Is your life worth writing about? If you believe so, maybe you are already writing down your memories? And if not, maybe you are waiting to be encouraged by others? My mum was fortunate enough. As a prize for taking park in charades, she has received from an acquaintance a unique autobiography – her own!
What does such a unique autobiography received as a gift look like?
A beautiful cover features a review encouraging to read the book. It tells about the life of an exceptional person described in a way that captivates the readers from the very first page. The title of the book is “Wonderful Life”. Its author is… the recipient of this gift! Inside, the book is empty. The gift is meant to encourage the alleged author to write down his or her memories: for themselves, for their children or the future generations.
When my mum received this unique autobiography as a gift, she was surprised and startled because she hadn’t written down her thoughts for ages. I was fascinated: the gift looked really professional, and I was certain it motivated many to write.
My dad, in turn, was inspired. Several months later, he drafted his own texts for the back cover. He even went a step further and instead of giving each of his friends a unique autobiography with an identical cover, he wrote a different personalised editor’s note, review and endorsements for each recipient. What is more, he added a bookmark to each book, which informs what this seemingly empty gift is about.
You are holding a gift in your hands, which may become the best keepsake for your children and grandchildren. It is up to you whether it will become one. I strongly encourage you to write down anything, so that in the future your grandchildren may read with tears in their eyes how you…
What else can you contain in a unique autobiography?
Apart from singing praises of each of the recipients, their life and style of writing, my dad also wanted to recommend to them – in an unobvious way – some of his favourite books, by means of well-chosen similes.
The book absorbs readers like “The Magician’s Apprentice” fantasy fans, “Harry Potter” young adults or “The Witches” history lovers. All of these masterpieces were written by outstanding female writers, just like the author of this autobiography.
Where can you publish the unique autobiography?
An autobiography, as a definition, should be written by its author. Someone needs to publish it, though. How can you find the publisher? Write to several printing houses asking them if they would print a single copy of your design. Most printing houses are only interested in mass production. However, if it pays to them, they may squeeze in printing a single copy between their other jobs. The cost may be smaller than expected due to the fact that almost all the pages are to be empty. The only parts that are to be printed are the book cover and, perhaps, the editor’s note inside.
If I received such a gift, I would definitely be encouraged to write down my memories. And how about you and your loved ones?
My advice:
– Don’t be discouraged by a lack of writing skills. Go to a library and pick sentences from reviews that appeal to you most. You will only need to adjust them a little, and your professional review will be ready!
– If you enjoy creative writing and fear that the recipient will never fill the pages of their unique autobiography, write it instead! I have once given such an autobiography to a boyfriend, including some events that were to happen in the future.
– I don’t recommend printing the unique autobiography as a photo book. The printing house will charge you less for the empty pages, while a photo book will cost the same no matter whether it is filled with your photos or totally empty, which makes a considerable difference when it is 150-300 pages thick.
– A unique autobiography should be sewn not glued. This way it will not fall apart due to frequent writing and reading.
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