Writing and Publishing Gripping Family Histories

Abstract

One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever received was after I handed my first 'popular history' manuscript to my publisher at Allen & Unwin. She said that it was too long and needed cutting and, to assist me, she added, 'Take off your historian's hat and put on your story-teller hat. You are now a story-teller.' Allen & Unwin is one of Australia's top five publishing houses and my in-house publisher, whose genre covers popular history, law and politics, is now its editorial director. If she doesn't know what appeals to the reading public, who does? Like most genealogists who will read this publication and its predecessor, Writing Interesting Family Histories, I had no official training as a genealogist, historian or writer. Like you, I began my journey because of my interest in family history research. I started tracing my family history during high school, a hobby that led to my genealogy career as project officer of the Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record and later as general editor of its twentyfirst century incarnation, the Biographical Database of Australia. Like most of you, I had no academic history training. My university major was in linguistics, of all things. However, in 2011, courtesy of my contributions to genealogy (via my edited publications) and to Australian history (via my mainstream books), I was appointed an adjunct lecturer at the University of New England, New South Wales, and remain so to this day. And like most of you, I had never attended any classes or read any books on writing before I posted my first manuscript to Allen & Unwin. My entire writing experience, apart from university essays, lay in writing family histories and the occasional article for genealogy journals.