Are you writing your memoir? Do you plan to include pictures? Recently, I self-published my memoir and during the time between turning in my manuscript to the printer and approving the final proof, I had sleepless nights over the photographs placed in the book. I was continually notified that many of my photographs were of low resolution. Especially the color photos that were decades old and faded. To me, the original photographs I held in my hand looked fine- - but digitally they were a disaster. Some of my photos were nearly 100 years old, so I took pictures with my iPhone, but found out that even though they looked great on the iPhone, the resolution was far below the 300 dpi required for the printed book. I tried everything. Scanning the photos with my fax/scan/printer. That didn't work at all. Very grainy. More notices from the printer. I went outside in natural light and took pictures of the pictures with my camera. That gave me 300 dpi and enough to get the book finalized and printed. BUT - - when I received the actual printed book, the pictures were not as good as I had hoped for, but I accepted the fact that I did the best I could with the knowledge I had.
Now, for the next book, I am ready. A good friend introduced me to her photo scanner -- - I had never seen or used one - - and voila! What a difference. I immediately purchased one just like hers. I'm not an influencer on YouTube, of course, but I will tell you that the Canon Image Formula RS40 is amazing. Easy to use, doesn't take up a lot of space on the desk (about one square foot) and produces beautiful results. OH! If I had only known!