The book provides practical guidelines for the layman who is interested in researching, writing, and publishing local history. Two standards considered to be essential to the writing of local history are ethics and competence. The three aspects of competence which are discussed focus on researching, writing, and publishing. Chapter I identifies three questions to help the researcher keep the topic narrow, specific, and simple: (1) how does one choose between conflicting statements in different sources? (2) how does one prove that something happened according to the best evidence? And (3) how does an author deal with motivation? A variety of information sources are identified, including libraries, pictures, maps, physical remains, and records of churches, governments, and organizations. Chapter ii contains suggestions for the writing of history, including use of quotations, books, periodicals, documentation, footnotes, references, abbreviations, editing, and translations. Draft writing, re-writing, and editing for publication are discussed. Chapter iii focuses on private publication possibilities. Topics include design considerations, display types, typeface, paper, illustrations, choosing a printer, refining specifications, composition, proofreading, promoting and marketing the book and pricing. A bibliography is included.