I completed my memoir in February of this year - woohoo! Strangely, the editor I had been working with disappeared off the planet last summer, AFTER I had paid her for the next set of editing hours. She simply never contacted me again last July after I sent her the payment and the memoir for her to edit the latest chapters.
Fortunately, even though I did the equivalent of flushing money down the toilet by paying her that last time for nothing, at least her previous tips and help were of good use to me in completing the memoir. I tried very hard to not include every single boring detail of every occurrence or conversation - just the important and interesting stuff. I also wrote in a timely order instead of skipping around and writing about some events before I had written about events that occurred earlier. In that way, I avoided repetition, which had been a problem with my first drafts of the memoir. In other words, I did not write about an event from March of that year (for example), include necessary background information, and then write about an event from January of that year...only to repeat the background information because the reader actually needs the background information while reading about the event that occurred in January. And once they get to the part about the March event, they already know the background information that is repeated there.
I also kept the voice of the book as if a young teenager were writing it because that's what I was during the time of the events in the memoir. It is a good voice, but I had been including a rather "smart-aleck" tone that was kind of annoying to read. So I "toned" down (no pun intended) the smart-aleck elements and just wrote as if I were my 14-year-old self. I also cut way back on the too graphic descriptions of some things. All in all, I think I did a fairly good job and that the memoir is a good and fulfilling read, even if I say so myself!
In February, I emailed the literary agent who said (over a year ago) she would be interested in trying to sell my memoir to a publisher to let her know it was finished and ask if she was still interested in it. She wrote back and said she was still interested and to send her the first 50 pages. Which I did. About two months ago. And I have not heard back from her. I assume this means she is no longer interested in trying to sell it after reading the first 50 pages. Oh well.
Now I have to do my research and find other agents to contact to see if one of them wants to try to sell it to a publisher. I also have to research publishers and contact them directly to see if they might be interested in publishing it (without an agent as a middle-person).
Wish me luck...and when the memoir is published, buy it. Thanks!