ICSOH - General Information

Information About Publishing Your Local History

Manuscripts

Copyediting

Copyright

ISBN

Printers

Publishers

Contact Us

Manuscripts

When you are preparing a manuscript for publication, accuracy and good writing are very important. Organize your material in a manner that makes sense and prevents repetition. It is also very important to credit your sources so that others can find the same information and to include a bibliography of sources. Although prepared for university and college students there are numerous websites which can be of assistance if you are not sure about some of the technical aspects of writing such as including footnotes, how to quote and how to paraphrase.

Some points to remember:

Use a document editing program which is commonly used by publishers and printers such as MSWord or WordPerfect.
Be sure to use the spellcheck and grammar facility to make your document as correct as possible
Check and recheck your document
If you are quoting a newspaper article or someone you interviewed be sure to indicate this in quotations marks and place a footnote in your text to indicate the source
If you are paraphrasing or summarizing a source such as a newspaper article, be sure to include a footnote to indicate where the information came from
Every image included in your document also requires a reference to the source
If the image does not belong to you (a family picture for example) you also need to have permission to publish it (see copyright)

Click here for the University of Toronto Writing Center.

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Copyediting

Copyediting is the work of professionals who go over a text with a fine tooth comb and check to make sure that the spelling and punctuation are accurate and that the writing is clear. They check for consistency in the text as well. If your local history is being printed by a printing company it would be especially important to hire someone who do this job for you. Large publishers will copyedit manuscripts which are already 'clean'. But they do not expect to rewrite the text completely. Unless you are already a professional writer, consider finding a copyeditor.

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Copyright refers to the right of ownership in an images, text,taped interview, etc. If you are not the one who "owns" the copyright, you must obtain the permission of the one who does own it before you can use these in your publication. This is particularly important if you have done interviews or if you are using images that came from someone else.

Consider these points:

short quotes from published material are allowed without asking permission
if you want to reprint a whole article from a newspaper or elsewhere, you must get permission - in writing because your publisher will want a copy
the same applies to images which you do not own if they are recent
some images no longer have copyright on them but if they belong to someone else like a museum or archive, you still have to get permission to use them. There is ususally a fee for providing you with a good copy suitable for publication
if someone agrees to an interview and they know you are working on a book for publication they are obviously willing to have you use that information. Still, it would be better to have a consent form signed to give you that permission in writing. This will also give you a chance to ask if the person would be willing to have you donate the tape or video to the Institute when you are finished. In this way, we can build up a collection of interviews which other researchers can use. If they are willing to donate all rights to the interview, these can also be published on the web as the original videos or as a transcript of the original. There are a number of sites making such interviews available. (See links.)

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ISBN

ISBN refers to International Standard Book Number. Every book is allowed to have one of these numbers whether or not it is sent to a publisher. Even if you are simply making a few hundred copies of your club history for sale among members, you can apply for an ISBN number. Why would you want one?

Consider this:

If you have an ISBN number, you also have to send a copy of your book to what used to be the National Library of Canada. It is now called Libray Archive Canada.
They will provide you with cataloguing information for your book so that if copies are placed in libraries, they will be placed under the right headings.
All Canadian publications are catalogued by the LAC and an on-line database called AMICUS makes this information available to everyone.
ANYONE looking for information about NORTH BAY will therefore find your book if they search AMICUS.
The history of the Horticultural Society of North Bay for example is listed.

If you need assistance with applying for an ISBN number, please contact us.

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Printers

Publishing your local history may be as simple as bringing it to a printer and having it printed and bound. Try to get the best binding possible as some books fall apart after one reading. It may also be possible to get a better price from a printer who specializes in such work than from someone who does it only occasionally.

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Publishers

Local history is of most interest to those who live in the local area. Large publishers are therefore often not interested in publishing these books unless they know the author and are sure that the work will sell. Using a local publishers is therefore often a good option. In this area, there is one local publisher you can contact: Catchfire Press

There are also a number of Ontario publishers who might be interested in publishing your manuscript depending on the quality and the topic. One of these is Vanwell Publishing who have recently introduced a line specifically designed for local histories called: Looking Back Press

If your book includes a number of images, this may be exactly the format you are looking for. Look for Michael Barnes' new book on Kirkland Lake or Karen Bachmann's book on Timmins to see the product they put out. Barry Burniston's book on the Capitol Theatre/Centre will also be sent to them when it is ready.

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If you are working on a project relating to the history of North Bay and area, we hope you will contact us. We may have information which could be of use to you. There may a student planning to do research on a similar topic who might be willing to work with you on the project. And you may be able to help us preserve more of our history by asking if the interviews, images, and documents you collect for your project could be donated to the Institute for future researchers, as a digital image or copy if not the originals.

Institute for Community Studies and Oral History
icsoh@nipissingu.ca
(705) 474-3461 ext. 4310