Remembers When

I was at a writers' conference this past weekend talking to writers. There was a lot of interest in Remembers When, but I was really surprised when I found out these statistics: Of nearly 1,000 entries in the writing competition, over 200 were in the memoir category. Added to that, nearly half the short non-fiction entries were also memoirs. I always thought there were a lot of people who wanted to write memoirs, but had no idea that the percentage of writers would be so high.

As I talked to these memoir writers, most intended to self-publish, and many just wanted their family stories available for their families. Well, that is what Remembers When is all about. As you explore the site and take a look at the service we're offering. The basic site set-up charge is minimal. If you know how to post information to the Internet, we have a simple interface that allows you to copy and paste from your word processor and add basic formatting if you so desire. When you save the material, it is automatically added to your site and table of contents.

One of the things we've discovered, however, is that there are a lot of people who are not comfortable with an on-line interface. We are adding a service to take the files sent to us by email and post and format them so your site looks great! We're still working on exact pricing, but it looks like the service will add about $30 to most people's set-up cost. (Remember set-up cost is waived for beta testers, so get your application in to take advantage of that program!) Take a look at our sample sites. More will be added on a regular basis, and we are working on improving these sites every day. Let us know what you think!

Beta testing is a term familiar to most people in technology, but as a writer you may not know the ins and outs of what it entails. So here are the basics:

When a product is nearing completion but needs some real users to test it out before it is "officially" released, the producer conducts a beta test. The people who volunteer to test the product understand that it is not quite finished, that there may be a few new features or changes in the interface, and that the product isn't guaranteed. But in return for their feedback and advice, the testers get in on the ground floor, get to use the product before anyone else does, and often get significant discounts or even free services in return for their testing.

As you look around Remembers When, you'll find pages that aren't quite finished, promises of more coming soon, and sometimes even the stray "bug." But the basic functionality is all there. As a beta tester, you can have a site name assigned to you (like http://johndoe.rememberswhen.com) and can post your memoirs. The Web master at Remembers When will be available to answer questions and make sure things work correctly on your site, even helping to post your files if needed. And other Remembers When services are also available, like editing and ebook creation.

And it will be great fun to be the first to know when the bookstore is open, what new site designs are available, and how to point your friends and family at your treasured stories. I hope you will consider joining this limited beta test (25 people only!) and give us your feedback. Even if you aren't chosen as a beta tester, we hope you will poke around the site, read the samples, return often to find out what new memoirs have been posted, and leave us your comments and thoughts.

There's no question that terms are changing in the publishing world - it is part of the evolution of language. We used to think of publishing as something that got books, newspapers, and magazines onto physical shelves in stores. Now we publish on-line, in print, podcast, videocast, and multi-media. If you look at Merriam Webster, you get this definition of "publish."

Main Entry: pub·lish
Pronunciation: \ˈpə-blish\
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, modification of Anglo-French publier, from Latin publicare, from publicus public
Date: 14th century transitive verb
1 a: to make generally known b: to make public announcement of
2 a: to disseminate to the public; b: to produce or release for distribution ; specifically : print; c: to issue the work of (an author)intransitive
verb
1: to put out an edition
2: to have one's work accepted for publication
— pub·lish·able
\-bli-shə-bəl\ adjective
From: Merriam-Webster

To me, the key element here is "to make generally known" and "to disseminate to the public." So if you are asking yourself whether posting your memoirs at Remembers When is actually publishing them, the answer is "yes." You make your material generally known and disseminate it to the public. You may also want to publish your memoirs in book, ebook, audiobook, or some other yet-undefined format. We hope you will consider Remembers When as one of your publishing options.

Soon (later this week) the stub site will come down from the main page and the full, working menus will be operational. That means we will be ready to bring aboard our first flight of beta testers. The limited number of testers that we accept will receive their subdomain (e.g. johndoe.rememberswhen.com) and set-up at no charge. We'll be monitoring the use, content, and process of getting the memoirs on-line and readable. There are two criteria that we are particularly focused on in choosing beta users. The first is that they have memoirs that are ready to be posted. We'd like them up and operating within a week of acceptance. The second is that the memoirs be available to the public. As Remembers When develops, writers will be able to lock their memoirs so that only particular audiences or registered users may view the site, but we want to be able to point visitors at these initial Web sites so that others can see what a memoir at Remembers When actually looks like.

In the future, there will be a small set-up fee for creating the subdomain and getting it operational, and there will be an option of paying an annual fee for an "advertising free" site. We are trying to keep our advertising low-key and unobtrusive, but we have to pay for this service somehow.

If you are interested in joining the Remembers When beta, please contact nathan@rememberswhen.com.