Self Publishing Your Genealogy You can do it!!!
Start with your Genealogy Software
From your genealogy software, go to publish or generate a report. Start with the oldest member in the family you are going to publish and generate a descendant report. Once you have the report, save it to your hard drive and then pull it up in word (or your word processing software) and save it as a TEXT document. Close out the document after saving and reopen again. This will make formatting much easier. Then save as a word document.
Formatting Your Book Your book can be any size you want, however, I am going to give the dimensions of my book as a guide. You will first have to select the trim size of your book from CreateSpace.com. We will go there later in this presentation. In word go to Page Layout, choose Page Layout Then go to Margins and then to custom margins. In the Paper tab: Change paper width and height and apply this to the whole document and hit ok.
Paper Tab
Layout Tab Layout tab > Section Start: Continuous Headers and footers > check Different odd and even and different first page Page > Vertical alignment > Top Preview > Apply to > Whole Document and hit OK.
Layout Tab
Margins Tab Be sure to check Mirror margins so the deeper margin will always be next to the binding, on the right side of even pages and the left side of odd pages.
The above exercise creates the template for your book. Save the template so you can use it several times. Label it template and save to your desktop. Open your word document which contains your genealogy report from your genealogy soft ware. Highlight the entire report Copy and paste the report into your template. As you toggle down through your report in the template you should see different margins on the left and right as you would in a book. Save this genealogy report as a chapter in your book. This will leave the template free to use again.
Creating Your Style Outline Create a style sheet for your book. Keep it where you can find it quickly at all times. What do you want to include on: The cover of the book The title page The Even page headers The Odd page headers
What Fonts do you want to use on: Cover Title Page (usually decorative) Titles for each chapter (usually decorative) Page headers and page numbers Footnotes Captions of photos and other illustrations
Page Layout how far down will your chapter titles be placed (BE CONSISTENT). Dates which date form will you use in your book? June 15, 2010 or 15 June 2010. (BE CONSISTENT) Numbers will you spell out numbers? Which ones? (BE CONSISTENT) Abbreviations Genealogical abbreviations such as Prob. for the word Probate may cause a problem for your readers. It s a good idea not to abbreviate, but if you choose to do something like FL for Florida, then BE CONSISTENT. Copyright material If you have found the perfect paragraph about a topic in your book and you want to quote it, respect the copyright principle of fair use. Always indicate your source material.
How to organize your book
Front Matter Title Page - consists of Title, Subtitle, Author, and Publisher. (No header, footer, or page numbers.) Copyright page - is always a left hand page and consists of publisher, place, date, previous printings or editions, copyright notice, and any kind of cataloging numbers or the like: ISBN, for example. You might want to include your contact info, so others can reach you by mail or e-mail. The copyright page is where you acknowledge permissions you ve been granted. (No header, footer, or page numbers.) Dedication Optional is always on a right hand page. (No header, footer, or page numbers.) Table of Contents - (No header, footer, or page numbers.) List of Illustrations, abbreviations, etc. (No header, footer, or page numbers.) Genealogical numbering system page (Briefly describe the genealogical numbering system you are using. Readers not familiar with genealogy get very confused by the genealogical numbering system. Therefore, this needs clarification.)
Back Matter They all start on the right-sided pages and are formatted similar to the first page of chapters. Appendices are alphabetically numbered. Use it for transcripts, census abstracts, etc. (optional). Endnotes if you prefer them to footnotes. Glossary of foreign words or terms (optional). Bibliography, Resource List, Reading List, or Reference List (optional). Index
Inserting Photos, Maps, Charts, etc. For practical reasons do not add photos, charts, etc. to your chapters until late in the process. (Just before you create the index.) In Word, from the main menu, go to >Insert>Picture>From file (you can then find the picture you want from your computer file and choose it to insert.) Double click your inserted photo and you are presented with different formatting options.
Headers and Footers From the Insert menu > Click on the Header Icon Select the Header format you want to use.
Page Numbers
With the settings in this window you can format your book so that each chapter will begin with the correct page number, even though the chapters are in different files.
Pretend the last page of chapter one was 24. We want chapter two to begin on page 25. It is customary for a new chapter to begin on an odd page. Position your cursor in the header area of the second page of chapter two. In the page number format window designate Start at: 25. Click okay. Notice that no page numbers appear on the first page of each chapter because earlier we checked a box for different first page.
Next, put your cursor in any header called Odd page header. Notice there is no page number in the header yet. That is because earlier we checked a box for different odd and even pages. Press the tab key twice, and because of the default tab settings for headers, the cursor will now be at the outside margin of the odd page. Click the icon called Insert page number. An odd page number will appear near the outside margin of the odd page. Close the Header and footer window for now.
Let s design the even page headers to contain your name as the author of the book, and the odd page headers to contain the title of your book. Double click the header area of the second page of chapter one. The Header and Footer window will appear. Place the cursor after the page number and press Tab on your keyboard. If there was a default tab in the header, the cursor has jumped to the middle of the header. If not, set a centered tab. Type your name.
Go to a header called Odd Page Header and click near the middle of the header line. Type the title of your book. Your odd and even pages should now have different headers, and the first page of your chapter should have NO header. You can format the header so it has a different look from the body text.
Word 2003 vs 2007, 2010 & 2013 This is very important!!!! This is the link to the website to help you with Word 2003 and Word 2007 and Word 2010. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word- help/interactive-word-2003-to-word-2007- command-reference-guide- HA010074432.aspx
Footnotes All sources need to be footnoted. Example: Augustus Hahn was born 15 January 1825 in Hanover, Germany[1]and died 4 May 1908 in Deerfield, New York.[2] [1] Death Certificate of Augustus Hahn, Vital Records, Utica, New York #34582 [2] Death Certificate of Augustus Hahn, Vital Records, Utica, New York #34582 Reference > Footnote >
Superscripts Superscripts will indicate the generations of your ancestors and will appear each time you begin writing about a new member of the family. Example: Antoinette Hahn 2 (Augustus Hahn 1 ) Place your cursor over the number and go to: Home > Font. You will see Superscripts as shown on the next slide.
Creating an Index This is the last thing you do. Make sure all your pictures have been inserted. Make sure your chapter pages are correct. Start with the first chapter and highlight every name, place, event, etc. that you want in your index. (I only did names as I found it too overwhelming to do places, etc.)
Continue to highlight names through the entire chapter. Open a second word document and save it as index. Work with both documents side by side. Type the first name you have highlighted in chapter 1 in the index. Example next slide
When I finished the chapter, I printed out the index and the chapter and compared the two to make sure I did not make any mistakes. I usually made some mistakes, so I went back and corrected them. If there were more than 5 or 6 mistakes, I printed out the index after it had been corrected and checked it again. When I was happy with the index, I changed all the black lettering to red and started the procedure on the next chapter and entered all the second chapter in black again. Example on next slide:
Continue with this procedure until all your chapters have been indexed. After you have the index the way you want it, put it into two, three or four columns. Which ever you prefer. (Refer to the Word webpage to determine how to make your index into columns.) Then select the entire index and copy and paste it into your template. I found the index to be the most tedious part of the book.
Self publishing at Createspace.com I used createspace.com to self publish my book and will walk you through the procedure. There are other sites out there for self publishing, but I found createspace.com to be very user friendly and inexpensive. Start by creating an account. (Your book will be searchable with any name you have on the cover through Amazon.com.)
After you create an account, Click on Publish then Books on Demand
Click on Create a Book
You should be able to follow the procedure from here. Go ahead and start the procedure before you do the front matter of your book as you will need the ISBN number to put in your book. Createspace.com will issue this number. They will keep your account active even if it takes a year to complete your book and submit for publishing.
Cover of the book I created the cover of my books using Adobe Photoshop Elements. I bought this software specifically to do my book. It was complicated and there was a big learning curve. If you have a photoshop program that you like and are familiar with, use that. Createspace.com will provide you with the dimensions you need. Also, Createspace.com has several ready made covers you can choose from.
The final steps Each section of your book has to be converted to a pdf file. So you will have several pdf files: Front Matter Chapters 1, 2, 3, etc. Index Blank page at the end. Combine them all into one pdf and submit to Createspace.com
Combining the PDF s Combine your pdf s by using PDFEdit995. This is free software. From the following link go to: http://www.pdf995.com/download.html Download pdf995 Printer Driver Download Free Converter Download PdfEdit995 You will need all three downloads.
TIPS Purchase Producing a Quality Family History by Patricia Law Hatcher, CG. I also purchased the book of the woman who instructed me on this process. She also used Createspace.com. I found this to be extremely helpful. So, if you see a book and you like the format, buy it and use it as a guide. Look at other books to see what format you like.
Enjoy creating your Family History Book. If you have any questions, you are welcome to e-mail me at karensdwyer@yahoo.com and we can set up a phone conversation.