The art of making beautiful memoirs
How do you make high-quality memoirs? Is it possible to make a luxurious, beautiful and long-lasting tome telling your life story without paying the sums charged by the ghostwriters of the rich and famous? In this article, we discuss LifeBook’s approach to making high-quality memoirs and, more importantly, why the materials and methods are so important.
We are also sharing a video of Francis Atterbury discussing the topic with our founder Roy. Francis was the bookbinding expert who helped us establish our new way of making premium memoirs back in 2018.
The importance of a high quality paper
When we are creating our authors’ autobiographies or memoirs, our bookbinders use Mohawk Super Fine. It is one of the finest printing papers made today with an unrivalled reputation for quality, consistency and uniformity.
The archival quality means that the paper will preserve the quality of the photographs and text for generations of family and friends to come. The paper is guaranteed to last over 100 years. After all the hard work penning a memoir, nobody would want the effort to go to waste.
Moreover, to provide a rich and tactile experience when you turn the pages, we use a thick (148gsm) paper stock.
Section-sewn and linen-bound books
Printing, stitching and binding are specialist crafts. At LifeBook we section-sew our memoirs. The book is, in fact, made in sections and sewn into the whole. This way any page opened will lie flat. It’s easier to read this way and it will never split.
Then there is the linen cover. We have chosen linen for its natural, long-lasting and luxurious qualities.
To complete the premium appearance of the book, we emboss the author’s name and unique story title in either silver or gold on the front cover of their LifeBook.
Finally, after usually six months, our meticulous work by the project manager, interviewer, ghostwriter, editor, proofreader, designer, typesetter and bookbinder is finalised and the memoirs are wrapped in their bespoke dust jackets, placed in the gift box and shipped directly to the customer.
Bookbinding expert Francis Atterbury
Francis has been very involved with LifeBook over the years and particularly when we changed our bookbinding methodology and materials in 2018. He has kindly shared his thoughts with us in this video.
If you are interested in penning your story, please get in touch with us. You can also find memoir and autobiography testimonials from our many authors and gifters here.
