Family memoir, Storyworth, or a ghostwriter?
Three good ways to keep a parent's story, and a plain look at which one suits your family.
Three different kinds of help
When a mother or father is in their late seventies or eighties, the question is no longer whether to keep their story, but how. Three options are worth comparing.
Storyworth is an online service. It emails your parent a question every week for a year, and turns the answers into a printed book.
A memoir ghostwriter is a professional writer you hire to interview the author and write the book in the author's voice.
A private biographer, which is what we are, interviews your parent, researches the history around the story, writes it, and delivers the printed book.
They are different kinds of help at very different prices, and each is the right answer for some families. Since we are one of the three, we have tried to be fair: every figure about another service here comes from that service's own website or from a published industry source, as of October 2026.
Storyworth
Your parent writes. A year of weekly questions, answered by email, on the website or, on upgraded plans, by phone. One or two hardcover books. $59–$199.
A memoir ghostwriter
A writer writes. Interviews and a manuscript in the author's voice, usually with publication in mind. Typically $18,000–$60,000 for a memoir, with design and printing on top.
A family memoir with us
A private biographer listens, researches in the archives of Hungary and Central Europe, and writes. The printed books are included. From $10,000.
How the three compare
| Storyworth | A memoir ghostwriter | A family memoir with Heritage Journey Studio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Your parent, the "storyteller", writes the stories in reply to a weekly emailed question or on Storyworth's website. Relatives added to the account receive each story by email and can comment. | A professional writer interviews the author and writes the manuscript in the author's voice. | A private biographer listens, researches and writes; we design and print the book. Your parent tells the stories, and we do everything else. |
| Interviews | On upgraded plans, by phone: word-for-word transcription ("Story Calls"), guided phone interviews with follow-up questions that are turned into a written story ("Magic Interviews"), and calls a relative can join ("Family Calls"). | Recorded interviews with the author, and sometimes with other people in the story. You pay the writer's travel costs for any in-person interviews. | Recorded conversations in person, in the United States, the United Kingdom or across Europe, or by video, at the narrator's pace. The recordings and transcripts stay with the family. |
| Research | Not part of the service as Storyworth describes it. | Depends on the writer and the fee; projects that need original research cost more. | Archival research: church and civil registers, census and land records, emigration and immigration papers, local histories, all read in their original languages. |
| Writing | Your parent's own words. The Color plan adds a built-in proofreader. | Professional writing in the author's voice. Experience and credits set the price. | Written in the narrator's own words wherever we can. The family reads and corrects every chapter, and nothing is printed until you are happy with it. |
| Languages | Storyworth is offered in English and Spanish. Stories can be written in any language, and its printing supports most, but not all, languages. | Depends on the writer. | Books written in English or Hungarian. Research in the records' original languages. |
| Travel and heritage | None. | Not part of a typical ghostwriting quote. Any travel is billed as an expense. | Optional: a private, fully guided journey to the family's village in Hungary or Central Europe, 4–7 days, planned and quoted separately. |
| Time | A year of weekly questions. The book can be printed whenever the memoir feels complete; Storyworth asks that it be ordered within three months of the year's end. Standard shipping takes about 10 business days. | Usually months. Reedsy describes a ghostwriter spending three to six months on a client's book; Gotham Ghostwriters lists 6–9 months for its basic book tier. | Usually six to nine months from the first interview to the printed books. If time is short, we can record first and write afterward. |
| Cost | $59–$199 for a year's plan with one or two hardcover books. Extra copies cost $39–$99. The Unlimited plan renews at $99 a year. | Reedsy's 2026 range for biographies and memoirs is $18,000–$50,000. Gotham Ghostwriters places a straightforward memoir in its basic tier, $30,000–$60,000. Editing, design, printing and travel usually cost extra. | From $10,000, agreed in writing before any work begins. Heritage journeys are quoted individually. |
| What you receive | A 6 × 9 inch hardcover book: up to 480 pages with a black-and-white interior, or up to 300 pages in full color, depending on the plan. Free e-book and audiobook downloads. | A finished manuscript. Copyediting, design, printing and publishing are usually arranged and paid for separately. | A hardcover family edition (sewn binding, archival paper, photographs and documents, family tree and maps) with copies for every branch, plus the recordings, the transcripts and a digital edition. |
Ghostwriting fees span a wide range. In a 2024 survey of 269 ghostwriters by the American Society of Journalists and Authors and Gotham Ghostwriters, a quarter had charged $100,000 or more for their last nonfiction manuscript.
When Storyworth is the better choice
- Your parent enjoys writing, or would enjoy a weekly question, and is comfortable answering by email, on a website or, on Storyworth's upgraded plans, by phone.
- You want the book entirely in your parent's own words, written at their own pace over a year.
- Cost is the deciding factor. A plan with a hardcover book costs $59–$199, a small fraction of any commissioned book.
- Several people in the family want to tell their stories. Storyworth's Unlimited plan lets you give memoirs to everyone in the family while the plan is active.
- You'd like relatives to read each story as it is written.
- The story doesn't depend on records kept in another country, or in another language.
When a ghostwriter is the better choice
- The book is meant to be published and sold: pitched to a publisher, or released to a wide readership. Ghostwriters write with publication in mind, and many also write the book proposal. Our books are written for one family and never published.
- The book is as much about a career, a company or a set of ideas as it is about a family.
- You want to choose a writer yourself by genre, credits and reputation, and manage the project.
- The whole story took place in the United States, so research in Central European archives would add little.
When a family memoir with us fits
- The story began in Hungary or elsewhere in Central Europe (Austria, the Czech lands, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Transylvania), and the early chapters depend on records kept there, in their original languages.
- Your parent is a better talker than writer, and the conversations need to happen at their pace, in person or by video.
- You want one commission to cover the listening, the research, the writing and the printed book, with no writer, researcher and printer to coordinate.
- The book should be written in English or in Hungarian.
- You would like to stand in the village yourselves. A guided heritage journey can become the book's final chapter.
- The book is for the family, not for sale.
Questions to ask any provider
- Who will actually talk with my parent, and in which language?
- Who reads the old records, and can they read them in the original language?
- Is the printed book included? How many copies, and what do more cost?
- Who owns the recordings, the transcripts and the finished book?
- Can the family read and correct the drafts before anything is printed?
- What happens if my parent's health changes partway through?
- What is the total in writing, including travel, transcription, design and printing?
What families ask us
Is a private biographer the same as a ghostwriter?
Close. Some call the person who writes a family memoir a memoir ghostwriter, and you may also hear the term personal historian. We prefer private biographer, because most of the work is listening, and because the book is written for one family, not for sale.
What do personal historians and life-story companies charge?
It varies widely. In 2020, Kiplinger reported that Modern Memoirs, a long-established memoir company, priced a typical commissioned project at about $45,000. An assisted memoir, where you write the text and the company designs and prints it, started at about $5,000. Whoever you ask, ask for a written quote that names what is included.
My parent has already written some stories down. Can we use them?
Bring them to the first conversation. We start from whatever the family already has: a box of photographs, a set of letters, stories already written down.
Not sure which fits your family?
A first conversation commits you to nothing. Tell us whose story it is, and we'll tell you how we would approach it.
Reserve a first conversationPrices and features of other services are as published on their own websites in October 2026, and may change. Storyworth is a trademark of StoryWorth, Inc. Heritage Journey Studio is not affiliated with Storyworth, Reedsy, Gotham Ghostwriters or Modern Memoirs.