I am the lead editor of Stories To Tell Books and a specialist in memoirs and family histories. We also handle fiction and nonfiction, but in memoir and family history a style has arisen called "creative nonfiction" for books grounded in fact and presented using the tools of literature.
These are special books, not only because of the subject matter, but because of the unique way they are designed - usually with photos, and in some family histories, a genealogist may want to include endnotes, charts, appendixes and an index. An illustrated book is a whole different project than text-only. As a book editor and designer, I enjoy producing illustrated books because they are so interesting to look at as well as to read.
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Is your memoir finished? It’s a great question to ask yourself before you send the manuscript off to an agent or move ahead with self publishing.
Many people who sit down to write a memoir see themselves as a reporter whose job is to get their life down on paper just as it happened. They have given little thought to the audience for their book. If they have considered why anyone would want to read their story they will tell you, “ my life has been so interesting (or difficult, or unusual – pick your favorite adjective) people have always told me I ought to write a book.”
That book is not what readers are looking for when they read a memoir. Readers are looking for insight, inspiration, understanding or perspective drawn from the events they read about. They want lessons from the writers experiences that are of value to them in their own lives.
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Genealogist Gena Philibert-Ortega’s wonderful new book From the Family Kitchen promises to help you discover your food heritage and preserve favorite recipes. It will also help you enliven your family history with colorful stories about foods your ancestors ate.
We had an opportunity to ask Gena about her book at the Northern California Family History Expo. Here are the highlights of our conversation:
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Searching the memoir section of your local bookstore (if your are fortunate enough to still have one) or the pages of Amazon, it seems as if there is a consensus among authors that the genre requires the employment of the tools of creative nonfiction.But there’s another approach to memoir that we see less often these days. It’s a reflective look at the author’s life. We might see it as a curated experience of events as opposed to a direct one.
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How much of the material can I quote from a copyrighted source without getting permission from the copyright holder? It’s a difficult question to answer.
While giving authors broad protection for their work, copyright is not absolute. One of the best ways to understand some of the limits to copyright protection is to seek guidance from the U.S. Government’s Copyright Office. The information listed below comes from the Copyright Office’s website:
One of the more important limitations of a copyright is the doctrine of fair use.
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Putting yourself in your family history will make it more interesting. You’re the author. You belong there. Putting yourself into the book will add context and meaning to the facts and family stories.
A lot of people setting out to write a family history think they must only recount the facts they have discovered in their genealogical research. That’s a legitimate way to write a family history. Unfortunately, it’s often not a very interesting way.
Readers are looking for meaning. They are drawn in by emotions. Those are two ingredients you as an author can supply.
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Most family historians have probably never heard of Leopold Von Ranke, but he’s largely responsible for many of the methods they use in studying their family’s history. Von Ranke, a great German historian of the 19th Century is generally regarded as the founder of the empirical school of source based history. He believed that we should use primary sources to learn "how things actually were." Family historians have happily embraced the search for documentary evidence about their ancestors. Unfortunately there’s another element of the historical method Von Ranke suggested which is much less rigorously applied by genealogists and family historians. That involves the purpose of research. He said, "To history has been assigned the office of judging the past, of instructing the present for the benefit of future ages.”
The task of instructing can only be accomplished when the historian constructs a historical narrative from the information she has gathered through her research. In short, you have to tell the story of your ancestors if anyone is to learn from your research. How do you plan to do that?
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We’re looking forward to the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree which begins Thursday in Burbank. One of the things we enjoy is that the participants come ready to learn. Many come equipped with questions they want answered before the conference ends on Sunday. If you have attended a few genealogy conferences you know that the questions people thinking about writing or already working on a family history book will ask usually follow a predictable pattern. Here are five we are sure we’ll here more than once?
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There’s a branch of the family tree that a lot of family historians ignore – themselves.
People often express frustration about not being able to discover interesting stories as they research ancestors. They say, “I wish I’d asked ________to tell me more family stories before he/she died.” When future historians in your family look back, will they say that about your generation?
They won’t if you preserve your own personal history.
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“One in three children admit they don’t want to listen to their grandparents because they find them ‘boring,’” said The Mail Online reporting on a poll taken by print on demand publisher Blurb.com. “42% of parents say children tune out when elders start to speak about the past.”
That’s a real challenge for anyone working on a family history book. The vast majority of those authors say they want to write a book to preserve the family history for the grand children.
How can a family historian make sure she captures the grand children’s interest? One important way is to recognize the difference between researching and recording the family history and telling the family story.
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Faced with the need to close and renovate the west wing of the American History Museum, interim director Marc Pachter had a problem: what would happen to all the beloved and famous objects housed there, like Kermit the Frog, or Archie Bunker’s chair?
The museum staff solved the problem by selecting just over a hundred objects for display in a new exhibit titled American Stories. These objects were chosen to symbolically represent the larger American story.
“We wanted to create an exhibit that would give people an introductory experience to American history,” explains curator Bonnie Campbell-Lilienfeld. “…this was supposed to set a context for the rest of the museum.”
Memoir writers and family can learn a valuable lesson from the way the Smithsonian dealt with its problem.
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As you use the exercises outlined in our article “Gathering Life Story Ideas for Your Memoir” or those described in greater detail in the Stories To Tell Author’s Guide, you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the number of memories you have triggered and the volume of stories you might include in your memoir. Relax. You can’t include everything that has happened in your life in your book, nor would you want to.
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How can you know if your audience will find your book interesting? That depends on who your audience is, and what they find interesting. Your hard-earned knowledge is fascinating to you, but what excites your readers? The earlier you ask yourself this question, the easier it is to choose the contents of your book.
Many family histories are intended for private publication and they will only be read by the family. In this case, you can concentrate on sharing personal, or even intimate, family stories, photos and documents. This “insider” history, along with the family’s jokes, beliefs, recipes and myths, will fascinate your relatives, and intensify the sense of identity and belonging that families enjoy.
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Richard Gilbert, in a recent post on his excellent blog, Narrative, “Undercurrents in Narrative Essays” explored what engages readers.
“Stories that grip us,” said Gilbert, “ involve some tension—a conflict or question.” When that conflict isn’t present the “narrative lacks any urgency or even movement…Such flat writing flunks the ‘So What?’ test.”
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A good story, like a good picture, is more striking with a frame.
Family history is more than a collection of facts gleaned from the vital records. When well written, it tells the stories of ancestors, giving their lives context and meaning. To you it is obvious: your ancestors’ stories are illustrations of a larger point. But will your readers understand that point?
A frame is a narrative device to help your reader understand. A thoughtful introduction and conclusion frame a chapter or story by adding levels of meaning that aren’t explicit in the story itself. The frame is like a magnifying lens. Your reader can get a clear overview of the themes revealed in the stories of your ancestors.
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A good reporter must "…provide the emotional reality of the news, for it is the emotions, not the facts, that most engage and excite readers and in the end are the heart of most stories," said Tom Wolfe, journalist and author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities.
It’s good advice for family historians as well as reporters.
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RootsTech, where we spent the weekend, as its name suggests was heavy on using tech tools for family history. There were sessions on software, apps, social media galore. Our own Stories To Tell sessions focused on using Microsoft Word and Adobe Creative Suite to self publish family history books. With the conference’s emphasis on high tech, it was great to see that the idea of family history as storytelling didn’t get lost.
Ian Tester, a product manager at BrightSolid, a British online publishing company, offered a Friday session titled "Telling Stories: Transforming the Bare Facts of Genealogy Into the Astonishing Tale of You and Your Family."
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We’re excited to be here in Salt Lake City where the RootsTech Genealogy Conference has brought over 4,000 people to an intersection of family history research, writing, publishing and technology. We will have three days to talk with participants about book projects and to advise them on how to decide which digital tools to employ, and which might best be left to the experts, as they create and self publish their books.
Genealogists are tech savvy researchers who can tell you everything about how software programs or web based applications will help them find an elusive ancestor. Most of them will say that someday they’ll turn their mountain of research into a book. But for many of them that means a whole new skill set and a world of new world tech. Navigating it can be a daunting task.
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In recent years many people have taken to calling memoir personal history. This term gives the product an autobiographical cast. However it is important to remember that there is a significant difference between memoir and autobiography. An autobiography is a full chronological account of both the life and times of its subject with an emphasis on the interaction between the person and unfolding history. A memoir has a narrower focus placing the emphasis on the author’s memories, feelings and emotions. Nevertheless there is a place for historical detail in your memoir.
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Tribute books are written to express appreciation. They may focus on the positive influence of a person on your life, or focus on their accomplishments. In many cases both topics are combined. These books are often created to commemorate a milestone or special occasion like a retirement, a fiftieth anniversary, or a special accomplishment like winning an award. Tributes can celebrate the success of a group, a business, or an organization, rather than an individual. Another type of tribute book is written to preserve the memory of a person who has died, focusing on their special traits and the contributions they made to the lives of others. Tribute books are sometimes created by a group with each member contributing their story.
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