Question:
One of my clients has asked me to edit and put together the manuscript of
her step-father's book (he has passed away). We want to publish it ourselves
so her mother can have a "book."
What self-publishing services do you recommend?
Answer:
What about one of those print on demand places? They give you a
certain amount of copies for a fee of course, but then people can
order more. The cost is a few hundred I think. I know someone who has
done that and has been pleased. He designed the cover and it looks
pretty fancy.
Heather, there's a group of people called, I think, personal
historians. Their business is to help people put together their
memoirs and such. I'm sure they have a professional organization, and
I'm betting there are even software packages for pulling together the
stuff you'll need to take to the printer (not a vanity press per se).
Do a little searching for this bunch and see what suggestions they
have.
Another thing to consider is putting this together as a one-of-a kind,
sort of high level scrapbook. Use beautiful paper, decorative
elements--and unless it's really charming, edit the hell out of it by
selecting good snippets and "framing" them with other material:
pictures, newspaper clippings, whatever.
When we toured a book manufacturing company, there were several
examples of books published by families or individuals for family-only
consumption. Biographies, festschrifts, previously unpublished
fiction, and religious tracts made up the bulk of these works.
With the advent of book-on-demand, the $3000 or so minimum cost should
have shrunk to a few hundred dollars.
Why not a 12 X 14 pop-up book like they give kids to look at in those little
play areas while their mama's are seeing the dentist or getting their hair
done? That way she doesn't have to worry about text at all, and she can use
all BIG fonts and lots of great colors, and clip art and cheap rip-offs of
copyrighted Disney characters.
