RootsTech: The Intersection of Family History Research, Writing, Publishing and Technology

We’re excited to be here in Salt Lake City where the RootsTech Genealogy Conference has brought over 4,000 people to an intersection of family history research, writing, publishing and technology. We will have three days to talk with participants about book projects and to advise them on how to decide which digital tools to employ, and which might best be left to the experts, as they create and self publish their books.

Genealogists are tech savvy researchers who can tell you everything about how software programs or web based applications will help them find an elusive ancestor. Most of them will say that someday they’ll turn their mountain of research into a book. But for many of them that means a whole new skill set and a world of new world tech. Navigating it can be a daunting task.

Writing a book is a creative process. If your goal is self publishing, as it is for many family historians, it can also be a technological one. We’ll help people see that tools are available at each step of the author’s journey – Imagine, Plan, Create, Edit, Design and Publish. You might begin by using software for prewriting activities like Mind Mapping or use a content generation tool like Scrivener to plan and draft their manuscript. If you know a few tricks Microsoft Word will allow you to do everything from formatting the manuscript to indexing, using footnotes and endnotes to manage documentation, captioning photos and illustration and a variety of other tools to produce a professional looking document. The process of preparing photos including proper scanning and processing with PhotoShop to ready them for publication can be a challenge. DIY authors may choose to use sophisticated software like Adobe Creative Suite to design their book and prepare to submit them to a publisher or printer. Our goal is to help conference visitors make good decisions about how much of the process they feel comfortable taking on themselves and where they might be better served by hiring a professional.

Helping people to realize their dreams by creating a family history book and getting it into print is something we really enjoy. We are looking forward to plenty of opportunities to talk with people about their books over the next three days.

If you are going to be at RootsTech bring the draft of your book to booth 628 and we’ll help you get it into print. If you’re not here, drop us a line and we can help you to make your book a reality.