Don`t like to go on about it, but sales are up again on my memoir, M E and Me. I don`t exactly know how and why people suddenly come along who buy it. But I am sure, (and this applies to other things I have written) I should have kept an eye on the marketing side of things.
Two more of the people who recently read it found it genuinely helpful. R, an old friend who knew me during both early episodes, never said anything remotely objectionable at the time – but still, reading the memoir, feels she never properly understood. She wrote:
“I had told you a while ago that at the beginning – and in my defence and as you write in the book, even the doctors knew nothing about it – I didn’t really understand what was happening with you but reading the book I realise that even when I thought I knew, I didn’t really. I think you have done a tremendous service to other people in your situation by giving them a voice and making the rest of us understand quite what it means. I felt myself close to tears quite a few times. You have a quality that I had noticed in the past of coming out of yourself and commenting on you as if from a distance. There is honestly, innocence and yet real insight in doing this and it is so powerful in this book.”
Theatre director H wrote: ” Just finished reading M E and ME by Deborah Freeman . It is a remarkably honest account of dealing with a condition that seems to be so poorly understood and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who has a family member or friend who lives with this illness. I feel that I have a much greater understanding of and insight into M E now and am much better equipped to support someone dealing with it too.” H messaged me to say she would recommend the memoir to a friend whose daughter has M E.
Not exactly new year, just Pesach (Passover) this weekend, but here is my springtime resolution. Try and market this memoir better! People really do appreciate it.