Writers Tricks of the Trade Vol. 5, Issue 4 | Page 27

PRESS “CONTROL” THEN CLICK “BUY”

TO PURCHASE THE BOOK

AN INTERESTING EXCHANGE ABOUT
MEMOIRS
MORGAN ST. JAMES

BUY

Sometimes things happen that make you scratch your head. This was one of those
times. Out of respect to the webpage and moderator, I am not using their name,
but I assure you this is a real exchange. It prompted me to do some research into
memoirs, autobiographies and biographies. It also made me know when to run
rapidly in the other direction from a hopeless situation and mind-set.
It all began when I wanted to promote Bella Capo’s memoir, “La Bella Mafia,” on a
site known for memoirs. What ensued was totally unexpected and caused me to
question what all of those celebrities whose best-selling memoirs would say if this
were really true (which it isn’t.) I’m sure they would be totally shocked to find they
weren’t memoirs at all because they’d had help or guidance in writing them. How
many of them do you think were totally written by the celebrities or high-profile
people without a smidgen of help? By the way, I will be appearing at the upcoming
“Memories Are Made of This” memoir conference in the L.A. area from October
23-25, 2015.

BUY

A TRANSCRIPT OF THE MESSAGES:
6/24, 1:36 pm
"Hello Bella - I am one of the Moderators of XXX and you have already
registered under the name of Morgan St James, so it is not acceptable to the Moderators that
you join again, under another name. You are most welcome to remain part of the family as
Morgan St James, but Bella Capo will be blocked. I am also sending this message to you via
your Bella Capo web page as I have been alerted by Facebook that this message will go to
your "other" folder for messages." Subsequently, Bella Capo was blocked by the Moderators,
from joining. Thanks for your anticipated understanding .

6/24, 4:25 pm
I am not quite sure I understand this. I am the co-author of Bella Capo's
memoir, so we are two separate people. The book, La Bella Mafia, is Bella's true story. Is the
problem that two people cannot be associated with one book?

BUY

6/24, 5:15 pm Morgan - Thank you for your response as it certainly explains why you had
not seen any previous message from me. Obviously there has been a misunderstanding
about Bella and the block on her joining has been lifted. You are welcome to invite her again
if you and Bella desire that to occur. The Moderators of XXX have had further discussion
about the book regarding Bella's life. On Amazon and Goodreads it indicates that it has been
written by yourself and Dennis Griffin. It is also described as a Biography on both pages, as
well as by yourself on the Goodreads page showing your interview with Bella. While you may
have used journals supplied by Bella and interviewed her and essentially it is "her story", it is
still a biography and as such, cannot be mentioned or promoted in any way, on the XXX
page. XXX is purely for Memoir books, in the true sense of the description of memoir. Thank
you.
6/24, 5:56 pm I don't mean to seem like a pain, but that really is not an accurate description
of how the book was written. Bella was very involved in the writing of this book as you will see if
you would like to read it. We were in constant contact by phone,

JULY-AUGUST 2015

PAGE 16

WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE