My father-in-law has led a very interesting, purpose driven life. He has stories about growing up in an agricultural part of New York State, then joining the military, and travelling the world in retirement. He has an interest in geneology and has researched his family tree to the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. It is a story worth telling, and after he gathered his ideas in a Open Office and/or MS-Word document, it was decided to publish the book.
It's good to have an editor in the family. Reviewing stories to build a narrative while not bruising someone's writing style is a talent -- much more than can be accomplished with a spell and grammar checker. Maybe artificial intelligence is catching up, but it's not what I would trust valuable stories to ... yet.
Once the book is somewhat complete, its time to get the government involved by getting a copyright and international standard book number (ISBN). The US Copyright office has a wonderful website for newbies to navigate. I still required some help to complete the process. The staff was helpful and knowledgeable.
Finally, I contacted https://48Hourbooks.com to turn the document into a three-dimensional object. I recommend their services to anyone with similar aspirations. They were able to get the table of contents, dedications, and chapters formatted into a state where it was easy to imagine what the finished product would look like. They have people who can help with the cover design. It was a happy day when the box arrived on the front porch with 100 copies of the book.