How to Publish a Military Memoir: A Step-by-Step Guide

A memoir can be both: a nonfiction narrative based on the author’s personal memories and an essay on a learned subject. Your military career is part of your life story and writing a book is a powerful way to preserve your experiences of combat, leadership and personal transformation.  Here’s our step-by-step guide to help you take your story from idea to manuscript.

Step 1: Need

Before writing, be clear about your target reader. 

·      Visualizing your audience can help you to decide what to write and avoid the risk of being generic and ineffective i.e. those in command positions.

·      Market analysis: what’s currently available and how my experience builds upon or differs.

Step 2: Reason

Knowing your purpose will shape your tone, content and publishing strategy.

·      Identify the type of problem i.e. there’s something wrong with the command system.

·      Determine how you intend to solve it i.e. provide crisp, informed, vigorous and perhaps uncomfortable analysis of command systems within the British Army based on my experience of it.

Step 3: Organisation

Knowing what and when will free your mind to write.

·      Draft a bullet point outline of the book before you start writing.

·      Work out your writing schedule i.e. 200 words a day is 70,000+ words over a year and a year is about the right timeframe for a book.

Step 4: Writing

Start by writing based on your experience.

·      Write short pieces about relevant major events in your service or career.  This will start the writing process. Writing doesn't always have to start with the introduction, that often comes last.

·      Weave these writing pieces into the structure of your book.

It is really this simple.  Your story can inspire, educate and create a lasting legacy.

Send us a message to start your book journey: info@howgatepublishing.com