Publish a Family History
or other genealogy book
W03 CONTENT
Publish or Perish
What if I am hit by a bus?
Lesson blurb
Do you want to publish a family history or a biography or some other genealogical book? Are you waiting until you finish writing your manuscript before you explore your publishing options?
BIG MISTAKE!
It could cost you lots of time and money.
What acclaimed biographer and genealogist, Carol Baxter, has learnt in her own publishing journey is that the choices we make early in our writing journey help dictate our success – or otherwise – when we publish a family history or other genealogical work.
For example, if we've found a great family story and hope to interest a mainstream publisher, which writing genre should we choose? Fiction or nonfiction? The answer might surprise you.
If we decide to self-publish our family history, why do we need to determine the likely weight of our publication before we "fix" the text-box size, the font style, and the font size?
All these subjects – and many more – are included in the eight lessons of the Publish or Perish course. Each lesson deals with a narrow subject area, so you can return to any subject of a particular interest after viewing the entire course.
Lesson list
This course comprises eight lessons, as follows:
01 I Want to Publish ... Something!
02 Mainstream Publishing
03 Indie Publishing
04 Self-Publishing: Pre-Production
05 Crafting a Title
06 Self-Publishing: General Production
07 Self-Publishing: Layout Design
08 Self-Publishing: Post-Production
LESSON 1
I want to publish ... something!
At some point in our genealogical researching journey, many of us realise that we'd like to publish the results of our research in some form or another so family members can access it. But what are our publishing options?
This is an overview lesson, exploring the publishing industry as a whole and looking at some of our writing and publishing options within the industry.
Lesson type: Educational
Video duration: 25 minutes
Reading time: 0 minutes
Handout: Yes
Writing exercise: No
LESSON 2
Mainstream publishing
In the publishing world, mainstream publishing sits at the apex. Mainstream publishers invest the most time and money in their authors and manuscripts.
Even if we have no interest in approaching a mainstream publisher, this lesson explains how the industry works, from the big picture financial arrangements down to the nitty gritty of transforming our prose into a commercial book.
Lesson type: Educational
Video duration: 32 minutes
Reading time: 5 minutes
Handout: Yes
Writing exercise: No
LESSON 3
Indie publishing
"Indie publishing" stands for independent publishing. The main difference between mainstream publishers and most smaller publishers relates to the financial model they use. This lesson discusses the smaller general publishers and niche publishers, along with desktop publishers, online services and "vanity" publishers.
Lesson type: Educational
Video duration: 23 minutes
Reading time: 3 minutes
Handout: Yes
Writing exercise: No
LESSON 4
Self-publishing:
Pre-production
Most of us will choose self-publishing for our family history or other publication, so the next five lessons are devoted to this subject. This lesson explores the first stage, the "pre-production" stage, where we prepare our material for publication. For convenience purposes, it also expands to cover one of the "production" stages in its entirety: designing our cover.
Lesson type: Educational
Video duration: 34 minutes
Reading time: 5 minutes
Handout: Yes
Writing exercise: No
LESSON 5
Crafting a title
The subject of "crafting a title" is rarely included in books or lectures on writing family histories or "how to" genealogy books. Yet the title is one of our most important marketing tools. This lesson offers many suggestions for finding the right title for our publication.
Lesson type: Educational
Video duration: 35 minutes
Reading time: 2 minutes
Handout: Yes
Writing exercise: No
LESSON 6
Self-publishing:
General production
The second stage of self-publishing is the "production" stage. In this lesson we explore the general stages of book production, everything from typesetting programs to printing and binding.
Lesson type: Educational
Video duration: 43 minutes
Reading time: 1 minutes
Handout: Yes
Writing exercise: No
LESSON 7
Self-publishing:
layout design
The second stage of self-publishing also includes laying out our text. This lesson discusses text boxes and margins, font styles and sizes, paragraph justification and styles, along with many other elements of layout design.
Lesson type: Educational
Video duration: 38 minutes
Reading time: 0 minutes
Handout: Yes
Writing exercise: No
LESSON 8
Self-publishing:
Post-production
The final stage of self-publishing is the "post-production" stage. In this lesson we explore the marketing, sales and distribution of our family history, "how to" book or other publication.
Lesson type: Educational
Video duration: 41 minutes
Reading time: 2 minutes
Handout: Yes
Writing exercise: No
Subscribe to
Publish or Perish
course
$AUD 99.00 for 3 months access
When you pay for the course, you are deemed to have read and accepted the terms of the Online Course Agreement.
Annual Membership
Alternatively, you can purchase an Annual Membership
and have access to this course and all of the others
on the Writing Fabulous Family Histories website for 12 months.
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