writing a disclaimer for a memoir

Disclaimer: I'm not a legal professional. This is not legal advice.

I'm up to the final technical aspects before I self-publish my memoir, about some behind-the-scenes drama in the online world. The focus is an intense connection with an autistic man, during the advocacy journey. I've been looking up about including a disclaimer, which is a statement about the limitations and alterations in the writing. It generally goes after the copyright information, on the copyright page, so all the legal stuff is in one place.

why have a disclaimer?

It's not mandatory to have one, although recommended for any writing, including a blog. I have a little disclaimer on this blog, for example. A disclaimer is a short statement which can be a few sentences to a few paragraphs.

The reasons for having one, in the case of memoir, is:

• to remind the reader that memoir is based on the author's recollections, so there will be subjectivity.
• to help protect the author from lawsuits (especially if someone is cast in an unfavourable light).
• to state what alterations have been made, to protect the privacy of those in the memoir.
• to specify an intended audience eg a mature audience.
• to avoid loss of credibly if someone says, 'That didn't happen.' (It's a fact that people will have different perspectives from the same events and some people may forget or deny).
• to remind the reader that the author is not a qualified lawyer or doctor.
  
• to remind the reader that the author has subjective opinions.
  

I've written a draft disclaimer for my memoir below:

draft disclaimer for my memoir

​This book is intended for a mature audience for entertainment purposes. Some content may be triggering for some readers. This account is the author’s emotional truth and perspective from her personal experiences. Names have been changed and possible identifying details such as nationality have been omitted. Dialogue has been paraphrased to disguise any distinctive speech patterns. The author is not a clinician and this story is no substitute for medical advice.

I am expecting to self-publish Bipolar Courage: Are You Sure You're Not Autistic? within four weeks (which reminds me, I'd better apply for my ISBNs soon; free in New Zealand).
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WHat If YOu don't really remember?

I spent a LOT of time, researching and cross-checking with my memoir, to make it as accurate as I can, to my memories, plus how I felt at the time (I've even included some relevant extracts from my journal, my raw feelings, recorded at the time of events). Compared to how I felt processing things, later). It's my most emotionally vulnerable book to date.

If you are hazy about details, or you feel you need to disguise people further, then I suggest you try the semiautobiographical fiction genre, instead. My book, Pet Purpose: Your Unspoken Voice is inspired by my experiences and some of it is memoir. I've used fiction in the form of composite characters, for disguise and efficiency. It's to help the reader understand what bipolar mania with post-traumatic stress disorder is like. With very little emphasis on the trauma, and instead on how the character is trying to resolve grief and trauma in creative ways.

Fiction can be more honest in some respects. Lie to tell the truth. Whereas with the memoir, I was just vague about some things, and filtered some things out, for privacy reasons.

further information

I'm a good researcher and here are a few useful articles I found about disclaimers:

Book disclaimers for the indie author

Do you need a disclaimer for your book?