racial private foster care. (A US edition, titled 'Color Blind', is published by Bloomsbury USA). Precious's story has been featured on Sky News and BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour and in the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and USA Today. Her memoir was also serialized in 'The Times' and featured as a People Magazine "Great Read," a Sunday Times "Must Read" and Elle Magazine's "Recommended Read" for August 2010. A German translation of the book, titled 'Farbenblind', will be published in October 2010.

Born in the UK, Precious is of Sierra Leonean and Nigerian descent and she has lived in London and in New York. She studied English Language & Literature at Oxford University and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Periodical Journalism from the London College of Printing.

She has been a Contributing Editor at Elle, Cosmopolitan and the Mail on Sunday 'Night & Day' magazine and is currently at work on her second book, a novel.