How to gather stories for a book

toplay · Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:00 pm Post subject: How to gather stories for a book

Hello,

I'm embarking on my first book and I wish to enlist and incorporate peoples true stories into the book (similar to Chicken Soup of the Soul).

I'm wondering do I have to get people to sign something to give me permission to use their story in the book?

Do I have to compensate people for their stories?

How or where can one ask for stories (forums/craigslist)?

Please share any information that you think would be pertinent.

I'm sorry if this is not the right topic area to post this.

Thank you.

shawnrohrbach · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 12:35 pm Post subject:

For my book "Open Your Heart with Bicycling..." (winner, 2008 Indie Book Award I included interviews and personal stories from people who have all levels of experience in the cycling industry. I did not compensate any of them, and we agreed to that up front. I also did not have to gather any signed authorization from these people. Mostly, I found people more than willing to work with me especially if they knew their names would appear in print. It helped that I already had a commitment from my publisher to publish the book. I was very careful to give proper attribution to specific quotes and facts that they had generated. I found people, yes, through Caigslist, but also through industry contacts and folks I knew from the past. Cast a wide net. My editor went through a fairly rigorous fact checking process and contacted most of the people in the book to verify they said what I wrote.


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