We look at two kinds of biographies. The most common will be for an individual who has had an interesting, noteworthy life and who wants to preserve his or her legacy for their family, or whose family wants to honor the memory of a special loved one who has perhaps started a new chapter in their family's history. This will most likely be an individual or family to whom finances are not a problem, as a biography will be very expensive. For this kind of person, we will write a full-length biography in as much detail and color as desired. We will conduct an extensive series of recorded interviews, transcribe the interviews, collate their stories by chronology, and then write the manuscript. The entire process could take a year, maybe more. At the end, we will submit the manuscript to a quality self-publisher, and in 3 - 6 months, you will have your new family heirloom, your biography.
A few people will have the other type of biography, much more rare. These are people who have an extraordinary story. When you tell people what you've done, or what has happened to you, their eyes open wide and their jaws drop and they remark that you should write a book. All of our Family Histories and Biographies start with an introductory interview, and if we see during the interview that you could be one of those special people, we'll submit your story to our agent, Andy Whelchel, of the National Writers' Literary Agency. If he agrees that your story is a marketable one, then we'll take on your project for a share of the profits, plus expenses. Once the story is done, Andy will promote the book to traditional publishers and perhaps to movie producers too. Who knows, you could have your name in lights.
Although most of our customers for all our products live in or near the northern Shenandoah Valley, because of the size of the projects and the ability to use email to do most of the interviewing, we are willing to take on biographies outside this area. Our initial interviews cost $100 if you sign a contract with us, but are free if you decide not to have your biography written, though if you live outside our area, we will need you to pick up our expenses getting to and from the interview.
Biographies, and books in general, can be very lucrative and represent a significant residual income. So if you know anyone that has an interesting life story like that, we maintain a referral program to encourage you to refer other people to us for consideration for writing their biography. If we decide to write the biography of a person that you refer to us, and that biography gets published, we will pay you 1% of the royalties from that work. If the book becomes a best-seller, we will double that percentage, beginning from the date that the book is listed as a best-seller. So if the book becomes a best-seller and generates $100,000/year in royalties, you would receive $2000/year, just for suggesting that we contact the person. What a deal!
We do require that you know the person and have some kind of established relationship with the person. Please understand that just because you refer someone to us, that does not obligate us to pursue that contact. Also, if several people refer the same person to us, the referral award will go to the earliest submittal.
Thanks, and we'll be looking forward to hearing from you and hopefully, publishing your life story!
Click here to see a sample contract. Contracts may vary, depending on the material. Click here to see what we're working on currently.