Preserving Memories: How to Write a Family History 

IF YOU NEED HELP

You can write your family story by yourself, but you don’t have to. If you need — or just want — help, there are several kinds of assistance available short of hiring a ghostwriter to write your story for you.

Writers Groups

The best way to become a better writer is — to write! But writing can be a lonely endeavor, and if you don’t have much experience or self-confidence, a writers group can benefit you in two ways.

Firstly, most writers groups provide opportunities to improve your writing skills through regular classes and workshops, so you'll learn about writing conferences, books, and other resources to help you with the specifics.

Secondly, you'll meet other writers; some may be professionals, and others may be working on a single project like your family history, but they’re all doing the same thing as you. And some organizations have established critique programs . They pair you up with another writer or a small group to read and critique each other’s work.

However, if there isn’t a program in place, you can create your own critique group by networking with writers you meet at the group you join. This is an important part of the process. We all need another perspective on what we write; even professional editors need someone else to edit their work. As a friend and fellow editor says, “I can catch everyone’s mistakes but my own.” And this is true for most people. You’ll learn as much from reviewing your critique partner’s writing as from the feedback you get from the other person.

Typists/Transcribers/Designers

If you write in longhand or dictate into a tape recorder, you’ll need someone to transcribe your notes or dictation.

You can ask a family member, perhaps a teenager, to help. The more relatives who take part in the project, the more enthusiastic readers you'll have when it’s finished.

You can also contact a nearby high school or community college. Frequently schools have programs that allow students to intern on short-term projects to develop their skills, as well as job boards for students seeking temporary work.

If you create an actual book, the interior layout and cover of the book must be designed. These tasks require some expertise, so you'll either have to learn these skills yourself or find someone who has them. A subsidy publisher will provide these services if you go that route.

Editors

Even if you participate in a critique group, you’ll probably also benefit from the services of another editor. At Your Information Center, we have two different editors review all our reports, because we all tend to read what we expect to see, not necessarily what is actually on the page , and another pair of eyes can catch what we miss! And we all have our own little quirks we’re not even aware of — some folks spot an overused word but overlook a misplaced comma, while others catch the comma but don’t notice that the same word has been used four times in the last two sentences. The more people you have looking at your story, the greater the chance you’ll be able to correct all the problems in your draft. That way there won’t be any distractions or confusions.

With the help of an editor, your readers — your family and friends — should say, “That sounds exactly like you, like you’re talking to me.” It brings them closer to you and to the story you’re telling.

Editors can be teachers, writers, or anyone with a good working knowledge of English grammar and spelling. Be careful, though, that they don’t try to take away your conversational tone, your natural voice. Make sure they understand you're writing a personal narrative, not a formal essay.

Asking family members to read and edit the manuscript involves them in the process, an added bonus. If they're familiar with the events, they can also tell you if their perception differs from yours. That’s a perspective no hired editor could ever give.

You can also hire a freelance professional editor — either to organize and turn the “pure green dreck” of your first draft into a finished product or to polish the manuscript you’ve finished. A professional editor can help you with the structure of your story as well as with grammar, spelling, and syntax.

Ghostwriters

If you decide that you can’t or don’t want to do the writing yourself but still realize the importance of sharing your family memories with future generations, you can hire a ghostwriter.

The writer will meet with you (generally in person but possibly by phone or e-mail depending on where you both live) several times over a period of weeks or months. You provide her with your written material and photographs, and she’ll interview you in depth. Although you'll have to come up with all the memories yourself, the writer will help prod those memories by asking the right questions.

The ghostwriter will prepare a draft for your review and input, and there'll be a series of back-and-forth exchanges to revise the manuscript until both of you are satisfied with the final product.

It’s important that you and the ghostwriter feel comfortable with each other, since writing your memoirs or family history is a very personal process, and she has to convey your emotions in your words and your tone. Check the ghostwriter's references, interview potential candidates, and make sure you and she are a good match.

This isn’t a practical alternative for most families, but for wealthy or celebrity families it's a viable option.

Photo Labs/Copy Shops/Printers

You may have old photographs that aren’t in good condition that you want to use in your family memory book. In that case, take your pictures to a photo lab to have the problems corrected and the photos digitized.

If the pictures are already in good condition but you don’t have the equipment or skill to scan them, you can have them put into digital format at a copy shop.

Any copy or print shop can print and spiral- or comb-bind your book, either from a hard (print) copy or from a soft copy (a disk from your word processing program).

Remember, though, that not all printing companies have the capability to print books, so if you decide to print your family history as a paperback or hardcover book, call several printers and confirm that they print books. Take several bids, ask for — and check — references, and look over several different titles printed by the company to verify the quality.

Subsidy Publishers

Traditional publishers receive thousands of manuscripts, most of which they never even open, and only a tiny fraction of which they publish. Memoirs and family histories make up an even tinier percentage of that number, so we aren’t going to discuss that route to publication here.

Subsidy publishers publish books in much the same way as traditional publishers; however, they do so for a fee. They charge authors for all the services they provide, so they earn their money whether the author ever sells a single book.

Unfortunately, there are many companies in this kind of business that have become known as “vanity presses” because they take advantage of authors’ vanity to charge exorbitantly high prices for shoddy products and poor or nonexistent service. If you decide to go with subsidy publishing, research the companies carefully before you choose one to do the work.

Check the resources section below or type “subsidy publisher” into your favorite search engine. Remember to ask for references and actually contact the people. Order a copy of each of several titles published by every company, and ask yourself if you would be proud to include your family history in that group of books.

If you aren’t totally satisfied with the comments from the company’s references or enthusiastic about the products you ordered, then look for another publisher. Subsidy publishing is expensive — if you aren’t getting value for that high price, you might as well settle for spiral-bound books from the local copy shop.

You may encounter the term “POD” when you're investigating subsidy publishing. The term is defined interchangeably as “print on demand” and “publish on demand.” Print on demand is a printing technology that allows for printing a few copies — or even one —at a time.

Subsidy publishers who use this technology promote it by telling writers they don’t have to order a lot of books up front, but they can continue to order books a few at a time. This is generally not cost-effective for a family history because the setup fees and unit costs are high. In most cases, the largest demand for family histories and memoirs occurs when the books are first published, when copies are distributed to all family members. Keeping a supply for future generations makes more economic sense than paying the high cost for “POD” technology, which works well for commercial books that sell only a few copies at a time over a long period of time.

POD technology may be a good option if you intend to sell your book on a regular basis through Amazon.com or similar outlets. The bookstore can order a few copies at a time, which can be shipped directly from the printer. You don't have to tie up money and storage space to inventory books to ship in ones and twos when you receive an order. The unit cost for each copy, though, is higher.

NOT JUST FOR YOUR FAMILY TODAY

When you hold the finished book — whether it’s a loose-leaf binder or a hardcover book — in your hand, you'll have a tangible record of your family’s past and present to pass on to the future.

Sharing yourself — your memories, your thoughts, your unique voice, your life — may be the best gift you can give to the people who know and love you.

But perhaps even more importantly, your family history or memoir is a gift that will last for generations to come. And who knows? Two hundred years from now your family story may be studied by social historians to know what life was like for ordinary people in the early 21st century. That’s truly a legacy worth leaving!

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