A Family History Book

Gaelic Laois

When I first started off researching my family history, a family history book seemed an impossible feat, however, two years later, I nearly have over 250 pages of family history stored on my computer on Microsoft Word and printed off in a folder... I have converted all my research into some semblance of stories but I would love to turn these stories along with my pictures into a proper 'Hard Back Book' for all my family to read...

Has anybody turned their Family History research into a book? Were you able to create the book yourself online or did you have to get a professional to help? Is there any websites? I was looking at mycanvas but that seems to be based in America so might be expensive shipping? Has anybody any experience of how they turned their Family History and Stories into a book or how I might go about this challenge?

Earnest

I would suggest that you explore self-publishing. Google "self-publishing Ireland". Even if you don't actually want to sell copies, some of these firms offer bespoke services which will turn your script and pictures into a hard-back book of as many copies as you want.

tedheavenly

The most cost effective self publishing company I could find 2 years ago was a company called Bookbaby.com. I had about 180 pages in mine and chose colour pages with soft binding, and it worked out a 6 euro a copy. Its handy because once you upload the finished article you can print on demand. Its cheaper to print in bulk, but I had no storage for bulk, and wasnt sure there was demand for it. I started off with 10, and have sold 76 in the last 18 months. I also bought a few books on the matter that were very helpful; 'Producing A Quality Family History' by Patricia Law Hatcher was very helpful. If you're editing and proofing it yourself, print out a few copies for yourself first to make sure there's no mistakes. My first 10 were riddled with formatting errors, typos etc so I would do that if I were you. Hope this helps!

KildareFan

Thanks for that information - I have 1000s of pages of notes [on word files!] on various branches of the family and I'd like to get around to producing a 'potted' version for the few family members whose eyes don't glaze over when I talk about my research. Another thing on my 'to do' list....