From a first conversation to the finished book
Whether it’s a parent’s story, a partner’s or your own, this is how it happens: every stage, who does what, and what we’ll ask of you and your family along the way.
The first conversation
It starts with a conversation with you, and with your parent if they’d like to join. You’ll speak with the person who will coordinate your book from start to finish.
It starts with a conversation with you about your life and what you’d like the book to hold. You’ll speak with the person who will coordinate your book from start to finish.
We’ll ask whether there’s a date you’re working toward, and anything about health or energy that should shape the pace of the interviews. It’s free and can be by phone or video.
Afterward we recommend an edition, explain why, and send a written proposal with the scope, the timeline and the price. Work begins only when you approve it.
Before We Sit Down
Once you’ve approved the proposal, we email Before We Sit Down, a short digital packet of questions to get memories moving before the first interview. The questions start easy: the houses they lived in, the people who raised them, the stories they already know belong in the book. They can read it on screen, or print it and keep notes beside them during the interviews. None of it is required, and nothing has to be finished.
The interviews
Two-hour conversations by video, from the chair they know best. A professional interviewer guides each one from the other side of the screen. Nobody has to travel, and nobody new has to keep coming through the front door.
The number of conversations depends on the edition, from four to eleven or more; your proposal sets the exact number. Every conversation is recorded, so nothing depends on anyone’s notes, and your family can receive the recordings.
Two-hour conversations by video, from the chair you know best. A professional interviewer guides each one from the other side of the screen. The number of conversations depends on the edition, from four to eleven or more; your proposal sets the exact number. Every conversation is recorded, so nothing depends on anyone’s notes, and your family can receive the recordings.
What the conversations cover
We usually start early: where they grew up, who raised them, the house and the street. From there it moves through the first job, how they met, the children, the moves, the work they did and why. The hard years come up too, when they’re ready.
And we ask what they’d want the people after them to know. How to run a business. How to stay married. What they’d tell a grandchild just starting out.
If their health changes
Tell us at the start if they tire easily or are unwell, so we can plan the pace with you. Interviews can be moved to new dates that work for everyone.
Everyone can add something
The interviews stay focused on the person whose book it is. That’s what lets them relax and go at their own pace.
Children, siblings and grandchildren can send their own stories, photographs, letters, recipes and documents, and help check a name or date when one needs checking. Whatever belongs to the story finds its place in the book.
Writing and review
A writer on our team turns the recorded conversations into a narrative, built around what explains who they became rather than a list of what happened in which year. A proofreader checks every chapter before your family reads it. Before the writing starts, your family chooses how the book should sound.
In their own voice
The book reads as if they’re telling it to you. “I was nine when we moved to Waterbury.” Their phrases and their humor stay in. It suits someone who loves to talk, and a family that wants to keep hearing them.
As a biography
A narrator tells their story. “She was nine when the family moved to Waterbury.” There’s more room to explain the times they lived through and to bring in what others remember. It suits someone modest about their own life, a story that runs through big events, or memories that have started to thin.
Not sure? We’ll recommend one after the first conversation and explain why.
Will it sound like them?
We write from the recordings, not from summaries, so the way they tell a story carries into the book. If a line doesn’t sound like them, tell us and we’ll change it.
You read every chapter before it’s printed
As chapters are finished, your family reads them. Correct a name, add something that was missed, soften a passage, or take out a story that belongs to the family and not to the book. We make the changes and send them back.
The book goes to design only when you’ve approved the manuscript, and to print only when you’ve approved the final proof. This is the stage where your family’s time counts most, so take your time with it.
Design, printing and delivery
While the writing is underway, we restore the photographs you’ve sent. Then the approved manuscript is designed: the pages, the cover and the dust jacket. After you approve the final proof, the book is printed, sewn and bound, and your copies go to you or to whoever you’d like. On request, we also send your family a digital copy of the finished book.
How long it takes
Most books take three to six months from the first interview to delivery. Where yours falls depends on the edition, how the interviews fit around everyone’s schedule, and how long your family spends with the chapters. The Legacy usually sits at the longer end.
If you’re working toward a birthday or anniversary, mention it in the first conversation and we’ll plan back from it.
We’re a small team and we work on one book at a time, so each family has our full attention. Interviews can move to new dates that suit everyone, and the FAQ covers payment, rescheduling and cancellation.
One point of contact, start to finish
From the first conversation to the day the books arrive, your project manager coordinates the work and answers your questions. The interviewer, the writer and the proofreader each have their part, and you won’t be handed from person to person or have to explain your family twice.
Ready when you are. The first step is a conversation.
Start a Conversation