Self Publishing for NON-academics

[mythbuster]

My MIL has spent the last year+  writing the saga of the greater family. She has long been the keeper of all the family stories, and putting it all down in writing has been a great exercise for her in her retirement. She even has photos picked out that correspond to different chapters. Her manuscript now runs to 200+ pages!
   She would like to get this bound and printed- I'm guessing a run of 15-20 copies would be plenty to hand out to various members of the family. Does anyone here have a recommendation for a reasonable self publishing firm that could handle this? I figure our group would have some experience with this. And if you self-publish, can you get the book into the Library of Congress? That would be real hoot for her. I'm not from a book publishing field, so any advice is appreciated.

[Hegemony]

There are a number of outfits that will do this. Here's the list as of the last time I looked into it:

Barnes & Noble Print on Demand
The Book Patch (https://www.thebookpatch.com/)
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (AKD) — they publish in hard copy as well as in electronic copies
Lulu.com

And reportedly Staples and FedEx will print and bind, though I don't know if you have to have the whole thing laid out via some other program.

I know people who've done Book Patch, AKD, and Lulu, and they seem to have had a good experience.

[sinenomine]

These folks put out nice quality self-published books with ISBNs: https://www.levellerspress.com/off-the-common-books/

[apl68]

Depending on where you live, there might be somebody locally who could do a good, professional job of printing up a limited run of this sort.  It's worth checking out.

[Parasaurolophus]

Staples (here, anyway) doesn't bind with a proper cover. It's more like spiral binding or a softcover presentation thing.

You should have a printer somewhere relatively nearby who'll do it, though. But you might be best advised to do the layout and stuff yourself, using InDesign or Quark Express or something similar.

[jerseyjay]

I am not sure about the Library of Congress, although I would suspect that some of the better-known self-publishers could help with that.

However, as a historian, I would suggest that she donate a copy either to her local public library (which usually have a local history department),  to a local public or university research library and/or to a local historical society. There have been times when I have been researching a historical event (a war, the depression, a strike, whatever), and I have wondered how it impacted local people. I could see a collection of family stories/family histories might be useful for historians in this regard.

(Before donating it, I would suggest contacting the librarian/archivist to see if they would be interested.)

[hmaria1609]

I am not sure about the Library of Congress, although I would suspect that some of the better-known self-publishers could help with that.

However, as a historian, I would suggest that she donate a copy either to her local public library (which usually have a local history department),  to a local public or university research library and/or to a local historical society. There have been times when I have been researching a historical event (a war, the depression, a strike, whatever), and I have wondered how it impacted local people. I could see a collection of family stories/family histories might be useful for historians in this regard.

(Before donating it, I would suggest contacting the librarian/archivist to see if they would be interested.)

Chime about the local historical society or the public library with a local/state department!

[mamselle]

I am not sure about the Library of Congress, although I would suspect that some of the better-known self-publishers could help with that.

However, as a historian, I would suggest that she donate a copy either to her local public library (which usually have a local history department),  to a local public or university research library and/or to a local historical society. There have been times when I have been researching a historical event (a war, the depression, a strike, whatever), and I have wondered how it impacted local people. I could see a collection of family stories/family histories might be useful for historians in this regard.

(Before donating it, I would suggest contacting the librarian/archivist to see if they would be interested.)

Also, local and regional/national genealogical societies will take a copy.

M.

[dinomom]

I have used blurb.com a few times. They do a very nice job.

[traductio]

I have used blurb.com a few times. They do a very nice job.

My daughter wrote and published a children's book in fourth grade using Blurb. It comes with a decent entry-level, user-friendly typesetting app (like a really scaled down version of Adobe InDesign), and the books looked really good when they were done. It's not professional-level quality, of course, but for DIY projects, I thought it was pretty neat. Neat enough, in fact, that I have done a few other projects there.

ETA: Good on your MIL for writing all those things down. That type of family can be too easily lost, and it's a cool gift (both the book and what's in the book) for your family.

[Wahoo Redux]

If you self-publish with Amazon you can make the saga free of charge.  Anybody in your family who wants to read it can as long as they have access to a computer or a Kindle.

You can also have it printed by Amazon services, of course.

[Vkw10]

ThesisOnDemand will do a nice hardcover binding from electronic files. The service is aimed at graduate students, but they'll bind other things. Doesn't get you an ISBN, though.

[apl68]

I am not sure about the Library of Congress, although I would suspect that some of the better-known self-publishers could help with that.

However, as a historian, I would suggest that she donate a copy either to her local public library (which usually have a local history department),  to a local public or university research library and/or to a local historical society. There have been times when I have been researching a historical event (a war, the depression, a strike, whatever), and I have wondered how it impacted local people. I could see a collection of family stories/family histories might be useful for historians in this regard.

(Before donating it, I would suggest contacting the librarian/archivist to see if they would be interested.)

Chime about the local historical society or the public library with a local/state department!

Another chime about donating to a local local library.  Although it is a courtesy to check with them first, they'll usually be glad to have a copy.