Services

“Tell your story”
(Memoirs or family or club histories)

Many people realise that they have a story to tell. It might be the amazing tale of survival or recovering from a disease, or the exploits of some member of the family.

It might be your own life story – where you came from, what you achieved, challenges overcome, and what you’ve learned from life.

It might be the story of your club or organization.

These are great subjects for writing. But how do you put it all together?

The typical memoir will involve all of the following:

Records and documents
Photos
A summary of the life lived (either in written text, or a voice recording)

How can the ‘raw material’ be transformed into a book? Richard took his own father’s life story (see cover), which was in the form of handwritten notes and photos, had it designed and laid up, before printing a ‘limited edition’ print run. The book was finally 124 pages, in black and white, with photos, and perfect bound (square edged). The end product can be whatever you wish: from notes to load onto Facebook at the simple end, right through to a book style print publication.

Ghost writing

This is the traditional term for one person writing on behalf of another. The ‘ghost’ writer puts himself or herself into the shoes of the subject, and writes for them.

It is less likely to mean organising and editing what is already written down (such as a memoir), than it is to mean ‘starting from scratch’. The typical ghost writing job is likely to be a ‘big project’, with multiple inputs and a longer time line.

Richard was approached by a pararescue officer of the recently collapsed National Safety Council of Australia, to write up the story of the many years of daring rescues achieved by the NSCA.

The job involved collecting all the material about the organization, interviewing some 40 officers of the NSCA (pilots, emergency workers, air traffic controllers, etc) and then writing up their accounts in a readable format. The book was published a year later – a 250 page account of some of the most exciting rescues ever staged in Australia.

Ghost writing is a highly specialised skill. It involves ‘getting inside’ the subject in such a way that the text (the person/s experiences) sound and feel like they were the real author. It typically involves lots of research, multiple interviews and an ability to take reported accounts and translate them into convincing dialogue.

Educational writing

The director and associates of Word Studio are experienced English curriculum writers for children and schools. All are trained teachers with knowledge of the whole English language range – from Prep/Kindergarten through to Year 12. All have multiple publications in their CV.

Writing for children is a highly specialized field, and requires years of practice. The following are possible offerings:

Stories for primary children
Plays for primary children
Webinar scripts on educational topics
Interpretation of curricula

Research and reports

Organisations and businesses sometimes need compilations of information on a selected topic.

The options are to hire someone in with the special skills to conduct research, synthesise information and produce a report, or to outsource the job.

Word Studio personnel have the skills to do this work, on a contract basis. That is they can conduct detailed research, analyse information*, conduct interviews (as needed) and put the whole subject together in a publishable format.

(* Specialised medical, scientific or financial data not included.)

Speeches and presentations for special occasions

One of the greatest fears most people have is having to give a speech or do a live presentation.

This might be a set of PowerPoint slides based on a set of notes. It might be a speech to be read aloud to an audience. It might be an enhanced talk with image and animated inserts.

It’s not as hard as it sounds. The person needing to do the presentation will have all that is needed. It’s then largely a matter of compilation (the script, the images) and putting it into a useable format.

Editing services

When a writer produces a text, it’s called a ‘manuscript’ (from the Latin, ‘hand written’).

These days most manuscripts are put together on a computer. But the age-old requirements remain:

‘Raw’ manuscript – the original words, sometimes with notes and corrections added – as the author wrote them.
Copy or line editing – revising and modifying those words to make the writing as good as it can. This will include:
- Checking spelling and punctuation
- Checking syntax (word order) and grammar
- Intervening to make the text read better
This could be done by the author, but most can’t accurately judge their own work. A ‘cool eye’ is needed. In professional publishing, there is always a qualified and experienced editor in charge of this process. At the end of the copy editing phase, which make take some time depending on how near to ‘perfect’ it is, the text is ready to move on to the next stage.
Structural editing – sometimes, an editor may suggest to the writer what might be called ‘structural’ remodelling. This is where recommendations are made to recast the text in ways that will help it: maybe parts need to be deleted; maybe certain parts could be switched around; maybe more needs to be added in to make the sense clearer. This is typical of the editorial process, and even applies to ‘big name’ authors. John Marsden’s famous first work, So Much to Tell You, had its ending recast by the editor, in a way which helped propel that novel to its best seller status.
A sympathetic editor will leave the text as close to the original as possible, and certainly not rewrite it. But he/she will polish it up and invisibly achieve a better final result.
Preparation for publication – this involves supervision of all the elements needed – the words, the art (if any – pictures, photos, graphs, etc), the design, and the layout. At the end of this process, the manuscript is ready for publishing.

Design and setting

Concept only

This is the preparatory stage of designing a book or report. It allows the designer to present one or more suggested styles.

We are talking the overall ‘look’ of the cover and pages: headers, footers, margins, grab quotes, columns, styling of art, etc.

An experienced designer will offer options, from which the client can pick his/her favourite.

Full book or report setting

Taking the raw material of the book and ‘setting’ it, so that it has headings of the right size, page numbers, subheads (scaled down), art in the right places.

This is easily done by the designer, and is charged out at an hourly rate.

Bespoke and On demand publishing

On demand publishing in print

Many authors want to carry the publication process through to the final book (or report).

This means taking the completed book and having it printed. The most cost effective way to do this is by ‘on demand’ printing. At the end of the procedure, the author might have 20 copies, or 100 copies, or more, depending on their needs.

These books will look like the real thing, but with a limited ‘run’ (and limited costs).

Digital publishing (Google Play, Kindle, iBooks)

These days, books can be uploaded to the big ‘digital marketplaces’: Google Play, Amazon (Kindle) and iBooks.

Building a website

Many organisations and businesses need or want to have their own website.

Some people think you simply go to a design studio and get them to built it – often at an extraordinary cost. But design is only part of the issue. The whole matter needs careful thought: analysis of the purpose of the website, its intended audience, the most appropriate styling and colour scheme, what needs to be on the home page, how to attract the attention of viewers with photos and videos, and so on. This is a highly specialised procedure, bringing together matters of design and illustration (such as photos), text to explain what the website offers, technical setup, trouble shooting and the like.

Word Studio personnel have the skills to do this work, on a contract basis, at a very reasonable price. The director of Word Studio built and ran multiple websites that had thousands of customers across many countries. We can guide you through this complex process in a trouble free way.

“Tell your story” (Memoirs or family or club histories)