342: It Turns Out What I Really Want to Write About is... Episode 342, from memoir to marketable, with Emily Grosvenor

Sometimes you have to start with a memoir (that you never publish) to figure out who you are and where you’re going. Today’s guest has a nice impressive bio—but 8 years ago, she was just a writer staring at a screen and working on, as many of us do when we first start, a memoir. Emily Grosvenor is the editor of Oregon Home magazine , Willamette Week’s design publication Nester. She’s also written for The Atlantic , Salon , Good Housekeeping , and others. But ALSO like so many of us, she started as a generalist, freelancing from the familiar “write what you know” place. New place, children, parenthood, cooking, trying to navigate finding adult life or living with a partner? Write about it. But a funny thing happened on the way to that memoir: She realized she didn’t want to keep living in that space. And when the memoir didn’t sell, Emily found the opportunity to write about something she really wanted to explore—and figured out how she fit into the market. Links from the pod Foundry Media Literary Agency “ exploded ” Sarah Susanka’s Your Not-So-Big Life Seth Godin’s Purple Cow Pia somebody, Badass Your Brand Bonus: Rachael Herron’s Fast-Draft Your Memoir in 45 Hours (because that might be the way you plow your way through what you need to write to find out what you want to write) Sign up for Emily’s Design Shift Newsletter HERE . (Our episode on email lists 151: #StartHereforEmailLists ) Emily on Instagram @EmilyGrosvenor Book: Find Yourself at Home: A Conscious Approach to Shaping Your Space and Your Life #AmReading Emily: Marie Kondo's Kurashi at Home KJ: Start More than You Can Finish, Becky Blades Join KJ’s subscriber chat Available exclusively in the Substack app Join chat HEY NOVELISTS—Did you finish NaNoWriMo? Would you like to know what to do next with that pile of words you worked so hard to create? Here’s a group of Author Accelerator certified book coaches dedicated to walking you through the process of finishing your draft or tackling revision—and they have put together a host of free resources to get you started. Check out www.nanonowwhat.com to learn more about these fantastic book coaches and how they can get you from NaNo success to a draft that’s ready to pitch or publish. Want to BE one of those book coaches? Our partners at Author Accelerator have super-fun BONUSES for anyone who signs up book coach training before the end of 2022. Learn more at bookcoaches.com to find out if 2023 will be the year you launch a book coaching business or level up the one you already have.