Creating A 50th Anniversary Photo Book
A photo book makes a great 50th anniversary present, and is a fun thing to put together. Here are some tips to help you along the way.
Compiling Your Material:
Start early! The more time you give yourself to start and complete this project, the better the finished product will be in the end. Start of course by getting some photos of the couple’s wedding. If you are creating this book as a surprise to the anniversary couple, you may have to be a little sneaky in order to complete this step. If you visit often, you will have to find out where the photos are and how to get them somewhere that you can scan and return them without being noticed. If you don’t have access to the photos, enlist the help of someone who does, such as one of your siblings or a family friends, or whoever you need to in order to get these photos.
Of course, you won’t just want photos of the wedding. If possible you will want to somehow represent all of the 50 happy years that the couple has had together. In order to accomplish this, you can either sneak more photos from their house, or, better still, gather as many photos as you can from the family and friends of the couple. Why is this better? The main reason is that when you widen the circle of where you are gathering the photos, you are more likely to get photos that the couple hasn’t seen, or hasn’t seen many times over the years.
As you are gathering your photos, see if you can get some of your contributors to give you some stories and anecdotes about the couple. One way to do this is to send out questionnaires so that your participants can fill in answers as they see fit. You might also ask them to write a paragraph or two about the photos that they send you and the reasons that the photos are special to them, and what great memories they hold.
Try to include all of the things that the couple has accomplished together, and include plenty of photos of their kids, both as youngsters and grownups.
Arranging and Organizing:
Your anniversary photo book will work best if it is organized in some way, rather than looking like just a bunch of random photographs. Start with the wedding photos and move forward from there through all of the years as best you can. Include the snippets and stories that you have gathered and come up with some titles for the different sections, such as “Beginnings” or “the San Diego Years” or whatever works best for the trajectory of your book. If you are new at layout and design, you can either enlist the help of a family member who knows something about these things, or download some templates online.
Printing and Binding:
Use the highest quality printing that you can afford, such as digital color. When it comes time to bind your book, you can either use an online service, or do the binding yourself. Thermal binding machines are the ones that are used to create hardcover books, and there are many models that can be easily found for less than 0 new. These machines are very fun and easy to use as well, so you can make as many books as you want, for whatever occasion, whenever you want, and save a lot of money in the process.
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How do I get my pop-up book published?
I have made a pop-up book on Artemisia Gentieschi (a woman artist in the 1500s) for my college thesis. It is geared toward older kids. How do I go about getting it published? Can I begin this process online? I have digital pictures of each page and also of the entire book. What are some publishing companies that print pop-ups? I am willing to adjust the prose, will the help me with that?
Help!
My book is pretty sweet, I just don’t know how to get it out there.
How easy is it to get a children’s book published?
I’m in the process of forming a little writer’s club for those of us who would like to write children’s lit. Some of us are published but not in that genre so we’re a bit clueless. We have some good stories and wondering if self-publishing is the best way to go or if there are particular publishers just for kid’s books. We’re looking at all ages here.
I would recommend self-publishing. I self-published a book of poetry through http://www.lulu.com/ (you don’t need an agent for self-publishing)
Lulu is completely free and very easy to use. You can then buy a global distribution, or ISBN, which will put your book on Barnes and noble, borders, Amazon…. I really like lulu, I think they are great. They also offer a great customer service if you get stuck. Once published with them, you automatically get the copyright, and you keep all rights to it. You can have books printed in b/w or colour, hardback or soft back, and in a variety of sizes.
If you think they are too good to be true (which was my original opinion) you can view my book at http://www.lulu.com/dchooper
Hope this helps. Good luck with your writing.
For any more information about Lulu you can contact me at forensic_dreamer@hotmail.com (if you do contact me, put Lulu in the subject line, or I might report as Spam)
Cheers, Deanna.
Writing can take up quite a bit of time. A publisher would be more interested in your work knowing you had all the free time necessary to write more. So, I’d finish my senior year first if I was you. You can keep working on your stories in your free time during your senior year. After school is done you’ll have more time to devote to writing.
Publishing my own book, how do I go about doing this?
I am currently working on a biography for my kids for Christmas. Pictures as well as text. I am working on Microsoft’s Picture It for the graphics. But what is the process in how to do this?
Ideally I would like for it to be on good quality paper (semi-gloss?) and have it binded into a hardcover book. What is the process, in lay terms please because I know so little. Thanks for your help!
You seem to have a really good material in the making. Concentrate on finishing your book and polish it to perfection by editing, rewriting and editing again.
You can get published through traditional publishers. You need a literary agent to assist you in getting your manuscript reviewed. When accepted, you will be paid for the publishing rights and the house will publish your book based on how they want to package it. If rejected, you can move to another house and go through the same process again. This takes time and you need to be really patient.
Another option is for you to publish the book yourself by availing of the publishing services of self-publishing companies. When you do this, you have full control of your book’s publishing from cover to cover.
For more information, get this FREE book publishing guide and a publishing consultant will walk you through the whole process free of charge:
http://www2.xlibris.com/requestkit/index.asp?src=aop&key=qac
Since you are below 18, you need your parents or guardian to sign the publishing contract for you.
I hope you find this helpful.
Because older kids love a good pop-up book about obscure 16th century artists.
I think this would be a hard sell even if you targeted adults-who-love-odd-coffee-table-books as your market.
Best moment to Write?
I’m a student in college, soon to be starting my senior year. During the summer, I worked on my story idea, and also written the first book in manuscript form. But I haven’t sent any query letters off yet. I’m dying to though, especially considering how long it sometimes takes for novels to be accepted and go through to the publishing process. But I wasn’t sure if I should wait until I’m done with college, or if I should/could go ahead and send off my manuscript? Know any writers who make it their job to write while still attending school? I think I recall a young elementary kid who actually published a kids book about a bird adventure. Anyways, I asked, because I have no real knownledge of an author’s time with writing and dealing with agents/ publishing, time, etc. Like I said, I’d love to send off queries and manuscripts, but I wasn’t sure if it would interfere. I’m pretty good at scheduling my time, but of course, some things can change. But it’d be great to get the story out there to keep if from plaguing my mind, which it is doing everyday. I’m pretty proud of it.
But on the note of sending off the manuscript, is it best to wait and get the entire history of the series worked out? Or would I have time inbetween? I’ve already worked out a major chunk of my story’s background and there’s still some summer time left.
Appreciate the advice!
Getting a book published?
Hi! I am a 15 year old teen who really enjoys writing and is almost done with writing my first book which i am really proud of. The book is around 12,500 words and I still have a bit more writing and adding in details and all of that, but the target group of readers i am trying to reach is people around my age. (12-16) I wanted to write a cool book that i think kids would enjoy reading for fun..not so much a novel or anything to that degree, but i believe that it has a lot of potential. I am new to this whole process and wanted to know how I should go about getting an agent or getting it published. Any links or suggestions of people or places that would consider my book? What are the steps to getting it published? Any advice? Info? Suggestions? Thanks a lot!!!