Memoir & biography, in your own voice.
Interview-led ghostwriting for people whose lives are worth a book and whose afternoons are not free for writing one. Personal memoirs, family biographies and commissioned executive portraits — written under NDA, in the voice we hear on the recordings.
Key facts
- Service
- Memoir and biography ghostwriting under NDA for individuals and families.
- Starting price
- From $4,200 per book.
- Typical turnaround
- 12 to 18 weeks from first interview to finished manuscript.
- Output
- Six to twelve recorded interviews, transcribed source, finished manuscript in your voice.
- For
- Memoirists, family commissioners and executives whose lives are worth a book.
- Revisions
- Two full revision rounds plus thirty days of corrections after sign-off.
A life, set down in writing.
Recorded interviews, a working timeline, the manuscript itself — and the archive your family can return to.
- Six to twelve recorded interviews. Conducted at your pace, in your chosen language, over video or in person where geography allows.
- Timeline & relationship map. A working document that pins down dates, names, places — and the people whose stories overlap with yours.
- Voice document. Phrases you actually use, the rhythm of your sentences, the things you skirt around. Held to on every page.
- Photo & archive research. Scanning, captioning and timeline-placing of letters, certificates and family photographs.
- Two structural revisions. Plus a chapter-by-chapter read-back so a sensitive passage is never finalised behind your back.
- Sensitivity & legal flagging. Passages identified for your review, with optional pre-publication legal read at cost price.
- Private edition option. A short-run family hardback for relatives, separate from any public release.
- KDP / IngramSpark. Optional public publication in your name — or kept entirely off-shelf, your call.
Five steps, at your pace.
A life story is rarely told in one sitting. The schedule is built to accommodate that.
The first sitting.
A 30-minute conversation about the shape of the book, who it's for, and what stays out. Written proposal inside 48 hours.
The interviews.
Six to twelve recorded sessions over four to six weeks. Transcripts shared as we go, timeline built in parallel.
The reading-back.
First chapter written, read aloud, adjusted until you hear yourself. No further chapter begins until the voice is right.
The drafting.
Chapter-by-chapter delivery, sensitivity flags raised early, family members consulted where you ask us to.
The handover.
Manuscript, transcript pack, timeline document and family-edition proof. Recordings handed back, working archive closed.
Lives we've written.
Most are confidential — these are the ones whose authors and commissioning families gave us permission to name.
From the people whose lives we wrote.
Three authors who allowed us to put their names on this page.
Three editions, round figures.
Memoirs are slow work, charged honestly. Most families choose the middle edition; executive biographies tend to be bespoke.
- Up to 30,000 words, single voice
- Six recorded interviews & full transcripts
- Two structural revisions, one line edit
- Timeline document & names index
- Private PDF, copyright assigned
- 50,000-80,000 word manuscript
- Ten to twelve interviews & photo research
- Two structural revisions, two line edits
- Private hardback edition for family
- Optional KDP / IngramSpark release in your name
- Executive, founder or public-figure biographies
- Archival research & second-source interviews
- Pre-publication legal read & sensitivity review
- Multi-language editions arranged on your behalf
- Audiobook narration in your voice or commissioned
Custom scopes are quoted in two paragraphs and a number — never hidden behind a sales-call funnel.
Things we put in writing.
Each of these is in your contract, in plain English, on page one.
Copyright, transcripts and recordings transfer to you on final payment. Nothing is kept in our archive once the warranty period closes.
Your story, your family's names and your interview content are confidential by default. We don't list memoirs in case studies without written sign-off.
No passage flagged sensitive is shown to a designer, proofreader or printer until you've approved it in its final wording. In writing, every time.
If, at any point, you decide the book shouldn't exist, we stop. You keep everything written to date. We destroy our working copy within seven days.
How to start a memoir or biography with ebookwriting.ai.
Four short steps from first interview to finished memoir.
- Sign the NDA and schedule the first interview. We send a mutual NDA and a 60-minute kickoff call. We confirm receipt within one working day.
- Receive a fixed-price proposal. Within 48 hours of the kickoff, you get a written quote (typically $4,200 to $18,000 depending on interview count and word count), a timeline, and a one-page contract.
- Record six to twelve interviews. We interview at your pace, in your chosen language, across 12 to 18 weeks. Every session is transcribed and stored under NDA.
- Receive the manuscript. We deliver the manuscript in your voice, plus the editable source, the transcript archive and the publication-ready package — all under continuing confidentiality.
More about our memoir ghostwriting work.
Our memoir ghostwriting services are run by a small team who specialise in interview-led work — a biography writer, a developmental editor and, where the material asks for it, a sensitivity reader. We work with private clients writing for their families, public figures writing for posterity, and adult children commissioning a parent's life story before it's too late.
How voice capture actually works
Voice capture happens over 12 to 20 hours of recorded conversation, split across six to eight sessions over six to ten weeks. Transcripts are coded for theme, then assembled into a structural outline before the first chapter is drafted. The ghostwriter reads back drafted scenes in your phrasing — your fillers, your jumps, your way of pausing — so the manuscript reads as you remember speaking rather than as the page would prefer.
Family history writing has a quieter rhythm. For these projects we often interview two or three relatives alongside the principal subject, cross-reference photographs and letters, and build a single coherent voice that holds the family's memory without flattening it. Most family memoirs land between 30,000 and 60,000 words, printed in a single hardback run for relatives rather than for trade.
What a sensitivity reader does, and when
Memoir touches living people. Before a manuscript is finalised, a sensitivity reader checks any chapter that discusses a person who hasn't been interviewed, any account of trauma, and any cultural or community context the principal author is writing from the outside in. We flag legal risk separately and recommend a media lawyer when the material warrants one.
Copyright is assigned to you at sign-off. Recordings and transcripts are returned to you on request and deleted from our systems within 30 days. Nothing leaves the studio without your written approval.
Questions we are asked.
Short, honest answers. Anything else, send to contact@ebookwriting.ai.
What does the starting figure include?
At ebookwriting.ai, the starting memoir fee of $4,200 covers a full-length memoir or biography up to an agreed word count, structured interviews, source review, two drafts, and two rounds of edits. Photo research, archival digitisation, and legal review are quoted as separate items.
How long does a memoir or biography take?
Most life-story projects run five to nine months from first interview to final manuscript. Shorter family memoirs can finish in twelve to sixteen weeks. The schedule is written into your proposal and revisited after the interview stage.
What happens if I want to take something out late in the process?
Memoirs change as the truth surfaces — we expect it. Two structural revisions are included and we never lock chapters until you've seen them in full context. Sensitive passages are flagged for your review before any further reader sees them.
Who owns the manuscript and the interview recordings?
You do. Copyright transfers to you on final payment, and the interview recordings and transcripts are handed over at the end of the project. We retain nothing except a working archive for the agreed warranty period.
What format will the finished book be in?
A Word manuscript, a PDF reading copy, a timeline document, a list of names and relationships, and an indexed transcript pack so future writers, family members, or estate executors can pick up where we left off.
How do you write in my voice without it sounding rehearsed?
We build a voice document from your interviews — phrases you actually use, the rhythm of your sentences, the things you skirt around. The first chapter is written, read aloud, and adjusted until you hear yourself on the page before we go further.
Often paired with this.
Begin your book.
A 15-minute discovery call about the shape of the book, who it's for, and what stays out — then a written, fixed-price proposal in 48 hours. NDA on request, no obligation.