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Plan to Publish is a 12 step programme to publishing your family history by the end of the year.
What sort of family history is totally up to you, but the aim is to get some of your research off the shelves and out of the computer and to create something to share with your family.
The first step is all about creating a Plan. You need to be able to write down what type of book your want to publish, who it's for and when you want to have it completed by. Combine this with type of book your want to produce and what tools you want to use and you've put together a plan.
So for example I want to complete a photo book of information on my families first ancestors to come to New Zealand. This is for my immediate family as it will cover both my paternal and maternal ancestors. Because this is a short run and image heavy, I want to use a Photo Book publishing company to print my books, this means that I can either complete the book in a graphics program (eg Photoshop) or I can create it in Word and then convert the pages to images (more about that later). I'd like to have this book completed as a Christmas present for family members.
Also this year my in-laws want to update and republish one of their family histories that was first printed in the early 1990's, so there are nearly 30 years of updates to be done. This book is based on tracing all the descendants of an immigrant couple who arrived in New Zealand in the 1840's, with a little of their history back in England. Lot's of new resources have become more readily available since this was last published along with DNA evidence. The original edition of this book was typed by someone else for the family and the original files have been lost, so there is some recreating to be done. The book was A4 hard-cover and I expect that the next edition will be similar. More discussion is needed with the family on the expected completion date for this one.
So that's my plan for the year. To help you plan you're family history we've created a guide and a worksheet to go with this first step and you can get them from the Memories in Time Shop (they're free to download).
Download the Plan to Publish 01 guide and worksheet for free.
Why not print off the worksheet and fill it out. Then you can laminate it or frame it and put it on your desk near your research area or even stick it on the inside of your pantry door, wherever is the best place that you will see it and it will help to keep you focused for the year.
We've also set up a Plan to Publish - Your Family History Facebook group where you can join like minded family historians. We hope that by declaring what you plan to do and working with others we can share our ideas, struggles and keep each other on track.
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Blog Posts on other steps can be found here: