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A woman in her forties laughs on a sunny porch as her mother reads to her from a book. AI-generated image.

Our book

A real book, word for word.

They answer one question at a time, by typing or just talking. Their answers become a book, ready to print.

Give it — $49Try 3 questions free

$49 plus sales tax, paid once.

Nothing renews · Money back: 30 days, or until a gift is redeemed

Nobody writes a book here.

They answer questions, the way they'd tell it at the kitchen table.

From their voice to the page

They answer at their own pace, writing or speaking. Every answer becomes a page, in their own words.

  1. An older man tells a story with both hands on his front porch while his daughter laughs, her phone recording on the table. AI-generated image.Step 1

    Talk or type

    Talking is enough. It comes back as text, with punctuation; they read it and fix anything misheard.

  2. In a garage workshop, an older man leans toward his son, laughing as he tells him something; the son listens with a mug of coffee in his hands. AI-generated image.Step 2

    One question at a time

    Short questions about their life. Skip any. Take months if they like.

  3. Example cover with an old family photo: Eleanor PriceEleanor Price1943a life told word for wordh
    Step 3

    A cover with their name

    Two designs in three colors, filled in with their name. Photo covers, like this one, are coming soon.

  4. A slim hardcover memoir with an old colour photo of a young woman in overalls on its burgundy cover, resting on a knitted blanket on an armchair, next to a pair of reading glasses. AI-generated image.Step 4

    Set like a real book

    Contents, chapters, a title on every answer, and a colophon. The questions aren't printed.

Turn the pages

The sample book's real pages, straight from the file. Swipe, tap, or use the arrows.

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

See this page large
Read the whole sample (PDF)

Their photos, at the end of each chapter

Up to six photos per chapter, each with the caption they write, in black and white on a page of its own, right after the chapter's last answer.

  • Page 18 of the sample book: the last page of text in the chapter “Love”.
  • Page 19 of the sample book: a black-and-white photo with the caption “On the lake the summer before I met Walter, 1964”.
  • Page 20 of the sample book: a black-and-white photo with the caption “My wedding day, with my mother, June 1966”.
  • Page 21 of the sample book: a black-and-white photo with the caption “Walter's brothers and me at the fire company dance, 1971”.
  • Page 22 of the sample book: a black-and-white photo with the caption “Uncle Frank and me at the Christmas party, 1973”.

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Real pages, laid out by the same program that makes every book. The narrator and the captions are invented; the photos are old ones from our founder's family, shown with their permission.

Printed, it looks like this.

The covers carry made-up names and photos; inside, only their words.

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.
A memoir book lying open on a wooden table, its pages filled with text, next to a cup of tea and reading glasses. AI-generated image.

Printed from the PDF

Word for word

“My father never once used it. To him I was Nell, from the day I came home from the hospital, and he was the only one who ever called me that.”

— What she said

What she said, and her page: the same words. Nothing rewritten. The way she talks is what her family will want to keep.

Helen Brooks is an invented narrator.

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

The book, in short

A5
148 × 210 mm · 5.83 × 8.27 in
32+ pages
Always an even number. The sample, with 19 answers, has 32.
11.5 point
EB Garamond, set like a real book
2 files
The inside, and the cover with its spine worked out
A woman sitting on the kitchen counter smiles as she reads from a slim book, while her grandmother laughs by the stove. AI-generated image.

Type a name. See the cover.

Three covers fill in as you type. What you type stays on this screen; it isn't sent anywhere.

  • a life told
    word for word    Helen Brooks1946h
    The NameSand
  • a life toldWORDforWORDHelen Brooks1946h
    Word for WordOff-white
  • a life told
    word for word    Helen Brooks1946h
    The NamePine green

Covers shown with an example name.

Give it — $49

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

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Sizes and figures

What you buy
A PDF, ready to print
Page size
A5 · 148 × 210 mm (5.83 × 8.27 in)
Type
EB Garamond, 11.5 point
Pages
Always an even number, never fewer than 32. The sample, with 19 answers, has 32.
Files
Two: the inside, and the cover with its spine worked out for the page count
On paper, with our settings
Paperback, cream paper, matte cover, black and white inside

On paper, Lulu prints it, not us, and you pay them directly. A 32-page paperback sent to your country costs $8.48 at Lulu today plus tax. Longer books cost more.

How printing works
The type, at its real size

Bellefonte sat in a valley with hills all around it, and the whole place ran on the limestone. There were quarries north of town and you could hear them some mornings, a sort of thud you felt more than heard. The main street had the courthouse at the top with the big columns, and going down from there the bank, Hoover's drugstore, the five and ten, and at the bottom the spring, which is where the town got its name. The water came up out of the ground clear and so cold it hurt your teeth. My father used to say you could set your watch by that spring, that it never changed, and I suppose it hasn't.

The type at its real size on the page. Screens vary a little.
A woman and her older father laugh at a café window while he shows her his book. AI-generated image.

Give it today. They start whenever.

The gift arrives by email the moment you pay. Or try three questions yourself first, free.

$49 plus sales tax, once · a print-ready PDF book · nothing renews · full refund until the code is redeemed

Give it — $49Try 3 questions free