Books & Bindings
If you need advice on how to put a manuscript together, or even on how best to write up your material, we have a team of experienced editors and writers on hand. They provide a wide range of editorial help, from copy editing, to mentoring and ghost-writing.
EDITORIAL ADVICE
Some writers value advice on structure and style from an editor before they go into print. Others benefit from having a ‘mentor’, who works alongside them while they write. We can offer a range of editorial services ranging from a detailed appraisal of your work, including an assessment of whether or not it might have commercial potential, to regular editorial sessions where we help you structure your material and turn it into a flowing narrative.
Help with memoir writing
Starting to write your memoirs is one thing; actually finishing them, is another. Structuring a book can be a daunting task and there are many places to get stuck along the way.
For those that want to write, but need help unearthing and organising their material, we offer face to face editorial sessions that help you to flesh out and develop your story. We can also work with you by post, email and telephone.
I’d done the family research, but I struggled with writing it up to make a really good story. LifeLines Press were brilliant.
See also
Useful Tips on Memoir Writing . . .
Other people are much happier talking than writing. For them we offer a unique service called ‘Armchair Interviews’. After an initial meeting we interview you in the comfort of your own home, transcribe and edit the recordings and present you with a finished, first person narrative that you can then have printed. All you have to do is talk! This approach also works well with elderly relatives whose memories you want to preserve, but who wouldn't really want to write them down.
To find out about our main writers and editors, go to Meet the Team.
Compiling the Family History
This is not always as simple as it sounds. Doing the research is, in a sense, the easy part. Writing a coherent account can be much more difficult. Our team of experienced writers can help. We are also privileged to work with two well-known genealogists, Anthony Adolph and Steve Thomas, who can help you fill in any gaps. See Genealogical Research
Research services
Alan Wilkinson is an experienced researcher and social historian with a special interest in researching and writing company histories and the story of family firms.
For more information about his work, go to Meet the Team.
Genealogists
We are fortunate to work with two well known genealogists, Anthony Adolph and Steve Thomas. Anthony Adolph was one of the experts behind the BBC’s “Genes Detectives” programme and Channel 4’s “Extraordinary Ancestors”. He is the author of a number of books on genealogy, including “Tracing Your Home’s History”, and his work on house histories has been published in the Sunday Times.
Steve Thomas will be well known to readers of Practical Family History as a regular columnist. During his 20 years or so as a genealogist he has researched over 5000 family trees and presented a variety of television programmes.
Other editorial services
We can also provide typing and proof-reading services. Contact us to discuss what you need.
Creative Writing Workshops
Creative Writing Workshops are a stimulating way of learning new skills, getting feedback on your work and encouraging other writers. They are always fun. We would be happy to run a workshop on memoir writing or travel writing in your area.
The simplest way to organise this is for you to gather a group of interested people together. We prefer the workshops to have not more than 10 participants and a minimum of four – but this is not written in stone, so talk to us if the numbers you have in mind are different.
The ideal set-up would be an all-day workshop, during which we would run four 75 minute sessions. You would organise the venue and make arrangements for participants to bring food. If you have just a small group, and a large dining room table, then the workshop can be run in a private house.
We would discuss with you the topic areas you were interested in covering, but they could be anything from how to begin a narrative, setting the scene, plotting and shaping a narrative, characterization, descriptive writing, revisiting and editing your work, and so on.
We would also undertake to critique the work of participants written earlier, and send them a detailed report after the workshop, but this would incur an additional cost.
To find out how to make a book with LifeLines Press see How it all works.