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A mother laughs on the sofa as she reads aloud from a slim book, with her three grown children around her. AI-generated image.

The book of their life, made from their answers. Word for word.

Give it as a giftTry 3 questions free
Read the sample

$49 plus sales tax, one payment. The code reaches you by email the moment you pay. Money back: 30 days, or until a gift is redeemed.

Word for word

What you say is what gets printed, exactly as you said it.

Nobody rewrites your sentences or makes anything up for you.

We don’t write in your voice. No machine drafts, rewrites or polishes your answers: they only transcribe what you say. We don’t train models on what you tell us either.

Where we use AI, and where we don’t

How it works

You answer questions about your life, writing or speaking, at whatever pace suits you. What you said is set into a book — A5, typeset, with its chapters and its contents page — and you download it as a PDF and print it anywhere. Twenty-one questions are enough for a whole book, and they fit in an afternoon if you feel like it.

  1. An older woman talks at her kitchen table, her phone in front of her, next to a cup of tea. AI-generated image.Step 1

    You answer, one at a time

    One question whenever you feel like it. Speaking or writing. It saves itself, and you can stop and pick up again another day.

  2. A page from the sample book: The text. One answer after another, each under a short title.
    Step 2

    You watch your book grow

    From the first answer there is already a book, typeset and with its contents page. The first three questions are free; with one payment you can read all of it and download it.

  3. A woman and her older father laugh at a café window while he shows her his book. AI-generated image.Step 3

    You take it with you

    Download the PDF and print it wherever you like, as many times as you like. It’s yours.Printed from the PDF

Three slim hardcover memoir books with old family photos on their covers, lying on a wooden table next to a cup of tea. AI-generated image.
Printed from the PDFThe names and photos on these covers are made up.

The sample book

Pages from “a life told word for word”, by Helen Brooks, born 1946 in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Helen is an invented narrator. Everything else on these pages is real: the typesetting, the contents page built from her own titles, and the A5 size ready to print.

Read the whole bookSee every page and cover

The eight chapters

  1. IWhere I come from
  2. IIChildhood
  3. IIIGrowing up
  4. IVLoveoptional
  5. VWorkoptional
  6. VIThe family I madeoptional
  7. VIIPlaces
  8. VIIIWhat I've learned
A page from the sample book: The contents: each chapter, and each answer with its page.
The contents: each chapter, and each answer with its page.

Two designs, three colors

Two designs, lettering only: your name as large as the title of a novel, or the title itself as the picture. You choose at the end, when the book already exists, and you can change your mind afterwards.

Photo covers

Made with old photos from our founder's family, with permission. Names are made up.

  • Example cover with an old family photo: Ruth Callahana life told word for wordRuth Callahan1940h
  • Example cover with an old family photo: Linda Morgana life told
    word for word    Linda Morgan1951h
  • Example cover with an old family photo: Eleanor PriceEleanor Price1943a life told word for wordh
  • Example cover with an old family photo: Diane Fostera life told
    word for word    Diane Foster1952h
  • Example cover with an old family photo: Margaret HaleMargaret Hale1944a life told word for word
  • Example cover with an old family photo: Joan WhitakerJoan Whitaker1941a life told
    word for word    h
  • a life told
    word for word    Example cover with an old family photo: Dorothy ByrneDorothy Byrne1938h
  • Example cover with an old family photo: Nancy EllisonNancy Ellison1946a life told
    word for word    h

1 of 8

Price

$49

One payment. Try it first: answer three questions free and see your book begin. Nothing to cancel, nothing renews.

Sales tax is added where your state applies it, and you see the total before you pay.

Give it as a giftTry 3 questions free

What's included

  • Your book as a PDF, A5, ready to print wherever you like.
  • No limit on how many questions you answer.
  • No subscription and no expiry date: the file is yours for good.
  • Money back: 30 days, or until a gift is redeemed.

The gift

It can be given: you buy a code, the other person answers, and the buyer never sees a word of the book.

An older woman laughs as she and her grown daughter read a book together on the sofa. AI-generated image.An older woman laughs as she and her grown daughter read a book together on the sofa. AI-generated image.

Printed from the PDF

Three ways to give it

  1. By email, today.

    It goes out as soon as you've paid.

  2. By email, on the day you choose.

    Christmas, a birthday, Mother's Day: it goes out that morning, US time.

  3. A card to give by hand.

    Print it tonight and put it in an envelope. The code is on the card.

Give it — $49See every page and cover

$49 plus sales tax · Paid once, nothing renews · Full refund until it's redeemed

Giving it at Christmas? The code arrives by email the moment you pay, or you print the card tonight. How a last-minute gift arrives

Example

heirleaf

A life, word for word

For Margaret

“For all the stories you tell at Sunday lunch.”

Linda

Your code

ABCDE-12345

heirleaf.com/redeem

Or point your phone's camera here: it opens with the code already in.

A book of your life, written or told by you. Go to the address above, type in the code and start whenever you like. There is no account and no password, and it's paid for. The code doesn't expire, and the book is yours for good.

Example card: the names and the code are invented.

Before you decide

More questions people ask us
Do they need a computer?

No, a phone is enough, and they can talk instead of typing. Someone can sit with them the first time; after that they can carry on alone. More questions people ask us

What if they never finish?

Every answer is already part of the book. Twenty-one answers make a whole book; six make a shorter one, typeset just the same, with its contents page and its cover.

Will I know if they've started?

Only whether the code has been redeemed, on the page where you got it. Nothing else: not their answers, and not how far along they are.

How does the gift reach them?
  • By email, today. It goes out as soon as you've paid.
  • By email, on the day you choose. Christmas, a birthday, Mother's Day: it goes out that morning, US time.
  • A card to give by hand. Print it tonight and put it in an envelope. The code is on the card.
Can I get my money back?

Thirty days, no explanation needed, even if you've already downloaded the book. If it was a gift, for as long as the code hasn't been redeemed, up to ninety days after paying.

Not ready yet? Start with the questions.

Free lists to print, no email needed. Ask them over coffee, or on the phone.

Thanksgiving questions to ask your grandparents, with place cardsComparing Storyworth alternatives?

An older man on a garden bench laughs as he records a voice message on his phone. AI-generated image.

Start answering

It saves itself. You can answer one question today and pick up again in March.

Try 3 questions freeRead the sample