Publishing your family history is a great way to share it with others. You have several options when it comes to publishing. This is the type of project where the self-publishing venues can be a real service. It depends on the type of book and binding that you choose.
Depending on the size of your book you may choose to go to a copy shop and have the books printed and spiral bound. This works best for smaller books. Generally people opt to have the copies be in all black and white, though you may choose color pictures for a few pages.
Lulu or another self-publishing venue allows you the option of a hard cover book. These books are reasonably priced and allow you to print them on demand. This is a great option if you plan on sharing it with people at a family reunion. It also allows you the option of having them pay for their copy of the book, which can help save you on costs.
It is important to carefully edit and format your book before you submit it for publishing. You want to make sure that your information is correct and that your work is as error free as possible. You may want to fire someone to edit it for you or have a family member edit it for you.
When you include photographs be sure to label the pages so that people will know who are in the photo. You should also put an approximate date with the photos. You may have the option of color printing on a specific number of pages in your book. The way that printing works means that you will need to group your photos is specific sections so that the color printing will be together.
Another option is to create a photo book that is printed and bound through a place such as Shutterfly or Apple. These books would focus more on preserving and sharing old family photos, but you can also preserve family history lines on a few of the pages. They offer a great deal of diversity and are much easier to assemble then an entire book on your family history.
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