The answers you need to start your company’s corporate anniversary history book project today.
How long does it take to publish a corporate history book celebrating our company’s anniversary?
Some organizations contact Write Stuff Enterprises five or six years in advance of a major corporate milestone, such as a significant anniversary. Other companies may need their corporate history book available much sooner, anywhere from a year to 18 months after contacting us. Our quickest anniversary history book turnaround is nine months, and our longest (by request) is six years. The average length of time for an anniversary history book is around 18 months.
Our corporate anniversary or special event is still three or four years away. Should we wait to begin?
It’s important to start as soon as possible to preserve essential oral histories critical to your company’s anniversary history book. Write Stuff Enterprises can design a “smart start” schedule to synchronize with your organization’s requirements. By starting early you can also spread the cost of your anniversary history book over several fiscal years.
Our staff is extremely busy. Is our company’s history book going to take up a lot of our time?
Most employees never realize Write Stuff Enterprises is working on your company’s history book until shortly before its publication. Write Stuff’s research team quietly and efficiently gathers the information we need. Our turnkey process is designed to minimize the time investment on your organization’s part.
We don’t really have what you would consider “archives.” Can we still do a corporate anniversary history book?
Write Stuff Enterprises has seen the best and the worst of corporate archives and we have become resourceful at adapting our research accordingly. Companies that tell us they lack corporate archives are very impressed with the degree of historic detail and breadth of anecdotal narrative we are able to provide in our corporate anniversary history books.
We are more interested in a corporate anniversary book about our future than our past. Can you help us?
That is a common concern. Write Stuff Enterprises prides itself on providing our corporate history subjects with an effective tool for potential acquisitions, sales, marketing, promotion, recruiting, and sustained growth. Write Stuff can publish a corporate anniversary or company history book that supports where you’ve been in a way that illuminates where you’re going.
How will you ensure that our company’s history is told accurately?
Write Stuff Enterprises’ research teams use many sources of information, including antecedent works, company annual reports, corporate newsletters, published articles, executive speeches, and industry trade publications, as well as library and historical society archives. We also interview a wide spectrum of executives, veteran employees, retirees, industry authorities, technical experts, and, with your guidance, key customers and vendors.
How many individuals are typically interviewed, and how long does each interview take?
Our interviews are brief (about 40 minutes to an hour) and well researched. Write Stuff Enterprises promises to remain flexible in deference to the important responsibilities of your corporate leadership and all interviewees. We begin with a list of approximately 30 nominees. During these interviews, additional names are often nominated. We make note of these nominations and share them with our corporate liaisons, who may approve the suggestions. For every company history book Write Stuff publishes, we usually interview between 40 and 60 individuals.
How will a major revision be avoided?
Write Stuff Enterprises begins with the submission of a comprehensive outline. Once approved, your company history manuscript will be presented incrementally, two or three chapters at a time. From our first meeting to the final delivery of your corporate anniversary history book, Write Stuff’s process is custom-contoured to achieve your corporate goals and to exceed your expectations.
How are you going to please all of the reviewers who will have a say in the final company history manuscript?
Pleasing different readers can be a challenge, and that’s why most organizations turn to Write Stuff Enterprises rather than overwhelm already stressed internal corporate staff to undertake this challenging effort. More than three decades of corporate publishing experience have taught us the importance of ensuring that your corporate history book will be well-balanced and accommodate the widest range of voices.
Can we publish our corporate anniversary or history book in multiple languages?
In addition to English, Write Stuff Enterprises has published corporate anniversaries and histories in Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. We have a superb system for parallel English and foreign language history book manuscript development. Once you have approved our English manuscript, translation of those chapters begins right away. Write Stuff has even published a single, dual language English/Portuguese company history book and we would be happy to do the same for you in any two languages you choose.