13 Comments

Awesome, awesome post, Sarah! 🙌

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Thank you so much ❤️

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Awesome!!!

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Congrats on making this book into something beautiful! Sounds amazing and I have so much respect for the work it requires.

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Thank you! I'm pretty sure finishing this is going to be my entire spring break 😂

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Wow! you're much daring than me and taking another mammoth task of using Kickstarter to fund to publish your memoir. I am writing mine on Substack each week and publishing it as I go. When I finish I will compile it in the form of a book. But you have given me idea now. For my next book I might go Kickstarter way. Thanks for sharing your journey.

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Who says you can't use Kickstarter as the NEXT step to publishing your book? I serialized my beta draft but then it changed so much from what I put on Substack that sometimes it feels like a completely different book. (It's not. There is a lot of material that is the same, but there are significant changes.) I'm using the Kickstarter to pay for the actual publishing process. You never know, by the time you're ready to publish, it might be the right move 😊

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Knowing your target audience is crucial. For my 19th book, a memoir/travelogue titled My Germany, I helped the publisher by personally contacting Jewish Studies programs around the country, German cultural institutes, and universities with German Studies. That got me invited to do dozens of readings and talks in the U.S. and Canada, and two book tours in Germany. The touring lasted about five years.

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I plan to send an ARC to every Indiana state park and all of the state parks that we visited while we lived in Texas. I'm also going to leave copies in Free Little Libraries on our way out to Yellowstone this summer 😊

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Great idea. If you can, personalize the contact letter or emails. It takes work, but it's worth it.

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Copy, paste, personalize 😊

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I meant also looking up whoever you're writing to as well. If that helps your project. It did mine. Every email was different, depending on whom it went to.

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Good point!

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