What's a word for a person who took a very rough story and made it into a book?

Question

I have written a book.Well, actually, my mother-in-law told the story of her experiences as a German forced laborer in the Soviet Union after World War II. This was given in German and recorded onto audio tape about thirty years ago by my sister-in-law. My S.I.L. later transcribed the story in German onto twenty or so tightly typewritten foolscap sheets, and a few years ago she gave us a copy of this. My wife and I eventually translated this into very rough English (we both speak German, my wife being a native speaker). It is quite a story and we have determined to self-publish it as a book. It's basically finished at this point. So this is what I need: a word (or two) for my having put it into a final form for the book.See, the original telling was done pretty much as it occurred to her to tell it, and it tends to get lost in parts, backtrack, go forward, and around the bend at times. The final version is still her story, but it has been reworked into what I hope is a readable and understandable whole, with a beginning, a middle and an end. I've also done a spot of research on historical matters pertaining to the story, and because some words she used were Russian, I used Google Translate and the Russian Language SE to get some more information. On the title page, I am giving the title of the book, followed by a subtitle, then the author attribution.Below the author attribution (she is now deceased, btw), I want to indicate that the work is a transcription and a translation of the original tale, and the word I need is for the really hard part, putting it into a coherent form for publication. Here's what I got, so far:> by <my mother-in-law>> > As told to her daughter <my sister-in-law>. > Translated by her daughter <my wife> > and xxxxed by <me>What is that word (or words) in the xxx's? Arranged? Edited? What? Or, as someone on the ELU SE said, perhaps I shouldn't even be mentioned at all? Although the form it was in before I worked on it for a few months was completely unpublishable.

Answer 1

This looks to me like a biography written from interviews with a living (at the time) subject. Since you used the interviews as primary source material, supplemented with historical research materials as secondary sources, you are the author. If you were publishing this professionally, the authorship credit would probably be part of legal negotiations in your contract. If you want to grant the main authorship to your MIL for personal reasons, a co-authorship makes sense. TITLE by MIL NAME with YOUR NAME. The "with" acknowledges that the life story comes from her and the writing comes from you.

It sounds like giving proper credit to everyone who participated in the process is important to your whole family and certainly no one should be left out. This is why books have acknowledgement sections. Professional translators and transcribers are definitely given proper credit, as are research assistants and anyone else who helped the person with their name on the cover as "author".

In your case, it would also make sense to add an introduction detailing the creation of your book, just as you described above. No need to limit yourself to one word to explain each person's contribution. How your whole family collaborated on the project is an integral part of the larger story of your family history. What better way to bring your MIL's story into the present than to tell readers about your generation's work to keep the history alive?