"You don’t have to be rich and famous to warrant a memoir or biography," says Dawn Sakamoto, director of sales and marketing at Watermark Publishing.
To prove the point, the local publisher started Legacy Isle Publishing to help those who want to chronicle their personal, family or business history. The self-publishing imprint offers editing and design services and will print the books, meant as gifts and keepsakes.
"Editing and production are done here in Hawaii by local professionals," she said. "We take the client’s manuscript and digital photograph files and complete the editing and layout.
"Having done biographies of Tom Moffatt, Don Ho and Ben Cayetano, it was a natural progression to offer this service."
So far Legacy Isle has handled about a dozen titles. If a book attracts broader interest, it may be offered for sale to the public, which was the case with former state Sen. Fred Rohlfing’s 280-page memoir "Island Son: The Life and Times of Hawai‘i’s Republican Reformer."
The listed services the publisher offers can run from a minimum of $3,950 for an e-book-only package to a $6,450 professional package meant for a broader reader market.
"The first qualification of the imprint is that we don’t do fiction or poetry," said Watermark publisher George Engebretson. "Legacy Isle will only do nonfiction or children’s fiction. And there’s an editorial review process in dealing with manuscripts."
Sakamoto said there’s always been a stigma attached to self-publishing, sometimes referred to as "vanity publishing."
"But not anymore," she said. "I promise that once a client chooses to publish a book with us, it won’t reflect badly on them. Even if the run is only 50 copies, we promise a bookstore-quality product that can be proudly passed on to family and friends."
The average time from manuscript to finished product is between three and four months. "We set a limit on the number of revisions a manuscript goes through," she said. "We ideally hope that when one is submitted to us, it should be ready to go."
Two Legacy Isle books in the works are one about the late Rev. Paul Osumi and his popular "Today’s Thought" newspaper column from a manuscript by his son Norman, and a combination estate planning workbook and memoir from the law offices of Stephen Yim.
As part of the Hawaii Book & Music Festival, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday at the Frank S. Fasi Civic Grounds at Honolulu Hale, there will be panel discussions on "Telling Lives: The Art and Practice of Biography and Memoir." Watermark will be able to provide additional information at its booth at the festival, or at legacyislepublishing.net.
