An honest comparison
What else you could do with this money.
There are good alternatives to hiring me, and for some families they are the better choice. Here is the whole landscape, described accurately, including where I am the wrong answer.
The options
| Prompt services | Large memoir firms | The Eliyahu Project | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example | StoryWorth and similar | StoryTerrace, LifeBook Memoirs | Me |
| Roughly | Around $99 a year | From about $3,250, often five figures | Quoted in writing, per project — between the two |
| Who writes it | Your relative does, by email prompt | An assigned ghostwriter, often tiered by experience | Me. Every project, every word. |
| Writing credentials | None — it is your family’s own writing | Varies by tier; entry tiers use less experienced writers | New York Times, Globe and Mail, Missouri Review Editors’ Prize, Pushcart nomination |
| AI used | No | Some fast-turnaround packages now draft with AI | Never. Not for drafting, not for “assistance.” |
| Jewish family context | Generic prompts | Generic, occasionally adapted | The whole point. Migration, yahrzeits, landsmanshaftn, what did and did not get spoken about. |
| Genealogy | No | Sometimes, at extra cost | No — and I say so plainly. This is a writing service. |
| Printed book | Hardcover included | Hardcover, often hand-bound | Print-ready file included; printing arranged at cost as an add-on |
| Best if | Your relative enjoys writing and has a year | Budget is not a constraint and you want a firm behind it | You want an actual writer, at a price a normal family can reach |
Prices for other services are drawn from their own published material and from independent reviews, and were accurate when this page was written. Check them yourself — I would rather you did.
Where I am the wrong answer
Three cases where you should hire somebody else.
You need a family tree. If what you actually want is ancestors, records, ship manifests and dates, you need a genealogist and not a writer. I do not search archives. Start with your local Jewish genealogical society; most will help you free.
Your relative would rather write it themselves. Then a prompt service at a hundred dollars a year is genuinely better than paying me. Their own sentences, in their own hand, are worth more than my polished ones. I will say this on the call if I think it is true.
You want it published and sold. I deliver a print-ready file, not a publishing deal. If the ambition is a commercial book, you need an agent, and I will tell you honestly whether the material could carry one.
The one thing I would compare on.
Not price. Read a paragraph of the writing you would be buying. Every firm on this page will show you a brochure; almost none will show you a piece of published work with an editor’s name attached to it.
A budget idea before we speak
You should know the neighbourhood, even before I know the exact house.
I do not give a firm quotation until I have heard what you want. But I also do not want you wondering whether this means hundreds of dollars or tens of thousands.
Legacy Interview
One 60-minute interview, audio, a finished narrative of about 1,200–1,500 words, photographs and one round of corrections.
Short family narrative
A small number of interviews shaped into a substantial family story, with photographs and document checking.
Fuller family history
Multiple people, generations, documents and a longer continuous narrative.
These are planning ranges only. After our first conversation and your Story Mixer, I normally send a written scope and fixed quotation within 24 hours. Nothing begins until you approve it.