Four generations of RICHARDSONs 1917

Four generations of RICHARDSONs 1917
William Richardson, Alice Josephine Richardson Dakin, Robert Worthington Richardson, Harry Bogart Richardson

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

My Quilt/family history book published using Lulu.com

In the past month or two, genealogists have posted on G+ about their experiences with online publishing. A couple of times people asked about Lulu.com.  I said I didn't want to say anything until after Christmas.

Well, now that it has passed Christmas and so I can share what I wrote over the past few months as my present for my children and siblings and a some Dakin cousins: Quilts in our Family.  I documented the family quilts, most done by "Mother Dakin."  I photographed all of the quilts I could locate.  I wrote about Mary Alice Smith Dakin (Mother Dakin) who was born in Kent CT in 1855 and died just over the town line in Gaylordsville CT in 1931.  I included information on the Richardsons who used those family quilts and then I told the story behind each of my family quilts.

As a bonus, when researching Mary Alice Smith and her husband Edward Dakin, I found another DAKIN cousin and her sister -- such a bonus!!  I wrote about that in another post on this blog:  A fortuitous post found in spam


I found Lulu.com a wonderful choice to use to self-publish.  If you want the services of a publisher, you pay for them.  If you're on a budget, you can "do it yourself" with help from their techs who patiently answer questions via e-mail once you actually start the project.  They are a print on-demand company with a quick turn around on the delivery of the order.  They will print a run of one book to an order of thousands.  You do not need to buy large numbers upfront.  I chose to order a few books to use as gifts.  I made it available publically, just in case another DAKIN cousin emerges in the future and wants a copy.

I would recommend that if you were going to self-publish with Lulu.com, to download the format for the book before you start writing so you work in the format rather than adapt your already existing manuscript to their formats.

4 comments:

  1. I agree, Erica, Lulu.com is easy and reasonable. For those actually writing - not just stringing together some pdf's - good advice about downloading the template first. Also - a little off-topic here - I enjoyed your next post about the Mayflower folks. thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks
    I figured out about downloading the template after I had already written and needed to adapt my document to their format -- next time I'll know.

    Thanks, the Mayflower folks are interesting but stories about ancestors is what attracts me. I have found some life details about them, so it's better than just names.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with your comments about Lulu.com for self publishing. I used them for my "Vignettes of Life" free verse book that I gave as a gift to my family. I also made it public for the "cousins." I'm glad that they were as helpful with the photo types books. I had been doing little photo books with Ritz Camera locally but they have now closed expect for online purchases. I will venture to do my next Christmas gift with Lulu. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. June
    I'm glad you had found Lulu too. They were great -- good quality and quick turn around.
    Good luck
    Erica

    ReplyDelete