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ORAL HISTORIES and AUTOBIOGRAPHIES Updated September 20, 1999 I Decided to Make the Publishing of Apart from writing my father's life story, I also wanted to record my mother's memories. I would someday want to publish my own memoirs, of course, and those of my wife. The bookshelf I envisioned had room for the stories of my sister, my brother, my cousins, and their spouses. Why not all of our in-laws too? It was becoming clear to me that this was not simply a one- or two-year project. BY THOMAS AINLAY JR., PUBLISHER It is so easy to procrastinate. The more clear my vision became, the more I realized what a truly "big idea" it was. Everyone deserves the opportunity to record a life story! The sheer size of this concept kept me from taking my first steps for quite a while. Perhaps this could be my retirement plan, I thought. I'd continue in my day-job as a direct marketing professional and gradually develop the skills and knowledge I needed. I would wait until I became eligible to take an early pension, then I would make it my life's work. That became "Plan A." My preparations became methodical. I attended a four-day seminar called VisionQuest to help clarify and focus my intentions. Even though I already had many of the skills needed to start a personal history business, I knew that just being a writer was not enough. I needed to learn more about editing, design and production, accounting, taxes and contracts. I began collecting books on starting a business as well as ones on creative nonfiction, memoir-writing and oral history. I attended a course on printing and production. I formed a small company to have the legal basis for creating my publishing venture as a true business. I started writing a business plan. I developed spreadsheets and timelines, proforma profit & loss projections and forms for confidentiality agreements. In hindsight, it seems a bit odd, but in all that time spent getting ready, I never wrote a single word about my father or talked to my mother about recording her life story. Years slipped away. Years! It's true: tomorrow never comes. I don't know how many many people I talked to about "when" would be the right time to start, even though "now"... this very moment... is the only the time that exists.
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