Long Line of Love Memoirs

Preserving Your Past

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History will be

kind to me for I intend to write it.

–Winston

Churchill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life is not that which one lived, but that which one remembers  & how one remembers to tell it.

— Gabriel Garcia Marquez

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Beth Conant

 

 

 

Those who do

not remember

the past are

bound to

repeat it.

– George

Santayana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If my doctor

told me I had

only six minutes

to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.

– Isaac Asimov, author of over

500 books

 

What to Expect

 

 

 

To start, we will spend some time discussing the length and form you envision for this project.  Below I outline the process for a typical memoir. But variations are available:

 

· memory books focusing on a particular life event;

· memorial books commemorating one who has already passed on;

· oral histories — audiotapes only or audio-tapes and transcriptions only (without the polish of a final book); and

· ethical wills recording the values you want passed on to future generations.

 

Together we will create a project that best suits your desires and needs.  In our first meeting, I will further provide you with a biographical information sheet to fill out and some pre-interview questions to think about before we begin the actual interviews. 

 

Interview Process: 

Each interviewing session will be informal and conversational, fitted to your schedule, and typically in the comfort of your own home.  I will make an audio recording of our conversation, which will be given to you after it is transcribed.  I will also leave you with a small booklet in which you can jot down stories or details that come to your mind between interviewing sessions.  There may be parts of your life you decide to emphasize—or even omit.  A personal memoir can focus on a person’s entire life or on a special chapter of life—a wartime experience, a special trip, or courtship and marriage, for instance.  Things you say in the interview may be changed or left out of the manuscript later on.  Because this is your book full of your life stories, you decide what goes into it. 

 

Audio recording a person’s life story can take a few hours, or it can take 10 or 20 hours.  This will depend on your memories, your desire to share them, and the length you envision for the final product.  We will spread the sessions out over days or weeks so that each individual session will fit your energy and comfort, and leave you revitalized, not exhausted!

 

Manuscript Preparation and Review:

After completing each interview, I will transcribe the interview and do light editing (eliminating ums, uhs, and false starts), and make a list of details that should be clarified in our next session.  We will start to work to collect any photos and other memorabilia you may want included in the final book.  Once all the interviews have ended, I arrange the material by subject and chronology, organize material into chapters, and work to develop the draft into a polished manuscript.  Your individual feelings and voice will be preserved, but important rewriting and editing will help transform colloquial, spoken English into articulate written English.  Early on in the writing of the memoir, you will have the chance to review and approve—or change—the writing style adopted.

 

After all the material has been organized and rewritten, you will have the chance to review the manuscript in this draft form, to double-check facts, and to add corrections, additions, or deletions. 

 

After these changes are made, the manuscript has reached a polished form.  You can commission me to organize, bind, and print copies of your book, or have a professional book binder do so.  You will have copies of a beautiful memoir which you can proudly display and give to those you love.

 

Pricing:

It is difficult to set a general price on a product so individualized.  In our first meeting, we will discuss the costs for a manuscript of the length you are envisioning.  Manuscript lengths can vary from as short as 50 pages to as long as 250.  A 50 page manuscript, not including photos, will cost around $2500; a 100 page manuscript without photos, $5000.  Adding photographs, scanning memorabilia, and including other documents can add to the cost—as well as the wonderful detail!—of your memoir.  In addition, binding the manuscript as a book is a separate cost and will vary in price depending on whether you choose to have me organize, print & bind the book or to have a professional bookbinder do so. If these prices are prohibitive, we can discuss further variations, such as audio recordings only, which are significantly less expensive.  

Contact:  650-388-8881  *  info@longlineoflovememoirs.com