mediabistro.com's education department alerted me to a recent success story involving one of their students, Jeannie Ralston, who published her memoir, The Unlikely Lavender Queen, back in May. Three years ago, when she was trying to make the transition from freelance magazine journalism to book writing, Ralston took an online course in non-fiction proposal writing that helped her transform the idea of writing about her experiences leaving New York to start a lavender farm in Texas into a sellable proposal for "a memoir of unexpected blossoming."

"The teacher was tough and demanding because she said agents and editors would be," Ralston recalled when I emailed her for details. "She was right... She also told us that if we crafted a good proposal, writing the book would be so much easier. She was right about that, too. After I got my contract, I wrote my memoir in only five months, since I had a very specific and well-thought-out guideline." Her efforts have garnered her, among other things, a spot on Good Morning America's summer reading list and a mention in the NYT home and garden section.

mediabistro.com has lots of classes for aspiring writers—in fact, several new classes on proposal development and memoir writing, among other topics, are launching in September.