How to Use Writing, Music, Drama & Art Therapy Techniques for Healing
By Anne Hart
Excerpt from my paperback book titled: 30+ Brain-Exercising
Creativity Coach Businesses to Open: How to Use Writing, Music, Drama
& Art Therapy Techniques for Healing. Copyright © 2007 by Anne Hart.
ASJA Press imprint, iUniverse, Inc. ISBN: 978-0-595-42710-9. To order
book, click on http://www.iuniverse.com. Click on Bookstore. Search
book by title.
Excerpt from my first chapter:
Table of Contents
Chapters
Introduction
1 Preserving Memories, Enhancing Creativity, and Healing by Writing
Memoirs-Text, Oral, Visual, Pop-Up Books, and Multimedia
2 Creative Writing Therapy Group Fiction Projects to Do
3 Creative Fiction Writing Therapy Projects for Playwriting &
Scriptwriting
4 How to Create Paperback 98-Page Pamphlets on Current Issues in the
News for Students/Researchers, Teachers, and Librarians
5 Writing, Publishing, and Selling Your Own Small Booklets or
Pamphlets
6 How to Format Your Book or Booklet Manuscript
7 Self Promotion and Plugging Products
8 Pre-Selling Your Book with a Web Hub before Publication
9 Getting a Strong and Visible Platform
10 Writing Drama or Memoirs as Time Capsules for Internet Video
Theater or Radio
11 Organizing Your Life Story Book as Dramatic Fiction
12 Writing and Expressive Arts Coaches as Creativity Motivators
13 Write about Peoples' Inner Payoffs and Moral Needs
14 Writing Biography and True Story
15 How Writing Salable Work is about Selling Solutions
16 Does Writing Your Life Story As A Novel Affect Your Memory?
17 Writing Life Stories or Current Issues as Romance Novels or
Romantic Stories
18 Using Odd and Even Chapters in Your Book or Biography
19 Music Therapies as Healing and Inspirational Tools in Creative
Writing Coaching
20 How to Write a Course Syllabus and Teach Online to Market Your
Books
21 Online Creativity-Enhancing Businesses for Writers as
Entrepreneurs to Start Media Tours
22 News Monitoring Service
23 Music Video Podcasts
24 Mind-Body-Spirit Businesses
25 Inspirational and Motivational Writing with Music for Relaxation
Business
26 Creative Writing Preference Assessments as Healing Tools
27 Writing Coaches and Creative Writing Therapists are "Tech
Support." Take the "Howling Wolf's Scribe" Creative Writing
Preference Classifier
28 How Slice-of-Life Vignettes, Essays, and Journaling Become Healing
Tools
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
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Chapter 1
Preserving Memories, Enhancing Creativity, and Healing by Writing
Memoirs-Text, Oral, Visual, Pop-Up Books, and Multimedia
"Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own." Carol
Burnett (1936 - )
The purpose of using multimedia and mood-lifting, inspirational, or
meditative background music "to write by" in creative writing therapy
as a healing tool is to produce a hand-made, finely bound memoirs or
success-story gift book containing a DVD or CD placed in the inside
cover of the book in a plastic envelope attached to the cover that
enhances the text transcription or rendition of the paperback book.
The goal of creative writing therapy for memory enhancement is to
show how two or more people bring out the best in one another. It's a
time capsule of an individual's life—turning points, significant
events, and highlights.
What questions will you ask? How would you interview people for the
significant moments in their life stories, and then write, publish,
and bind by hand exquisitely crafted personal gift books, memoirs, or
business success stories? The questions and interviewing techniques
in the next chapter will give you a healing tool that you can use for
yourself or with others in your work using creative writing therapy
to freshen memories by writing multi-media memoirs that emphasize
those turning points and events.
What's your opinion of creative writing therapy? Some colleges award
masters degrees in creative writing therapy, especially
bibliotherapy. It combines writing poetry (poetry therapy) fiction,
memoirs, journaling, and dramatic writing as part of an expressive
therapies masters program for those with a background in creative
writing, art, or drama.
What's A Creative Writing Therapist?
Creative writing therapy differs from bibliotherapy or poetry
therapy. Creative writing therapy emphasizes listening to oral or
personal history—either one's own or someone else's personal history
and then writing from inspiration using facts, significant events,
and turning points as highlights of an experience, issue, or life
story.
Bibliotherapy may focus more on either reading books, articles, or
poems and discussing the facts, experiences, or emotions in the
written word read. Bibliotherapy may emphasize reading and
discussion, whereas creative writing therapy emphasizes expressive
writing from behavior, emotions, or logic.
Bibliotherapists in the USA have a Federal Title classification for
this job description. In 1977, a Federal Title, classification 601,
was created for bibliotherapists to be hired. Poetry therapists
undertook 440 hours of the study of poetry therapy became eligible
for the newly created position, according to the National Association
for Poetry Therapy (NAPT). Check out the NAPT's Web site located
presently at http://poetrytherapy.org/contact.html
or write to:
Sheila Dietz, NAPT Administrator
525 SW 5th Street, Suite A
Des Moines, Iowa 50309-4501
Email: info@poetrytherapy.org
http://poetrytherapy.org/contact.html
The Association publishes a quarterly for Poetry Therapy
called the A.P.T. News. It's estimated that thousands of
professionals use poetry therapy. The requirements for a "trainee in
poetry therapy" include graduation from an accredited college with a
degree in the humanities or behavioral sciences.
Equivalent credit may be granted for combination of completed
college courses and experience in a recognized institution. There
should be evidence of concentration in poetry covering the primitive,
classical, post-renaissance, modern, and avant-garde writing. The
trainee must be accepted into a mental health program as a volunteer
or paid employee under professional supervision.
As a poetry therapist, you must not exaggerate your own importance in
the therapeutic team. Certification allows you to put a C.P.T.
(Certified Poetry Therapist) designation after your name. Training
programs in poetry therapy and bibliotherapy are offered through the
National Association for Poetry Therapy and through other private
schools.
There are several poetry therapy institutes. The New School for
Social Research in New York City offered training programs in poetry
therapy and bibliotherapy. One poetry therapist, Don Theye, has a
motto: "Observe, absorb, create, share." Check out the book titled: A
Seminar on Bibliotherapy: Proceedings by Dr. Franklin M. Berry, a
psychology professor. Research bibliotherapy-related books at the
Library School, University of Wisconsin, Helen White Hall, 600 N.
Park, Madison, WI, 53706. See the ERIC (Educational Research Web
Portal) ERIC # ED174226, Seminar on Bibliotherapy. Proceedings of
Sessions, June 21-23, 1978 in Madison, Wisconsin. The ERIC Web site
is at:
26&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b8011ce45>.
For guidelines to poetry therapy and book lists, write: J.B.
Lippincott, Co., East Washington Sq., Philadelphia, PA 19105. Of
interest are the pioneer books written in the sixties and seventies,
such as Poetry Therapy, by Dr. Jack J. Leedy (1969), and Poetry, the
Healer, Dr. Jack J. Leedy (1973). For the current newsletter, click
on the association's Web site at:
http://poetrytherapy.org/contact.html.
Publishing Your Creative Writing Therapy Book
Some people pay handsomely for one hand-bound, gilded, and elegant
gift book of lifetime or corporate events. You'd be surprised how
many people are satisfied to offer up to $10,000 (or more, depending
upon the publisher) to have only one copy of a hand-bound hardcover
book published about their event or life story.
What does it take to create and publish a memoirs gift book
commemorating a celebration of life, Bar Mitzvah, confirmation,
wedding, or true experience? What quality of personal book do you
want to make from scratch—writing, printing, and binding? As far as
printing and binding, you can make one finished book at a cost to you
of only $1.50-$4.50. What you charge a client depends on what it
costs you.
If you create and publish a custom gift book, you'd publish only one
copy of a hand bound, hardcover book. The tome would contain anywhere
from 60 to 100 photos. Text material would be based on phone or live
interviews. The interviews usually would run at least two hours or
more for one person (and about two hours spent per each interview).
The gift book would be about 80 to 120 published pages or slightly
more if necessary. Look at yourself as a designer, writer,
interviewer, and bookbinder.
You can even tailor a pop-up book creation (with the help of input
from engineers on how to fold paper). Or learn how to make your own
pop-up books. See the Joan Irvine Web site on making pop-up books at:
http://www.makersgallery.com/joanirvine/books.html. Also check out
the How We Make Pop-Up Books Web site at:
http://www.hawcockbooks.co.uk/how.php.
What questions do you ask to help people respond calmly and openly at
an interview? Start with "What do you enjoy the most about this
particular time of life? What do you enjoy most about this event?
What do you enjoy most about this holiday? What do you enjoy most
about this experience? What thought, act, or feeling do you want to
emphasize in the gift book?
Serious Life Experiences
If the person is going to emphasize a war-related or military service
event, an ordeal, medical or survival details, or a factual report of
behaviors related to any other serious segment of a life story, you
could ask in addition to the details, what have you learned from this
experience?
How have you transcended the past and moved on? What have you learned
from other people's mistakes or choices? What have you learned from
your past choices, mistakes, decisions, or alternative solutions and
paths? For business case histories, ask your client to relate the
details step-by-step so readers can follow how your client arrived at
solutions to problems or achieved measurable results. A memoirs book
is like a public relations campaign. It's about image built on solid
detail and storytelling illustrated by visually-striking photography
(photojournalism).
Answer the individual's silence or long pauses (to gather thoughts)
by using action verbs such as, "Bring me up to date on your life
story, a special event, or your work. Tell me about your plans for
this book. Also let your client describe experiences in detail and
color. Ask interview questions such as the following: "What's your
favorite experience and why? Describe a special gift you have given.
What have you received that transformed your life? What lessons have
you learned from past mistakes? What holiday or event do you enjoy
the most?"
For further information on using action verbs, see my book titled,
801 Action Verbs for Communicators: Position Yourself First with
Action Verbs for Journalists, Speakers, Educators, Students, Resume-
Writers, Editors & Travelers. ISBN: 0-595-31911-4. Also check out my
Web site links at http://www.newswriting.net.
The interview questions should be given well ahead of the time of the
actual live or telephone interview. Meet with the person by phone
and/or in person before you arrange any interviews so you can learn
your client's expectations.
If your client wants to exceed the maximum number of words allowed,
that client would be charged usually a dollar for each extra word
included in the book above the maximum words allowed. (It varies with
different publishers, of course.)
There could be only a half-hour interview of each person when 100 or
more people have to be interviewed. Or such a valuable, well-crafted
book may be customized to fit an individual's special requirements.
Yes, people do very happily pay this much for having a gift book
crafted on them or their theme, and businesses doing this are doing
wonderfully well finding clients.
You can publish all by yourself at a price only you will determine as
you research the markets for gift books. You have a lot of choices
varying from print-on-demand software to handcrafted bindings.
You can hire a team of interviewers, writers, and publishers or put
to learning volunteer help from school projects and senior centers.
The outcome is all the same: recording, organizing, and publishing
peoples' true life stories or other events. And you can pay for books
that can be bound a whole variety of ways.
Act alone or work with a team of hired skilled people, volunteers
active in retirement, or students learning the publishing business.
However you manage your craft, every life story is worth a book. You
can open a business or enjoy a hobby publishing gift books.
How Age-Wise Writers & Graphic Designers Can Create Pop-Up Memoirs
Gift Books as Time Capsules or Multimedia Writing, Art & Music Therapy
Graphic designers and illustrators that also like to write can design
pop-up family newsletters, gift books, or time capsules as keepsakes.
You can start a business creating pop-up books for any age group and
digitize the book to a Web site, CD, DVD, or create it hands-on in
three dimensions as a paper hardcopy, or an electronic gift booklet.
If you need a workout session for your brain, try making pop up books
as gifts. It's like paper folding. You can teach senior citizens how
to make life story memoirs gift books and/or record with camcorder
and save on a DVD life story skits, plays, and pop-up books.
Here's how to make hands-on paper pop up books. It's like origami,
and great for helping your memory and mind stay younger. When the
book is done, you can use software such as PhotoShop to scan your
project to a Web site or disc.
That way the pop-up book can be sent around the world electronically
or sold through the mail or in gift shops as a hands-on paper book
full of surprises, humor, or as a family history newsletter. To
animate your book, use your favorite animation software for Web
sites.
For the paper copy, it's a right-hemisphere exercise in origami
recommended as a balancing exercise for writers who like to
illustrate for graphic design projects that showcase writing.
Pop-up books can be made for grown-ups, using color copies of almost
any item produced on heavy paper of photographs or other art.
Pop-ups for children also can include greeting cards to promote other
children's books or pop-ups in your story book can be rotating disks
or leaves set in the center of the book. Three-dimensional folded
paper glued into a book present the element of surprise. Make pop-up
keepsake albums or gift memoirs books.
Ideas for pop-ups include baby and wedding photos or miniature awards
and diplomas. Learn what questions to ask and how to interview people
for the significant moments in their life stories, and then write,
publish, and bind by hand exquisitely-crafted personal gift books.
When you craft a book entirely by hand and bind it in fine materials
also by hand, being careful to use acid-free paper, you might also
wish to illustrate the book yourself.
Let's propose you're writing a children's pop-up book about a child
who is a relative. You're going to bind the book yourself, taking
lessons from the many courses in hand book-binding already on the
Internet. Here's how to illustrate the book.
If you write a children's book about your child or grandchild, try
illustrating your children's book yourself on silk, coarse linen, or
percale. You can even use a linen handkerchief or scarf. Frequently
your artwork is wrapped around a drum, that is always curved, and
illustration board won't wrap around a drum without bending and
cracking.
If you decide to publish a non-fiction children's book, which
will have less chance of losing in competition for entertainment
against the best-selling fiction books, focus on a how-to book giving
children of middle grades or their parents in picture books,
information to read to children or instruction for children in how to
build or do something they can't find quickly online or in a library,
such as how to build or make something that children cherish.
Illustrating on Fabric for Books
To illustrate on fabric, mount the fabric on illustration
board when you put your final drawing on fabric. Silk is preferred
for a final draft. The artwork gets scanned into a computer, but has
to roll around on a curved surface, a drum in order to be scanned to
make a children's book. That's how most publishers work. If you're
having the book privately printed, find out the size of the drum so
you can adjust or reduce the fabric before it gets scanned and the
size adjusted once more.
The top layer of the art that is to be scanned sometimes
is "set up" to be peeled off. Take a sheet of illustration board and
mount silk on it, or coarse linen. Sometimes illustration board is
too stiff when you cover it with fabric, and it won't peel right. So
use this method. Get a sheet of Mylar or matte plastic.
This is a type of film. Mount very fine white silk with water mixed
with acrylic matte medium. Scan it digitally to upload to the Web.
For the three-dimensional pop-up book copy or mock-up that is not
digitized, the best instruction I recommend is this method that I
learned from the writings of the late Barbara Cooney, author and
illustrator of more than 100 children's books and winner of the
Caldecott medals and the American Book Award.
Cooney loved to mount the fine white silk with water and
acrylic matte medium and then let it dry. The next step is to take a
roller and put on a layer of diluted acrylic gesso. Then let that dry.
Sand the surface using very fine garnet paper. Cooney liked
to repeat the second and third step until two to four layers of gesso
were built up. What you want to get is a flexible fabric full of your
illustration. Cooney described the result as an "egg-shell texture."
She used titanium white in her acrylic paintings. Your color will be
titanium white also.
Not many children's book writers know this technique of
painted on mounted silk when they illustrate children's books, and
publishers will be impressed with the professional technique, but in
case no publisher can be found, you have an illustration for your
children's book that will wrap around that drum, curving without
cracking. Keep on writing and illustrating.
If color is too expensive for your budget, stick to black and
white, and let the children color your book as they read or are read
to from the text. Keep the text about one paragraph per page for a
preschool book that will be read to children, and increase text for
older children or illustrated gift books. When you make only one or
two copies of a book that is entirely hand-made, you can do
everything yourself or bring your materials to a printer.
To make more copies, scan into your personal computer each step of
your book. Scan photos and art work at least at 300 dpi and large
enough, at least 6 by 9 inches. Save text documents, for example as a
Microsoft Word document. (Or use the equivalent in any other software
word processing application.) Text size usually is letter size, which
is 8 ½ by 11 inches. That way you can save your book to a CD or DVD
with one file for photos and another for text.
Additionally, you can save a copy of your entire book in another
file, organized with the text and photos interspersed the way you
want to lay out the entire manuscript. The CD or DVD can be brought
to most printers for additional copies of the book. Bind the book in
exquisite materials by hand using paper and covers that resist acid
and oxidation when the book is handed to the next generation.
Personal gift books also can be pop-up books for children or grown-
ups using themes of significant events and experiences that are meant
to me remembered and discussed.
Concrete Pop-Up Books
There are two kinds of pop-up books, concrete paper and glue
that you can fold with your hands and abstract pop-up shapes saved in
a computer file or on a disc. Let's begin with making a simple
concrete pop-up that is glued into a book. When the book is opened to
a particular page, the folded paper opens suddenly as if it is on
springs. A pop-up inserted in a memoirs gift book can be made from a
paper-cut illustration or drawing.
Supplies Needed for Simple Paper Pop-Ups
You'll need a template for scoring and cutting. You can make
a template by scoring art work. Or have a printer make the template
for you. If your printer isn't able to make a template, ask your
local university to recommend an engineering or art student who has
studied three dimensional art, origami, or making pop-ups.
A template may be made from a photograph that is reduced to the size
you want and copied on a color copier. The following are the items to
be assembled before beginning.
Template
Water colors or colorful inks
White glue that dries transparent
Paper clips
Straight edge or ruler
After you've made your illustration or had a photo color-
copied to heavy paper, use the round edge of a paper clip to score
little broken dots or lines so that the paper will fold along those
lines you have scored. Don't cut the scored lines. Only cut the solid
lines.
Templates are labeled with letters of the alphabet such as A, B, C,
and D. Usually templates follow a pattern such as beginning with A,
which is scored and folded back. Then you fold along the dotted
scored lines but not the solid lines. You'd follow through folding
scored sides C and D forward. Then you'd glue the back side of the
first panel to the back side of the second panel.
The panels would be numbered in linear order such as panel 1 and
panel 2. You'd follow step-by-step in the order of the numbers or
letters. Then you'd repeat for panels 3 and 4. So you'd begin
logically with number 1 and end with number 4. You'd start with
scored side A and end with scored side D. The folds would add up to a
four-sided square. If you had a picture that folded into a pop-up
with more or less sides, such as a triangle or an odd shape, you'd
follow the numbers on your template.
Before you start to make a pop-up, the first step would be to create
a template that you could score. The folds would be made on the
scored lines and not on the solid lines. Your last step would be to
glue your shape to the V fold so that your pop-up takes the shape you
want before you glue it into your memoirs book as a centerfold pop-up
or in some other spot. Before you begin, look at some instructional
books on making pop-ups. They're on the Web.
A pop-up photo of a couple dressed as bride and groom works well. The
photo would be brought to a color copier and printed out on the type
of paper that makes the best pop-ups. A history and virtual tour of
pop-up books is at the University of North Texas Web site:
http://www.library.unt.edu/rarebooks/exhibits/popup2/introduction.htm.
Some pop-up books in the past contained revolving discs
called `volvelles.' You don't have to use photos. You can use art or
memorabilia to pop up, if the type of paper is suitable.
Use "turn up" or "lift the flap" mechanisms as pop-ups in your gift
book. The same pop-up copied can also be put in greeting cards to
promote your book. Separate leaves of paper cut to different sizes.
Each leaf would contain different information. The leaves can be
hinged together and attached to a page. This works great with
memorabilia.
The reader would be able to unfold multiple depths of a picture, such
as a photo cut-out wearing different costumes or clothing styles.
Examples would be the bridal gown, dressed for travel, at the beach,
or in ethnic traditional clothing.
Until the early 19th century, movable books were created for adults,
and not for children. One example would be learning anatomy at school
from different leaves showing bones or muscles. For further
information, see the following books:
Haining, Peter. Movable Books: An Illustrated History. London: New
English Library, 1979.
Koskelin, Susan. "The Evolution of Movable Books from the Late
Thirteenth Century to the Late Twentieth." Graduate school paper, U
of North Texas, 1996.
Lindberg, Sten G. "Mobiles in Books: Volvelles, Inserts, Pyramids,
Divinations, and Children's Games." Trans. Willian S. Mitchell. The
Private Library 3rd series 2.2 (1979) : 49-82.
Montanaro, Ann R. Pop-up and Movable Books: A Bibliography. Metuchen,
N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1993.
What's the Best Way to Learn How to Make Pop-Up Books and Greeting
Cards?
Buy several pop-up books and make a list of how these books are
placed together. Then take them apart. An excellent book for
beginners is titled, The Elements of Pop-Up: A Pop-Up Book for
Aspiring Paper Engineers, by David A. Carter and James Diaz (Little
Simon, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Div. NY
1999).
Use your camcorder to record yourself taking the book apart. It will
be easier to put them back together when you have a visual recording
of what the book looked like before and during each step of the way
as the book is taken apart. Making simple pop-ups for books and
greeting cards is easy to learn and helps develop the use of the
right hemisphere of your brain through practice.
Make a template or buy templates to make pop-up books from craft,
hobby, and book-binding supplies do-it-yourself stores. Several good
book binding supplies stores are online. Search your Internet engine,
for example Google at http://www.google.com with the key words "book
binding supplies."
A professor of bookbinding at the Escola d'Arts i Oficis in Barcelona
wrote an excellent how-to book titled, The Complete Book of
Bookbinding by Josep Cambras. The book provides precise, systematic
techniques with plenty of excellent illustrations. Other books
include the following:
• Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction by Aldren A. Watson
• The Craft of Bookbinding by Manly Banister
• More Making Books by Hand: Exploring Miniature Books,
Alternative Structures, and Found Objects by Peter Thomas
• The British Library Guide to Bookbinding: History and
Techniques (British Library Guides) by P. J. M. Marks
• Book Arts: Beautiful Bindings for Handmade Books by Mary Kaye
Seckler
What's complicated about crafting pop-up books is making gift books
with moving parts. To learn how to do that, you need to talk to a
paper engineer or paper folding specialist. Or take a course in
making pop-up books with moving parts.
One excellent specialist in this field is paper engineer, Robert
Sabuda. See his Web site at: http://www.robertsabuda.com/. Click on
How to Make Pop-Ups at: http://www.robertsabuda.com/popupbib.html.
Pop-Up Tutorials Online and Books on Making Pop-Ups
Web-based step-by-step instruction, workshop information, and a
bibliography on making pop-up books are at the pop-up books author,
Joan Irving's site at: http://www.dreamscape.com/pdverhey/.
Also other excellent bibliographies on making pop-up books include
the following: Johnson, Paul. Pop-up Paper Engineering. Cross-
curricular Activities in Design Technology, English and Art. The
Falmer Press, 1992.
Beginners may enjoy the following books: Aotsu, Yoku.
How to Make Pop-up Pictures! Dai-Nippon, 1993; Campbell, Jeanette R.
Pop-up Animals and More! Evan-Moor, 1989; Valenta, Barbara. Pop-O-
Mania. Dial Books. 1997.
Abstract Pop-Up Books
Play with Digital Pop-Up Cubes before You Fold Paper Pop-Ups
For digital pop-ups, try a pop-up cube that will appear on
your computer as you create stories that give the reader a choice to
move in several directions. This interactive choice is called writing
in branching narratives.
Picture a cube or a pop-up book that snaps into three dimensions by
extending the lines along the corner. Three-dimensional writing is in
circular time with branching narratives ending in leaf nodes like the
curving tree of life. Think of your story as a stack of cards—a
metaphor used by many authoring tools.
1. Take a deck of blank cards and divide it into thirds—one for
each part of your story. On each card, write a different beginning,
middle, or ending for each part of the story.
2. Shuffle the each pile of cards so the reader can choose
multiple pathways to interact within the story. Instead of linear
time, you now have a three-dimensional parallel structure that goes
back and forth like a time-travel novel.
3. Let the reader choose a different path, or return to the
beginning to start a different story.
The most important rule to remember when designing an interactive
story is that there are no rules. Start with a diagram and define the
widest categories. Then, refine the story diagram, getting more
specific as you go deeper into each story level.
Interactive writing uses metaphorical thinking to stimulate creative
response. The interactive writer becomes a master of flexibility and
a weaver of ideas, pictures, and sounds.
Practice Making Pop-Ups on Your Computer
Have a charming photo of a person in the book actually pop out in the
middle of the book or at a spot where that person's most important
experience is mentioned. Before you design and cut out any folding
pop-up art on paper, first make a verbal rather than a visual mock
pop-up in your computer. A verbal pop-up is abstract. It's all about
writing one page in three dimensions. You have to think in three
dimensions.
Your topic is "Writers wear many hats." Write in of branching
narratives. People who do this for a living are called non-linear
editors.
A single script may incorporate several frameworks, including
streaming audio narration, animation with voice-over, and montage.
Other often-used frameworks—including comedy and drama—can be applied
to new media presentations, as well.
The frameworks may vary from one category of facts or segment
of the story to the next. In a documentary-style biography, you might
include simple animation, backlit negatives, artwork, photos, or a
narration to bridge the transitions.
The completed project should flow like one piece of cloth with no
seams or hanging threads—like liquid, visual music. Using a varied
selection of frameworks will help keep the attention of the audience
and give the writer more options to set up a mighty conclusion. Be
sure the frameworks don't overpower the information with too vivid an
impact.
You want the readers to remember the life story highlights derived
from listener. Interactive gift books on computer discs (CDs or DVDs)
can be true life stories (or fiction). They use a parallel story
structure.
Readers can make several choices to change the events leading to
different outcomes at different times. You can adapt an event to an
interactive experience. This lets the audience enter feedback or
gives a choice of how the story moves or ends.
Writing in Caricature
Writing in caricature is the essence of great dialogue writing. No
one did it better than William Shakespeare, who was a master of
written dialogue in caricature.
As your audience experiences the script during its performance, your
writing will leap from two-dimensional text to the three-dimensional
world of your audience's imagination. As you write this way, fit your
dialogue into imaginary dialogue bubbles above the heads of your
characters.
Your reading and viewing audiences begin to vibrate with charisma.
The goal is to give each character the ability to influence, charm,
inspire, motivate, and help the audience feel important.
Using Humor
The more important you make the audience feel, the better chance
humor has of conveying a message of value. You may use carefully
chosen humor with serious topics to hold the attention of the
audience and to prevent the material from become too dry, abstract,
or technical. Humor works well when it reveals pitfalls to be
avoided. Your ability to make an audience laugh will increase the
marketability of your work.
Using Drama
Drama is one of the best frameworks to use. To incorporate drama into
a non-fiction memoirs gift book, include an experience with subplots
framed like those in one of the fiction genres such as romantic
comedy, adventure, mystery, or suspense.
Ask how the inner mechanisms work. Are facts readily available?
Or does the book allow the leading character or narrator to share
only one experience as an interlude of inserted drama? Show contrasts
in a memoirs book between the frameworks of dramatization, re-
enactments, and demonstration. Contrasts are what makes a personal
gift book of memoirs `alive' rather than `flat' in tone, texture, and
mood.
"If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be
enthusiasm." __ Bruce Barton
Gift Books for Everyone
Gift books present memoirs, family history, events, business
success stories, and commemorations. Gift books showcase celebrations
and rites of passage rituals with `action' photos or other graphics
along with text in a coffee-table style book, pamphlet, and/or
multimedia disc, usually inserted in an envelope pasted on the inside
cover.
Besides being more than a glorified scrap book or keepsake
album, the memoirs gift book is portable and can be published in a
size that easily can be mailed anywhere.
The memoirs gift books also can be digitized and placed on discs
such as DVDs or CDs, uploaded to Web sites as compressed MP4 files
(video podcasts), narrated for a public access or family-only video
if you interview the individual, or presented in a variety of formats
from paperback or hard cover books and pamphlets to multimedia slide
shows and short documentaries.
Author, Gore Vidal explained the differences between a
memoirs and an autobiography in his memoir titled, Palimpsest. Vidal
wrote, "A memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an
autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-
checked."
When you write another person's memoir, you'll have to do the type of
research that can be fact-checked. Verifiable facts in a memoir are
based on the words—either oral or written—from the person you are
interviewing to gather life experiences.
It is that individual's words that are recorded, edited, and written.
You may never find a way to prove the facts. An autobiography
includes a lot of material that does not depend solely upon memory.
For example, a person you interview might use poetic or colorful
words, moods, rhythms, and textures to create an `ambiance' such as
this fictional line recalling the economic depression of 1931: "The
sunlight shattered tongues of ice on the pond as the bread line wound
around the men selling apples in woven baskets."
Explore this possible line, "Before I left, a merchant said he'd
heard rumors that the village shaman sacrificed a llama to the rain
deity and burned its heart as an offering because I visited his
village to measure rainfall in the parched the Chilean desert that
year."
How would you like to show how the basic, fundamental, and universal
truths of human experience pull together in patterns, celebrations,
commemorations, business success stories, memoirs, family histories,
and rites of passage? If you want to start and operate a home-based
business online, on phone, or face-to-face writing and publishing
memoirs and gift books, here is your step-by-step guide to follow.
Get results and solve problems.
Help people celebrate significant experiences. Interview,
transcribe, organize, edit, write, and publish a personal memoirs or
business history book, booklet, or pamphlet. Or include with the book
a sleeve containing a CD or DVD disk on the inside back page. That
disk would contain the same material as the text portion of the book,
but as a narrated audio or video `book.'
When children grow, up they'd love to see great grandma on video,
hear her voice narrate her own life story's highlights, and discuss
the times and scenes from her past. The paperback or hard cover book
would contain the same material that easily can be read without
technology.
Here's how to start. Your first step is to offer potential clients
unique, individual, customized books or booklets. The type of books
you would write and publish would be memoirs and gift books. To
operate your business, you'd need to hire as independent contractors
interviewers to interview clients in a variety of cities nationally
or around the world.
In addition to writing the book, you'd also arrange any photos or
other graphics, publish the books, and send finished, bound copies of
the book or booklet to your clients. Your client would pay for a
fixed number of copies of this book, enough to be both affordable for
the client and profitable for you.
On the average, you'd write and publish about 25 books per year, with
the help of freelance writers or a team of writers working as
independent contracts on assignment.
The type of book you'd write mainly would emphasize personal stories.
They would be personal books that come out of journals and
celebrations, life stories, business histories, tributes, and
appreciation material. To begin, divide your categories into these
main topics:
Personal Celebration Books
Quincinera (Hispanic 15th birthday party)
Start of teenage years
End of teenage years
Reaching 21
Military Service
Life stories/memoirs
child's memories
Pregnancy Diary
Travel tips and memorabilia/Travel Guides
Bar/Bat Mitzvah Celebrations
Ethnic Rites of Passage
Confirmations
Ordinations
War experiences
Immigration stories—the journey and life in the new country
Bilingual life stories in family's original language with English
translation section of same information
Moving stories—relocation, new house.
Surviving an illness and healing journal
Diet success story "How I lost weight and kept it off."
Memoirs and photos at various stages of life—how a person changed
every seven years
High school journal
Religious experiences
Inspirational journey
Motivational testimony
Diaries
Wills/Testaments
Eulogies
Childbirth experience/Bringing home baby
Adoption stories/open adoptions
Leisure life
Retirement
Selling the large house and moving to smaller quarters
Transition to assisted living
Volunteer experiences: documenting acts of kindness
Relationship Books
Anniversaries
Adoptive child meets birth parents after decades
Dating history gift books
Engagements/Betrothals
Wedding stories
Wedding gifts and favors
Couple's life stories together
Family histories
Genealogies
DNA reports linking families
Commemorative Occasions
Friendships
Reunions
Divorce journal of details
Battered spouse detail and dates of incidents journal
Events book
Religious conversion explanations to children
Partnership unions
Pet's journey through Life
Dog weddings
New pets introduced to older pets in the household
Merging of families—man with three children marries woman with three
children
Extended family histories
Friends for 50+ years
Several couples buying one vacation home together
Gift Books
Children's letters
Lessons Learned from Life (celebrity interviews)
How to Make the Most of What You Have
Exercise or dance lessons
Scholarship(s) or Fellowships won
Haiku poems
Report cards from past generations
Original designs or writings preserved for future
generations/keepsake albums
Jokes (original, not copyrighted by anyone else other than your
client)
Personalized children's books—a story book bearing the name and
photos of each child. This can be a universal novelette, novel, or
story featuring the child.
Travel stories and events with details
School year books with a twist—customization and details
Valentine's Day for each year for many years or one specific event—
first Valentine's day before the wedding.
Bridal showers
Baby showers
Baby naming book or baby naming event
Building a house
Book of thank you notes for an event, gift, or celebration
Pet showers (new dog or cat shower)
Bar and Bat Mitzvah
Confirmation
Baptism
Conversion
Christmas gatherings over the decades
Recipes/cookbooks preserved from generation to generation (original)
Hanukah, Passover, Purim, Rosh Hashanah memories and other holiday
gatherings
Ramadan
Holidays of feasting with family book with details gathered over many
decades as memoirs of events.
Birthdays
Weddings
Mother's Day
Father's Day
Children's Day
Grandparent's Day
Cousins' Books
Special Anniversaries
New Home/housewarming
New Boat/Yacht
First Apartment
College Graduation
Age-related celebrations
21st Birthday
100th Birthday gift book
Cruise memories
Bon Voyage
Welcoming newcomer books
Life stories of uncles and aunts as gifts to nieces and nephews or
cousins
Novel for children or other age groups and genres
Plays or skits and monologues based on real-life stories or memoirs
Poems
Songs with lyrics
Interviews
Letters collected
Change of Name
Passing driver's license exam and getting one's first car
Born Again Spiritual Theme
Marking each stage of life transition
Timeshare stories
Room mates/Sharing a household
Business Books
Grand openings
Success stories/case histories media book
Switching brands—why customers switched to your product
Promotions
Elections/Politicians in Office
News Clipping Collection on a Theme Gift Book
Authors' Media Tours Gift Books
Case histories
Entertainment/Music/Theatrical
Tour Guides/travel tips/restaurant guide
Opera
Dining and Restaurants for each city
Walking Tours/Guided Tours
Museums
Galleries
Outdoor Theme parks
Local museums
Campgrounds
State Fairs
National Weeks Celebrating a Theme
Mothers Day
Children's Day
Fathers Day
Grandparents Day
Clubs/national associations
Ethnic Themes
Historical neighborhoods/homes
Video/Virtual Reality theme parks
Volunteers' workbook of thanks and gratitude
Professional recognition, for example for dentists and doctors or
hospitals
Military recognition or Veterans tributes
Commemoration or thanks to staff tributes
Eulogies
Celebration of Life Theme Variations
Rites of Passage Rituals or Celebrations
Grand Openings
Graduations
Wedding chapel history/church history
Solving problems and getting results case histories
Branding
Retirement parties and retirement stories, tributes, or histories
Corporate roast with jokes and standup comedy routines
Appreciation book from clients, customers, employer, or employees
`Why' customers switched to your product book of step-by-step details
that potential clients follow to solve problems and get results.
Professional associations' events
Conventions
Public speaker's experiences
Inventory
Political views of family members
Campaigning
Public Relations
Video news releases with similar material in paperback print as text
Courses or other instruction, tips, and strategies or techniques (how-
to)
Employee's suggestions from suggestion box saved for many decades
Inventions
New license to practice a profession
First job
Contest or competition winner
Sports achievement
Award/Hall of Fame/Historical sites/Museums/Galleries
Activities after retirement
Motivational speakers
Instructional/Educational Gift Books
Literacy Tools and Photos
Restaurant Guides with Price Ranges
Fundraising
Non-profit agencies work overseas documented
Computer camp or drama camp experiences remembered
Author's creative salon with book reviews or poetry and photos
Writers visiting schools
Public Speakers e.g. genealogists/family historians/personal or oral
historians
Target Market
Look for turning points, unique significant events, and
highlights. Examples could be rites of passage and grand openings,
graduations, or the start or finish of major life events. Journals
and diaries may be turned into customized books. The major events
would pertain to individuals and businesses, schools and
organizations. Any situation that has a measurable life span, rite of
passage, celebration or ritual may be turned into a book of memoirs.
Clients would ask for a variety of different-sized books or
booklets and pamphlets. The length of the book as well as the number
of words and pages would differ. The emphasis is on details to share
or real-life stories. Each book would be sold as a gift. Customers
could order a set number of books.
You keep the master copy on disk and backed up in a disk drive or put
on a CD or DVD. You can offer the book in print, as a print-on-demand
book saved also in your computer and if you want to add voice
narration, also as an audio book and/or narrated video using photos,
images, video clips, and memorabilia recorded.
You could include DNA-driven genealogy reports, maps, graphics, and
interpretations in plain language. Back up any files for storage as
master copies. Relatives and friends may order additional copies.
If your client is of interest in the public arena, the book also
could sell as a published work. Make sure the book is copyrighted in
your name and that you have all the publishing rights to the work.
Your book would be based on interviews with your clients.
You would also use video and audio recording your clients and
transcribe the recordings as text. Anything rendered into text would
be readable when technology evolved to the point that the video and
audio records would not be able to be played if they were not
constantly transferred from one recording medium to the next
evolution of technology recording devices and players.
The reason the book is copyrighted by you as a business and not by
the client is that you're doing the writing and publishing. The
client is being interviewed by phone and recorded in audio and/or
video.
From this information, you are transcribing the life story or
business history. Then you are editing it for grammar and spelling.
You are organizing the book so that similar topics are grouped
together. Then you are changing the files of what you typed as a
document into a PDF file that will be transformed into a print-on-
demand book.
You are designing the cover that would be given free to the client
using either art or photos supplied by the client or your own graphic
designs. You can do this yourself or hire a graphic designer to
design all your book covers. This artist as an independent contractor
would work for a fee per book cover.
Or you could ask for art or photos saved at 300 dpi as a `tiff' file,
with CMYK color, for example using PhotoShop software. The books
could vary in size or stay a basic 6 by 9 inches. Art for the cover
would be saved on a CD and mailed to you as a 6 by 9 inch file saved
at 300 dpi as a `tiff' file.
For all this work, you'd charge a fee that would cover writing,
editing, and publishing. Production work includes designing the
cover, shipping and handling, and printing on demand several authors'
copies. The client would pay for as many copies as the individual
ordered.
Finally, you'd display the book's cover and marketing information on
a Web site for the client or save it to a CD and send to the client
so that the client has a copy of the book in paperback, on a CD, and
saved as a Web site on a CD. It's up to the client whether to upload
information about the book to a personal Web site.
You could host the Web site with the book information or
catalogue, or the book can be entirely private and sent only to the
client to distribute to family and friends or employees. Some books
would be private, such as a child's story. Parents wouldn't want
their child's name and image outside of the family.
Businesses touting success stories and histories may want a book or
pamphlet circulated among employees and prospective clients. How the
book is presented depends upon the client's needs and preferences.
Sharing meaning defines `communication.' What you are doing is
bringing to life family histories, life stories, journals, or
successful business experiences. Memoirs can be presented in print or
as audio and video recordings or all together.
For example, present the book in text on acid-free paper, then
include a pocket or flap envelope pasted to the inner cover of the
book or pamphlet containing a CD or DVD that has a video and/or audio
narration with graphics such as photos as memorabilia. This three-way
enhancement of a life story or business case history/success story
offers reading, viewing, and listening that can extend far into the
future for generations.
Interviews
Your minimum interview time with a client should be at least two
hours at a time. One person could be interviewed for just two hours,
or more if necessary at different appointments. Each book should
contain more than 65 photos and more than 85 pages. Identify each
photo with the name, the relationship, the date, location, and story
surrounding the photo.
Book size can be 6 by 9 inches or larger. A square book also is fine
as long as it is at least nine inches in length. Trade book size
usually is 6 by 9 inches, and personal books should look similar and
professionally crafted, bound, and printed with a clear, colorful
cover.
You can interview several people for up to 70 or more hours to obtain
all the details or as little as two hours to interview one person. If
you're charging a high-end fee, the client will want to spend a long
time with your interviewers getting the details expressed so that the
words and the people say what they mean and mean what they say. The
most important piece of paper to have at an interview is the one with
the list of questions, including questions built around the answers
to prior questions.
What the Client Expects for the Fee
Each client will pay you a flat fee. The fee is based on what
every item will cost you to provide. To that cost you'd add a markup
that's enough to earn you a profit, but not so high as to make a book
unaffordable by the average consumer. Most books will be unique
memoir books marking a special birthday or anniversary or preserving
the business history of a corporation or institution such as a
school, library, hospital or non-profit agency.
Cut the words down to bare bones. Use only what is necessary
because each word is precious. Photographs should be clear and
showcased as if they were in a digital scrapbook published print on
demand as text. The paperback book also can include a multimedia DVD
or CD in a sleeve pasted on the inside cover. Make sure the label is
colorful on the disk and the sleeve is transparent. Let clients view
the art.
The reason people hire you to write and publish a memoirs
book is to have a keepsake for years into the future and for new
generations. The book also is a time capsule and an ageless memory
that crystallizes love as a behavior.
For business-related memoirs books, you might look for
clients commemorating the opening of an institution or medical
offices, hospitals, dentists' offices, and non-profit agencies with a
cause. A business-related memoirs book of success stories, case
histories, and employees work histories consists of interviews that
emphasize ways to thank employees, board members, foundations, staff,
and volunteers for services.
Parents may want a book that showcases their child as a
character in a novel or focuses on the child's life story from birth
to a certain age such as 13, for example. Genealogists and family
historians look for memoirs books that contain life story details of
ancestors. Older adults also may want to get important factual
information on paper, including medical histories or explanations.
Birth mothers may want to send a book to a child put up for adoption
explaining why they put the child up for adoption.
Parents who have adopted several children might develop a book
explaining the adoption stories of each child they have adopted, from
what country, city, and any other information as to why they chose
that child. Many of your clients will ask for wedding books that
reflect the bride, groom, and relatives, ethnic backgrounds, beliefs,
or just the bride and groom and each person's interests. Your primary
focus in a wedding book is to capture positive memories.
Pet owners want their dog or cat's personality as part of the book.
Your clients also could be a zoo featuring all types of animals, an
equestrian ranch, a racetrack, or any other establishment or family
featuring a pet. Good leads for pet owners often are in the media.
Check out the various press and public relations clubs, animal food
manufacturers, and wholesalers of pet supplies.
Couples looking for Valentine's Day presents would enjoy a book that
a couple can read together each year on their anniversary or
Valentine's Day. Sports enthusiasts also like "hall of fame" type
treatment in a book on sports achievements or trophies won. A book
showcasing the sports history of a person who plays a lot of sports
could emphasize the details of each game along with dates, locations,
and events as well as sports statistics.
One of the best times to approach a potential client is when a couple
becomes betrothed. At the time of engagement, people are bubbly and
receptive to interviews. Ask the person what makes that individual
most comfortable in an interview, and keep the tape recorder or
camcorder out of site. You might try serving decaffeinated tea or
herb tea and encourage a relaxed atmosphere.
Focus on how each person met and grew fond of one another. Ask each
person how he or she fell in love. Include details the couple wants
to include in a book that could be read by their future children.
This is the type of book that will be shown to wedding guests.
Emphasize how many copies should be displayed on various tables for
the wedding guests to peruse and discuss.
For parents of a young child, that child's memories saved in a book
would include asking the child what makes him or her laugh. Include
positive dreams and ideas. What does the child think about or do most
of the time? Focus on a particular year in the child's life that's
most meaningful at the moment. Copies of the book for the
grandparents can provide happy memories as the child grows and
details of childhood memories are soon forgotten.
For a baby or bridal shower, the memoirs book becomes a gift book to
be kept on a coffee table. It's a gift that friends give. Interview
friends of the bride or pregnant co-worker and have each person say
something memorable and positive about the person that can be shown
to relatives and other friends.
Career history books can emphasize what one did in a long career such
as military service. The career history book also can be combined
with a retirement and leisure activities book or war stories.
Anniversary books are seen as gifts. They mark a special number such
as a 10th, 25th, or 50th anniversary. Photos and interviews form the
core of anniversary books. Business anniversaries also are part of
corporate history books.
Collect copies of photos and interview several family members,
friends, colleagues, co-workers, and employers. Gather positive
comments focusing on details and memories. You could emphasize
landmarks in the marriage, travels, or special times together.
Also include any events or memories of the couple before their
marriage when they first met, their engagement, and life together.
Significant turning points that are upbeat would be the primary
focus.
Family, friends, and the couple would be re-reading the anniversary
book at important times in their lives. Keep a video and audio CD or
DVD inside the back cover of the book.
Have the husband and wife each write and/or read a letter to each
other to be read far into the future, even when one member has passed
on. The letter can be a love letter marking the most meaningful
memories and saying any statement that each person wants to be
remembered by.
Have each person create a motto that represents that person and/or
his or her purpose or intent toward the partner. What would each
person want to say to the other to be remembered? An anniversary book
is moving. What can each person say to move the other to a new and
wonderful state of mind?
What Do You Charge?
Each person hiring you to write a memoirs book will be paying
you to reflect, reminisce, and celebrate shared or personal
experiences. Memoir books motivate and inspire captured audiences of
relatives and friends to share life story experiences. In the
business world, history of a company can also be a family business
story. For married couples or life-long partners, a memoirs book
emphasizes the positive events that form patterns. The book's purpose
is to celebrate a couple's `love.'
For individuals writing a memoir, personal reflection is
emphasized. With a child's story, the parents want to rekindle the
same emotions felt as they watched their child mature. Memory books
are gifts.
They can showcase an employee's work history and be given by an
employer as a retirement present. The outcome is a coffee-table type
book that's also an ageless time capsule combining colorful photos
and text.
With the addition of a DVD or CD in a transparent plastic sleeve
pasted on the inside cover of the book, when the reader has finished
the text and photos portion, a video and/or audio disk can be played
on most DVD and/or CD players or computers that can present a slide
show, narrated life story video or audio file. That multimedia
portion can emphasize a special event or turning point of an
individual or couple's life.
Before you set a price, produce one coffee-table memoirs book on
yourself or on one of your relatives and keep tabs of the time it
takes you. Each person works at a different rate. If you work on the
book 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, it will take at least four or
five work days or more to complete one book.
What would you like to get paid for one forty-hour workweek? How much
do your materials cost? Is the book affordable to most of your
potential clients? What type of client are you approaching?
Have you contacted wedding planners to let them know of your service
and fees? What you charge depends on how many pages your client wants
a book to be. Will it be a short booklet or pamphlet, or a novel-
sized memoirs book?
To develop both a money budget and time budget, you need to list all
the software and supplies you'll have to buy. How many independent
contractors will you retain? What will you pay each person? Can you
do all the graphics, writing, and software manipulation to create the
book by yourself? Would you limit yourself to one book and one client
at a time?
Training Required
If you're a digital scrap booker, you have most of the
skills. The skill you'll need to learn from there is how to turn a
PDF file into a print-on-demand paperback book.
The companies making the software can guide you to the tutorials.
There also are professional associations you can join and learn from
the members. Some national associations offer seminars, courses, or
conferences.
Can you bind the book? If not, how much can you afford to pay a
printer to bind your books? Until you've put a book together from
scratch, don't approach clients because you'll need sample books to
show. Your work of art is actually a print-on-demand paperback book
featuring many photos interlaced with text.
You'll have to oversee each stage of the process while keeping in
constant contact with your client. Each process will have to be
approved by your client.
It's important to get half payment up front before you begin to
interview any client. Setbacks could include the client going away
for extended periods of time while you're waiting for approval and
permission to move onto the next stage or phase of the interviewing,
recording, organizing, editing, revising, and re-writing process
before coordination between text and photos is begun. Only then can
you move onto the publishing process.
When the book is published, your client decides whether to make a
video or audio DVD or CD to include in the back of the book to accent
the text and photos. This recording process using video clips from
the life of the client takes more time and editing.
You don't have to offer a video or audio disk along with the book,
but it does enhance the book and makes it possible to put the book
and multimedia presentation on a disk to send to relatives. Since
many people don't like to read from a computer screen or watch a
video, the book in text form is necessary for preserving the keepsake
album feel of the memory book of text and photos.
Before you begin, you can have different budgets for a variety of
clients. Some will want the book as a video and/or audio disk
included in the paperback print on demand book. Others may only want
to pay for a paperback or hard cover book or a smaller pamphlet.
Once you've set up a time and money budget, explore with potential
clients what each person would most likely want in a coffee-table
memoirs book that can be passed around the friends and family at
gatherings. A book of this nature also appeals to houses of worship
and to public speakers that share inspirational or motivational
communication with a variety of audiences or clients.
What Items Do You Need to Compile Money and Time Budgets?
Before you can determine what to charge your client for a personal
memoirs book or business case history success story media kit, you'll
need the following basic items to start:
1 computer
1 printer
1 bookbinding machine
Telephone
Internet service
Web site
DVD discs
CD discs
DVD recording device or disk drive
DVD playing device
Interviewers in various states on call as independent contractors
Adobe PhotoShop software
Microsoft Word software or equivalent for book manuscript writing,
organizing, and editing
PDF software that turns Microsoft Word files into PDF files in a book
template
Printer or printing service that works with digital imaging if you
don't have the software yourself.
Print-on-demand publishing techniques
Scanner for photos
Tape recorder and player, digital audio recorder, or CD player…
Telephone pickup device for recorder interviews via phone
Camcorder for recording videos of life stories…Industrial quality
preferred, although a digital high 8 camcorder or DVD camcorder can
sometimes produce amateur-type personal history videos good enough in
quality and resolution to be sent to numerous TV stations as
freelance documentaries or news reporting.
FireWire 1394 cable to connect your camcorder to your computer
Software and hardware to capture video from your camcorder to your
computer hard disk drive and then to save the file as a video on a
DVD after editing
Software that edits video and audio files on your computer
Sound recording software such as Total Recorder
Microphone for your camcorder and for your computer
Your personal memoirs or business history book service will
operate similar to most print-on-demand book publishing companies,
but on a smaller scale. A client will pay you to write and publish a
memoirs or business history book containing photos and transcribed
interviews.
The client will send you the photos either saved as a 300 dpi .tiff
file on a CD or DVD or the client will email the original photos to
you. You'll need 6 by 9 inch photos for the book cover and 3 by 4
inch photos for the author's photo.
With original photos, you'll have to scan them into your
computer and save them at 300 dpi as `tiff' files using the CMYK
color setting in PhotoShop. Promptly return original photos to the
author. You can have a copy made for yourself to keep with your
master file.
Give the author a copy of your files pertaining to that author's
book. This master file will help the author make copies with other
printers if you should move or close the business. Keep a copy for
yourself as the author may lose or damage the copy and ask for
another.
Check out the InstaBook ™ Print on Demand Web site at:
http://www.instabook-corporation.com/. There you can find out that it
takes 23 steps the old fashioned way to publish a book. InstaBook ®
Corporation is the premier supplier of the technology required to
design, print and bind a book on demand anywhere on earth.
The InstaBook ™ allows you to utilize InstaBook ® Maker III equipment.
The problem you need to solve is to figure out your cost of
publishing per book. When you have a client who only wants a few
books, you need to solve the problem of mass-production versus price.
You'd use print on demand publishing.
For example, using the InstaBook ® Maker you don't need to print
thousands of books to get the benefits of high-volume pricing. Each
book you produce using InstaBook® Maker systems will have a cost per
unit similar to the costs per unit of a 10,000 run. If you had used
the old fashioned method of publishing that you might see in a 1980-
style print shop, you would need to print 10,000 copies of a book to
get the same price per unit.
That's why for clients paying you a flat fee to compile and publish
memoirs gift books, print on demand publishing is the way to go. No
book actually is printed until someone wants to buy the book. At that
time the book is printed and sent within 7-10 days to your client.
You charge the client the cost per book that it takes you to print
one copy and any charges for shipping and handling, such as the cost
of the box the book is packed in.
How many other charges do you have besides the labor of interviewing,
recording, transcribing, organizing, writing, and editing the book?
Make your time and money budgets by listing each step needed in the
process to produce a book.
Distribution costs and sales of the book are up to your client.
You're paid only to produce a few authors' copies for the person
ordering a personal memoirs book.
If employees of a company are made aware of a book on the business
history of a corporation, each employee of that company on a
voluntary basis can order the book from you, perhaps from a listing
on your client's company's Web site. If you're producing a family
history book, each relative and friend can order the book from you
directly. You publish the book print on demand and send each copy to
whoever orders the book.
You don't have to worry about getting into Books in Print, into the
big chain bookstores, or about paying a large distributor such as
Ingram. After all, you're not publishing a book for distribution
other than to your client and his or her family or to a corporation
and its employees.
Success Stories--Corporate
Success storybooks are one branch of the occupation of book packager.
You'd put together success stories of a company and create a book
targeted to the media. This type of book is called a media book.
You'd interview satisfied clients of a company, ask them why they
switched from one company's product to another company's product, and
then collect success stories for the perusal of select media.
Your interview questions would focus on what step-by-step procedure
was taken to solve a problem or achieve results.
Ask about benefits and advantages. An excellent example of a "media
book" is available to the press is titled, Media Guide on Food Safety
and Nutrition 2004-2006, published by the International Food
Information Council. See the council's Web site at: http://ific.org.
Why did they switch? Software is an excellent product to interview
satisfied customers about, emphasizing why they changed software and
what they liked about it.
This success story approach can be done with interviews about many
other types of products, from cars to pet food. Choose a product
that's individual enough. Some products have different labels or
distributors, but all come from the same manufacturer.
As a case history manager, you'd collect the success stories from
satisfied clients and record interviews by phone. Then you'd write a
series of news releases about one and a half pages in length.
Each success story would be put into a book to be presented to the
press as part of the company's public relations and marketing
communications department. The collection of success stories should
be consistent in length and presented in book form and/or
electronically to select media. It would be up to the public
relations director of the particular corporation to select which
media would get a copy of the "media book" that you'd publish for a
corporation.
To drum up business, contact the director of media relations, the
marketing communications manager and the public relations director of
each corporation that interest you. Then pitch to each corporation
that you would like to write a media book for select reporters based
on you being allowed to interview satisfied customers on why they
switched to a particular company's product.
Emphasize details and benefits. Most likely to hire outside
publishers and book packagers are new software firms that have public
relations departments used to hiring independent contractors. Have
some `mock' sample media books published already to show them your
work. You may focus on a particular niche such as mall grand openings.
You'll need a portfolio of your work as an interviewer, writer, and
publisher. Practice with text and imaging software. Then approach
potential clients. Have good samples to show.
If you need to use hired printers and interviewers, have your team
help you create some samples to show of your memoirs books, gift
books, or business case history success storybooks. You can work
entirely in text and photos or vary your output with video and audio
multimedia productions or slide presentations for business meetings
and conventions.
If you want to publish memoirs books, work with genealogists, family
history researchers, wedding or event planners, oral historians,
librarians, and publishers. Contact associations related to genealogy
or DNA-driven genealogy. Memoirs books can be combined with the
design of keepsake albums.
You also can branch into digital scrap booking using photo-imaging
software and text with other graphics to produce gift books.
Emphasize events, celebrations and commemorations for different
stages of life, graduations, and rites of passage if you want to work
with families or schools and hospitals instead of manufacturers.
E-Books (Electronic Gift Books)
Electronic book (E-book) readers let you take your favorite
books and magazines in digital form, usually saved as PDF files.
These types of books are lighter to carry than the average paperback
book. Most clients asking you to publish a memoirs book will not want
an E-book or electronic book.
In addition to a printed paperback or hard cover book, you might want
to put an electronic book on a CD or DVD. Then send it along with the
book for those who like to read electronic books (E-books) in
handheld devices.
To create an E-book, all you need to do with your written
book that says it's copyrighted in your name with the year, is save
it in digital format such as a Microsoft Word document cut and pasted
into Microsoft Front Page software (that creates files compatible
with Web sites).
You then save the document as a Web page. When you've finished
creating your Web page in Front Page software or used one of the free
Web site services online, you just upload or send your book to the
Web page. You can view it there or download it and save it on a disk
or in your computer.
Use your search engine to find which sites offer free Web
space for your book. Also you can contact an e-publisher online that
already provides a Web site to showcase the memoirs book. If you use
a print on demand publisher, the charge can range from 300 to 700
dollars to set up your book.
Some publishers also charge you a monthly or annual fee per book just
to host it on their Web site or keep it posted with major
distributors online. To avoid these types of costs, buy your own
print on demand equipment and publish one memoirs book at a time for
each client. If you have only a few clients at one time, you'd only
have to print a few copies for each client's circle of family and
friends.
You control how many clients you want to take at one time, like a
literary agent or event planner. If you are a wedding planner or
genealogist you might want to add a sideline of publishing memoirs
books. People who work with older adults also might have an interest
in interviewing and presenting life stories in life long learning
settings from senior centers to extended studies programs at
universities for active people in retirement.
Adult continuing education classes and gerontologists as well as
family historians may all have an interest in memoirs books. It's not
only for older adults, but for new parents documenting a child's
growth stages or teenagers marking the taking on of responsibility.
All these life stages can be incorporated into such a gift book.
E books are read with E-book readers.
These are usually free, downloadable software that enables a viewer
to read an E-book. Examples of E-book readers that are free and
available on the Web include Adobe Reader, which is free and
downloadable at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Microsoft E-
book reader is at the Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/reader/default.asp.
Many popular and/or best-selling books also may contain formats that
can be read by E-book reader software. You can use the free E-book
readers online by downloading them or buy professional-type E-book
reading software such as eReader Pro for Palm Os. That Web site is
at: http://www.ereader.com/products/ereader/pro.
Some people use hand-held devices such as Pocket PC to read
electronic books. Other people prefer to listen to an audio book
instead of reading text on a computer screen or on a hand-held
device's small screen.
Audio gift books may be narrated and saved as MP3 files so that
people can buy the book to download on an iPod or other mobile
listening or viewing device. Or the audio book may be saved on a CD
or DVD or uploaded to the Web as an audio podcast which is an audio
file under compression.
The MP3 audio file takes up less bandwidth space online than other
types of audio files. There are numerous E-book publishers online,
but you can obtain E-book publishing software and circulate your own
gift books.
The most popular way to market a gift book is to have text and photos
that can be handed down to future generations as keepsakes and
heirlooms, as if they were scrap books combined with life stories you
can read for hours as you thumb through the pictures and the details
of the experiences in text as paperback or hardback books. Then slip
out a CD or DVD in a book's inside back cover and pop into your DVD
player. Suddenly, the life story, wedding, historic site, or other
event becomes a `movie.'
"Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a
newspaper." __ Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), Letter to Nathaniel
Macon, January 12, 1819
***
101 Uses & Goals of Multimedia Creative Writing Therapy with
Background Music: Why Use Creative Writing Therapy?
Highly recommended is the excellent handbook titled,
Biblio/Poetry Therapy: The Interactive Process: A Handbook, by Arleen
McCarty Hynes and Mary Hynes-Berry, North Star Press of St Cloud,
Inc., 1994. According to the book, Arleen Hynes,
O.S.B., "established the first hospital-based training program in
bibliotherapy in 1974 at St. Elizabeths in Washington, DC." (Dr. Mary
Hynes-Berry is a professional writer.)
The book is excellent for understanding how literature can be used as
a healing tool.
Now, my own premise is that music therapy also may be added to the
background with the use of creative writing therapy and biblio-poetry
therapy. In creative writing therapy, I would make full use of the
Internet for multimedia—music, visual imagery, and text so that sound
and words surround the images, engaging all the senses of virtual
reality.
For writers to use music and words as healing tools, reading and
viewing are done to inspire. Keep files organized and handy on all
your resources so that you know where everything is and can bring up
instantly what is needed. The following are 101 projects to start
using creative writing therapy with music therapy as background
inspiration.
1. Locate feelings and express feelings in words against a
background of music that enhances feelings related to the words.
2. Craft a story reflecting foresight, insight, and hindsight.
3. Reflect on the meaning of a particular experience or your
lifestyle.
4. Deepen your understanding of your self-perception.
5. Discover new parts of your self and others.
6. Celebration of Life reading, ceremony, or celebration.
7. Express your feelings and your logic.
8. Explore your relationships.
9. Understand where you came from and who you are or will be.
10. Express connections to a former time.
11. Plan the future.
12. Put in words what's important to you.
13. Use music and multimedia to visualize words for personal
growth.
14. Create dialogue using two empty chairs.
15. Write to achieve closure.
16. Put conflict to rest and forgive yourself.
17. Create a journal for self-exploration.
18. Use music as a healing tool along with words put to the
feeling the music creates.
19. Choreograph poetry to music.
20. Write salable books for any age group based on poems, song
lyrics, or significant events.
21. Create time capsules on discs, in text, and in multimedia
formats. Transcribe recordings of oral history.
22. Discuss your publicly allowed military service experiences.
23. Teach others all the lessons you've learned from living your
life.
24. Give travel tips to others about the places you've been to
and stayed at.
25. Write about how your animals changed your life.
26. Discuss what you learned from others about money or your work-
life.
27. How did you handle challenges?
28. Do believe in a life purpose or going with the flow—whever
life takes you as you float like flotsam in an eternal ocean of time?
29. What would you like from life?
30. Write about how you feel about your power of control.
31. How did music change your writing?
32. What family events do you want to share with others?
33. What events most changed your own life?
34. Do you have a purpose, goal, or objective?
35. What would you like to share with future generations reading
your work?
36. What would you put into a time capsule?
37. When did you first become aware of yourself?
38. What would you most like to understand about life?
39. Utilize music with Bibliotherapy classes for teaching mature
behavior and transcending past choices or mistakes for closure,
forgiveness, or simply moving on by resolving problems and getting
measurable results to put into a notebook, computer, or time capsule
40. Prison Writing Therapy groups, hospital, and institutional
settings provide an interactive process of combining reading,
writing, and music, even with graphic novels and cartoons
41. Writing with Mental Patients for Healing is an interactive
process
42. Writing for people with disabilities using developmental
bibliography
43. Writing for the Blind
44. Writing for Deaf using Sign Language (note how adjectives are
described in sign language)
45. Writing for Teachers of Poetry and Fiction
46. Music Therapy for Fiction Authors
47. Using prose collections from many cultures
48. Reading and writing women's life stories
49. Writing for survival
50. Writing about transforming, transcending, or closure
51. Writing to organize activities
52. Cleaning and sorting your life's turning points
53. Discussing Choices
54. Training Bibliotherapists
55. Obtaining training in poetry therapy
56. Using food writing to teach nutrition therapy
57. Discussing classic books moved into present times
58. Writing how music therapy is used to inspire fiction writing
59. Using writing skills to invent board games
60. Volunteering as a writer in institutional settings
61. Organizing writing groups in various houses of worship
62. Teaching writers how to critique without bringing attention
to how smart or right the critic is by finding subjective flaws in
other writers' manuscripts—being objective and tactful while being
logical
63. Treating other writers as you would like to be treated
64. Work with the effects of time on manuscripts and people
65. Writing about family life turning points
66. Write about how parents make the same mistakes their children
will
67. Write about joy and balancing happiness with nutrition
68. Before you write, think of "what would xyz do" and write
about that compared to what you would do.
69. Write about how to find someone's true character by watching
them drive or act toward people who can't promote their careers or
income
70. Write about how and why you care
71. Write about how to be kind when no one is looking
72. Create interactive games that use writing skills
73. Use metaphors to inspire writing
74. Write fiction using active verbs and fewer adjectives
75. Plan a meeting or party that's on a bus line so non-drivers
who write can attend.
76. Every writer has a story to offer that's worth a novel, play,
or skit
77. Write about how customers treat food servers in restaurants
78. Go undercover and write about your minimum-wage temporary jobs
79. Write about friends who keep in contact for a lifetime
80. Collect the writings that come out of school 50-year reunions
for inspiration
81. Write about the friends you can trust
82. Write about how people drive and how it relates to their
character
83. Explain how young people each have a voice of resilience and
write about what that voice is saying
84. Explore the lives of women immigrants and their writings. How
does their life stories compare with your own?
85. Would you rather write using breadth or depth in your
stories, books, or articles?
86. What cultures would you focus on to write about the rich
literature that shaped your own family's history?
87. How would you write about understanding your own mothers and
grandmothers?
88. What is the way of life you embrace? How would you write
about it?
89. As a writer, how do you understand the women and men who
brought you here?
90. Use biographical dictionaries to inspire you to write
creatively as a healing tool. What do the biographical dictionaries
say about women writers from a wide variety of cultures? How can you
use the various biographies in your own writing?
91. Explore the voices of female writers and compare them to male
writers in different time periods of your choice.
92. Form a diverse study group whose aim is to read original
works by a group of authors of your choice. Who has translated these
authors so you can read them? They can be women, immigrants,
teenagers, older adults, or any group at a stage of life or from a
particular group.
93. Study literature as a powerful political statement before you
write biography or fiction.
94. Explore women's lifestyles and men's comparative experiences
in villages around the world or in one area of your group's focus.
95. How did the perceptions of women as writers differ from those
of male counterparts?
96. Capture the spirit of matriarchal and patriarchal life in any
city of your choice at any time.
97. Write a time-travel adventure of any length
98. How would you begin to find out more about yourself, discover
who you are, based on your heritage, genealogy, or from reading
writers similar to yourself?
99. Illuminate the world of your ancestors, recent or in the
distant past by writing and reading their writings of their own life
experiences.
100. Make your writing accessible to the public by holding press
conferences as a writer's or book discussion group. Explore authors'
parties with the press invited.
101. Work with translators to get the writing of little known
authors readable in your own language. Then polish the writing of the
translators or learn from them how they polish the writing when one
language is translated into another. Make your writing an historical
document as well as a literary piece. Your life story has historical
value. Use time capsules, archival and/or oral history university
libraries, and heirloom keepsakes.
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