I received this book as a gift from my wife after it had been on my wish list for some time. I hoped the book was an instruction manual on the best way to write a memoir.
Instead, this book tries to be both a memoir and an instruction manual but fails at both. It is NOT a stand-alone instruction manual but part of a system.
This book is an extended advertisement for Ms. Roach-Smith’s costly writing class. All pages of the memoir/manual subtly lead you to take her courses where you supposedly will get all the information you hoped to get in this book.
I went to her website and saw that this book is a prerequisite for her online courses. Hence the limited information on actually how to write a memoir.
Ms. Roach Smith offers editing and coaching services, but before you can book her services, you must follow these prerequisites:
1: Purchase and read this book – $-10.00
2: Take an online course called Memoirama – $-79.00
3: Take the Memoirama Pt 2 course – $-279.00
4: Take her Master Class – $-2,279.00
After you have completed her prerequisites, then you may contact her for her editing or evaluation services. Editing services are $-1,497.00 for every 100 pages, which must be double-spaced 12 point.
So to get her to read your book, you need to have $-2,647.00 plus an additional $-4,491.00 to have the average 300-page double-spaced work edited. That’s a total of $-7,138.00 to have a memoir looked at by her.
The one thing I could not find on Ms. Roach Smith’s website were success stories of her services and courses, resulting in successful, traditionally published memoirs.
Unless you plan to take Ms. Roach Smith’s courses, I don’t think this book is worth the time and money. There are multiple books available that supply information rather than makes you pay for a very long advertisement.
Tate Basildon 