Personal Memoirs & Family Histories
The Personal Memoir: Keep the “Me” in your MEmoir By Viga Boland on June 25, 2020 Editor’s Note: The Personal Memoir: Keep the “Me” in your MEmoir was originally published on Bookbaby Blog and is used with the permission of the author. While the personal essay can be about almost anything, the memoir tends to discuss past events. Memoir is similar to the personal essay, except that the memoir tends to focus more on striking or life-changing events. The personal essay can be a relatively light reflection about what’s going on in your life right now.
First, what a privately published memoir is—and isn’t. It isn’t The Great American Novel, and you don’t have to be a “Writer” to write it (we’ve got the writing skills, you’ve got the stories). You don’t create this kind of book for fame or fortune. You do it out of love. You do it to preserve family history. You do it to understand who you were, who you are, where you come from. You do it for yourself and those you love, but also for those who will come after you—people you don’t even know because they haven’t been born, but who will know you because of the gift you’ve left behind. Better than money, longer lasting at least. Okay, so maybe you do it for a little bit of fame and the right kind of fortune.
At SMALL BATCH BOOKSwe play as large or small a role as you need to help you create your personal memoir or family history. If you already have a written manuscript, we are your copyeditors, proofreaders, and book designers, taking you from rough draft to polished proof and into printed and bound book form. If you prefer to collaborate throughout the writing process, we interview you and your loved ones, transcribe and edit the conversations into smooth narrative prose, and then publish your memoir by taking it through the final stages of design and production. If fragile old photos and documents are part of your story, we carefully restore these priceless heirlooms with state-of-the-art digital methods, making the images a seamless piece of your memoir (and a permanent part of your family archives). We can also help you research historically relevant maps, photographs, and genealogical charts to illustrate your personal memoir or family history.
Creating and privately publishing a personal memoir or family history can take many forms and encompass many of life’s most transformative experiences.
Personal Memoirs Of Us Grant First Edition
There’s the story of:
- your life, in a first-person narrative, a Q & A format, or a “letter” to loved ones, present and future
- a parent or elder’s life, in a first-person narrative or told by the children and contemporaries
- a marriage, and the family raised from that marriage, from one or both partners’ perspectives
- a child’s birth or adoption, and the life-altering experience of becoming a parent
- three generations of fathers or mothers—the inherited strengths and weaknesses, the differences and similarities, the events and times that shaped them
- your family’s heirloom recipes, gathered into one volume, in the form of a family recipe book, annotated with anecdotes from the cooks (and their appreciative eaters)
- a journey, the physical and the metaphysical kind
- a personal collection—antiques, paintings, or other prized possessions—catalogued and showcased with photographs and accompanying text
- family letters (and emails) spanning the generations
The form your memoir or family history takes will determine the size and shape of the project, the type of services you’ll need, and therefore the cost. We encourage you to contact us to discuss the details of your personal memoir or family history book, so you can capture your family legacy before it slips away.
Give Your Loved Ones the Gift of a Lifetime.
Your Personal Memoir
Chapter One. Welcome to LifeTime Memoirs, the world’s leading personal memoir and autobiography service. Now it’s your turn to discover the pleasure that comes from turning a life well-lived into the story of your life!
How? By settling down and telling your children, your grandchildren, and perhaps even your great-grandchildren the story of your life, in one beautifully written, illustrated, and printed volume. When you do, you’ll be creating a piece of family history that can be shared with generations to come.
How To Write A Memoir
With the help of our expert team of interviewers, ghostwriters, project managers, editors, typesetters, proofreaders, printers, and bookbinders, writing your life story couldn’t be easier or more Covid-19 safe. We even provide a free internet-connected tablet. The challenge of becoming an autobiography writer turns out to be a joy. It also turns into an audio treasure, with the one-hour recording we make of you reading your favorite extracts from your book.
More than 8,000 people already enjoy owning the LifeTime memoir or autobiography of someone they love.