Frequently Asked Questions

Below, we answer the questions most often asked by those thinking of writing their own memoir or gifting a project. If you have questions that we don’t address here, please contact us.

LifeBooks explained

A LifeBook is a private autobiography or memoir, written and produced by us on your behalf, in collaboration with you.

Private autobiographies and memoirs are much the same as public ones in that they record and preserve memories and life stories in both words and pictures. Unlike public works, however, private autobiographies and memoirs are not published or made available to the public. They are created exclusively for the author to share with family, friends and select audiences.

Crafted to the highest standards, LifeBooks represent exceptional craftsmanship and stand as the epitome of quality. Typically, they go on to become treasured heirlooms, passed down through the generations as enduring symbols of family history and personal legacy.

Anyone can have a LifeBook, no matter your background. Whether you’ve led a quiet life or an extraordinary one, a life lived behind the scenes or one spent in the spotlight, your story deserves to be preserved with care and craftsmanship. Everyone has a unique life story to tell.

Yes. You absolutely can gift a LifeBook project to a family member or a friend. A LifeBook project makes a meaningful and personal gift that will enable them to capture their life stories in a beautifully crafted book. Our team will work closely with them to ensure their unique experiences and memories are preserved for generations to come. Find out more about gifting LifeBook projects here.

Signature LifeBooks are professionally printed, section-sewn, linen-bound hardback books measuring 260mm x 225mm. They can be up to 300 pages in length and include up to 75,000 words and up to 200 photographs. Our Signature package also includes one leather-bound author’s copy of the book.

Imperial LifeBooks are professionally printed, section-sewn, linen-bound hardback books measuring 300mm x 200mm. They can be up to 250 pages in length and include up to 50,000 words and up to 120 photographs.

Royal LifeBooks are professionally printed, section-sewn, linen-bound hardback books measuring 234mm x 156mm. They can be up to 200 pages in length and include up to 45,000 words and up to 60 photographs.

Our autobiographies are private and confidential, so we cannot show you a completed book. However, you can read some approved extracts and author testimonials on our website.

  • We offer a 14-day money-back guarantee from the date of purchase.
  • We provide the utmost care and a professional approach.
  • We protect your confidentiality. All our interviewers undergo thorough background checks and training.
  • We assign a project manager to oversee each individual project from start to finish.
  • Our company is based on integrity and respect, and we enjoy mutual respect with our clients.

You may cancel your contract at any time following the serving of the required notice. See our Terms and Conditions for full details.

All employees and associates of LifeBook Memoirs are subject to rigorous confidentiality clauses within their contracts. The Author Consent form confirms our commitment to confidentiality.

LifeBook Memoirs Ltd will own all copyright until your book is completed, paid for in full and handed over to you, the author. Thereafter, the copyright of the text will belong to you. See our Terms and Conditions for full details.

How LifeBook projects work

No. We welcome anyone who would like to turn their memories and stories into a LifeBook.

You will have a series of recorded face-to-face interviews. The recordings will be passed to one of our professional ghostwriters, who will write your story. Throughout the writing process, you will receive regular review copies to read, amend (if necessary) and approve.

From the outset, you will be appointed a personal project manager who will co-ordinate and monitor your project from beginning to end. They will be on hand to answer any questions you may have.

Your personal project team will consist of a project manager, an interviewer, a ghostwriter, an editor and a proofreader.

  • All our project managers have extensive experience of their craft. They will co-ordinate and oversee the various members of your project team.
  • Our friendly interviewers are skilled in the arts of listening and prompting reminiscences. They undergo full custom training and are subject to full background checks appropriate for the country in which you and they live.
  • Our ghostwriters are highly qualified writers with backgrounds in media, journalism or academia. They will capture your story in your chosen tone and voice and write a book of which you can feel truly proud.
  • Our editors and proofreaders will scrutinise your manuscript to ensure that it is error-free, that it reflects your personality and that it reads beautifully.
  • Your project team will also include our typesetter and our bookbinders, all of whom work to an exceptional standard.

Our HR department oversees a large pool of proven interviewers and ghostwriters. When recruiting, we will carefully select experienced professionals who are suited to you and your story. Each interviewer undergoes background checks and custom training, during which they are evaluated. Though their personalities naturally vary, all our interviewers are empathetic, skilled in active listening and questioning and respectful of privacy. They are open-minded, mature and trained to follow professional guidelines.

The time it takes to complete your project will depend on the package you purchase. On average, from the first interview to the books being sent to print, Signature projects take eight months, Imperial projects take seven months and Royal projects take six months.

Yes. We can modify the time frame of your project to suit your personal requirements, though our experience shows that regular weekly interviews are ideal. Please feel free to ask us about options and costs for extending the project time frame. (Long delays may incur additional charges; see our Terms and Conditions for full details.)

We will postpone your remaining interviews until you are well enough to continue and reschedule them to suit your recovery and availability. Long delays may incur a nominal restart charge.

If you become too ill to continue or you do not wish to complete your project for any reason, you can cancel the contract. This would need to be done in writing, in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.

Your personal project manager will monitor each interview session as well as your ghostwriter’s progress and will regularly update you on developments. You are free to discuss any aspect of the book with your project manager at any time.

Our interviewers are trained to provide an enjoyable experience, and they will actively seek feedback during the process to accommodate your wishes and disposition. If you are not happy, you should contact your project manager and, if a satisfactory outcome cannot be reached, you can terminate your contract. Please see our Terms and Conditions for full details.

You can cancel at any time with just one month’s notice, in writing, so that we can notify the interviewer and ghostwriter. Please see our Terms and Conditions for full details.

Your interviews

Our interviewers will meet you at your home or a mutually agreed-upon quiet, private location. Each interview meeting will last for 90 minutes, and each photo-scanning session will last for 120 minutes. The Final Edit meeting will last for 210 minutes on Signature projects and for 150 minutes on Imperial and Royal projects.

The number of meetings you have will depend on the package you purchase.

For Signature projects, there will be 17 meetings:

  • 12 x 90-minute information-gathering interviews
  • 3 x 120-minute photo-scanning sessions (no content collected)
  • 1 x 90-minute Main Review meeting
  • 1 x 210-minute Final Edit (Sign-Off to Typeset) and Audio Highlights Recording meeting

For Imperial projects, there will be 14 meetings:

  • 10 x 90-minute information-gathering interviews
  • 2 x 120-minute photo-scanning sessions (no content collected)
  • 1 x 90-minute Main Review meeting
  • 1 x 150-minute Final Edit (Sign-Off to Typeset) and Audio Highlights Recording meeting

For Royal projects, there will be 12 meetings:

  • 9 x 90-minute information-gathering interviews
  • 1 x 120-minute photo-scanning session (no content collected)
  • 1 x 90-minute Main Review meeting
  • 1 x 150-minute Final Edit (Sign-Off to Typeset) and Audio Highlights Recording meeting

The author–interviewer relationship is a very important one, so we will carefully select your interviewer based on your requirements and the personal background check information provided to us. Your interviewer will be locally based and fully trained to guide your recounting experience and to prompt reminiscences.

The author–interviewer relationship is a very important one, so we will carefully select your interviewer based on your requirements and the personal background check information provided to us. Your interviewer will be locally based and fully trained to guide your recounting experience and to prompt reminiscences.

We have designed our interviews to fully engage you with an enjoyable activity, so we recommend that you have your interviews alone. We have found that additional family attendees, although well-meaning, can sometimes distract the storyteller and thus detract from the interviews.

Yes. We will regularly send review copies of your manuscript to keep you updated on its progress, and you will discuss these reviews with your interviewer. With your consent, these reviews may be shared with family members for them to read. However, only you, the author, can consolidate and confirm the changes that you would like made to your manuscript. Please see our Terms and Conditions for full details.

We have a vast team of trained and background-checked interviewers. If we don’t already have someone suitable and available in your area, we will start the selection-and-training process. In our experience, this typically takes from two to eight weeks.

The skill of our selection team is demonstrated by the fact that, with more than 1,000 projects completed to date, we have rarely needed to change an interviewer. We do, however, recognise the importance of a strong rapport being built between you and your interviewer. Therefore, if you have any concerns following your first interview, please do not hesitate to contact your project manager to discuss any issues with them.

Your writing and your content

Your ghostwriter will be selected from our team of professional and experienced writers. All our ghostwriters are assessed before joining our team and trained before taking on a LifeBook project. This ensures that they are suited to our projects and that they have the skills essential to writing an engaging, flowing autobiography or memoir.

Your ghostwriter will craft your manuscript in the style and structure you select during your first interview. You will receive regular review copies to further shape the narrative. If, after choosing from our samples, you prefer a different approach, we can provide a short rewritten sample following your first review, based on your feedback. Once you have approved the sample, we will rewrite the first review to match your chosen style. For further rewrites, please consult your project manager, as additional charges may apply. Refer to our Terms and Conditions for details.

This decision is, of course, entirely down to you. The book will take whichever form you choose. We find that most authors tend to adopt a chronological structure, but, of course, we are happy to offer assistance and advice to help you make the best choice.

Your ghostwriter will be contracted to work on the content from your interviews only, but we can incorporate your past work or writing for an additional fee. Alternatively, you may read your pre-written material during the interviews, and this will count as part of your interview time. If you have written material, please discuss it with your project manager early on.

Your LifeBook will be your legacy, so it will include only the stories that you want to share. If a story emerges during your interviews and, later in the process, you change your mind about including it in your book, it can be removed. Nothing will go to print without you seeing and approving it first.

This is your story. It will cover as much or as little as you want to say and reflect your specific memories. We cannot and do not fact-check anything, and you are responsible for your own content.

No. Your project team will include both a professional editor and a professional proofreader who will review spelling and grammar. They will also ensure consistency and structure in your story.

Your photographs

Yes. Documents, images and photographs can all be included in your book. You do not need to send the originals to us because your interviewer will scan them for you.

Where necessary, scanned images can be digitally remastered and enhanced at an additional cost.

Digital photos may look great on screen, but they won’t always print well in your book, so it is important that we review their quality before use. If you have digital photos, please inform your project manager to discuss options.

If you provide more photos to be scanned than are included in your project package, additional charges will apply for scanning and processing, even if they aren’t used in the final book. Please note, we scan all provided photos upfront – we don’t scan to narrow down the selection. You can, of course, purchase additional photos, and your project manager will be happy to discuss options.

You can choose between placing your photos at the end of each chapter or in a standalone section at the end or in the middle of the book. With Signature projects, there is the additional option of bespoke photo placement, where photos are flowed through the text to appear at the points where they are relevant. Bespoke photo placement is available with Imperial and Royal projects at an additional cost. If you would like this, please contact your project manager. They will happily discuss this option with you.

Enhancing your LifeBook project

Yes. We would not want you to feel that you have to leave out a precious story or a photograph, but the additional work required to accommodate this will incur a charge. Your project manager can discuss this with you.

Yes. You may purchase extra copies at any time. The minimum number of additional hardback linen books you can order is two. Your project manager will be happy to arrange this for you.

After your project

For confidentiality reasons, we cannot share the unedited audio recordings of your interviews. However, we do have a project enhancement available that enables us to match the audio to the edited copy as it appears in your finished book. Please contact your project manager if you would like to discuss this further.

Yes. The members of our project teams are all English-speaking, so they are unable to manage new projects in different languages, but we can, for an additional fee, arrange for your completed book to be professionally translated into another language. Please contact your project manager if this interests you.

Once completed, the copies of your autobiography or memoir that you have received will belong to you. You are responsible for any libel, breach of privacy, copyright infringement or similar risks. See our Terms and Conditions and the Author Consent form for full details.