Kitty Axelson-Berry founded Modern Memoirs in 1994 and published her memoir, The Hill: Letting Go of It, in 2018. The following year, she retired and sold the company to the current owners, Megan and Sean St. Marie. In this two-part blog series, we asked Axelson-Berry to reflect first on her personal experience with writing a memoir and, second, on her experience launching and growing a successful memoir publishing company. Part 2 appears below; click here for last month’s Part 1.
1. What inspired you to start a company for people to self-publish their personal histories?
Kitty Axelson-Berry: Simply? I wanted to leave my then-current job as the editor of an investigative news-and-arts weekly because it was changing direction and focus in a way I didn't find satisfying. So I asked myself, “What would I do if I could do anything I wanted to right now, and didn’t have to work?” Wandering the world wasn’t an option due to family circumstances. I decided I’d interview my mother about her life and transform it into book form so that it would be well thought-out, user-friendly, and long-lasting. Having been the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, I had developed a feel for what people, or people not unlike me, were interested in, so I was confident that other baby boomers would want to know their parents’ back stories, too, and would want to be able to hand those stories down to the next generation. My mother’s generation had gone through a lot of changes, and their adult children were often distracted by the advent of television and other diversions—not listening to their stories time and time again. Modern Memoirs clients of this generation seemed a little embarrassed to focus on themselves so much but still welcomed being supported through the process of reminiscence and life review, loved having a tangible legacy to pass around, and some even found themselves re-storying aspects of their lives.
“An entire memoir can be considered a sensitive letter to the future.”
The newspaper background had given me most of the skills I’d need—interviewing, writing, editing, managing people and projects, and working in editorial, design/formatting, graphics, and production. I’d negotiated a fair amount with our advertising department, which gave me a sense of marketing and public relations. What I didn’t have was experience in selling, including closing the deal, bookkeeping, business planning, finance, and computers and technology. Also, I just wasn’t driven to think big or make a lot of money. I was more interested in providing a wonderful service that would help individuals and families.
So, personality and experience were prodded by necessity to create inspiration. It wasn’t that the inspiration came first. The necessity came first.
2. What was the greatest challenge you faced in that career?
Kitty Axelson-Berry: At first, I had to hire a friend who role-modeled marketing and sales for me (kicking me under the table when I tried to do it myself and did it badly). I had to switch from being an employee to being an entrepreneur. This type of work was new in the U.S., where the present and the future were emphasized, and the past was pretty much relegated to the dust bin. (Europeans laughed at the concept of a professional personal historian because, they asked, who doesn't know their family history inside and out with no help from anyone?) Becoming an entrepreneur was the greatest challenge, followed by keeping up with constantly changing technologies.
Kitty Axelson-Berry and Ali de Groot at Modern Memoirs’ first location on Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts
3. What was the greatest gift you gained?
Kitty Axelson-Berry: Perhaps the friendships I made, which means Ali, who became a close personal friend, several former clients from all parts of the country, and colleagues in the Association of Personal Historians, which no longer exists as an entity. There were also “inconsequential strangers,” people with whom we worked well for years and with whom we produced beautiful, authentic, meaningful works of art.
4. In your memoir, you describe how you “rebelled against words” in your sophomore year of college, writing a paper “denouncing the misuse of words in college classes, in the media, and so on, and proclaimed it to be my last paper, which it was.” What brought you back to words, which became central to your subsequent careers in journalism and publishing?
Kitty Axelson-Berry: Wow, Liz, I don't recall this trajectory ever, thanks. It wasn’t words themselves that were offensive. It was how they could be used in ways that are misleading, deplorable, dangerous. Kellyanne Conway took spin to the max when she described untruths as “alternative facts.” What brought me back to writing, perhaps, was the awakening and activism of the early 1970s. The alternative press had a key role, I like to think, in growing the movements toward social justice, anti-racism, sustainability, environmentalism, organic farms, local businesses, co-operation, and corporate responsibility that’s more than greenwashing or “color washing.” Maybe we could help make the world a better place—or at least slow the pace of it becoming worse. (We had no idea how bad it was.) It was natural for me to move from documenting these movements to focusing on the stories of individuals, themselves, about themselves. In the history of the company, I think Modern Memoirs clients have been remarkably honest and reflective.
5. When you wrote your own memoir, you made it a collaborative process: One of your daughters transcribed your initial audio recordings and inserted comments into the text as she did so, and you invited family and friends to add observations and stories. You also hired several editors to work on it at different times. Why was it important to you to undertake memoir-writing with the support or assistance of others?
Kitty Axelson-Berry: I would have liked to do much more of that but didn’t take the time to—I didn’t have Modern Memoirs pushing me along and doing some of the work that gets tiresome. How many times can you yourself go through your own life story? How can you have an accurate sense of what you’re communicating to someone who reads it, sees the photos you chose? Having a sensitive but strict editor in my opinion is essential to a good outcome, no exceptions. Does a chef ask someone to look at, smell, and taste their new creation? A perfumer to sniff their new scent? A bride to get a first-glance response to the clothes they’re trying on? When you’re writing a sensitive email or letter, do you ever ask a trusted friend or family member to read it before you send it out, maybe even make some changes? An entire memoir can be considered a sensitive letter to the future.