How to Choose a Family Story Service: Nine Questions to Ask First
Most of these services look similar from the outside. Nine questions separate them, and the answers are rarely on the pricing page.
There are a number of services that will turn a year of questions into a book, and from the outside they look much the same. A weekly prompt, replies by email, something printed at the end.
The differences are real and they are mostly not on the pricing page. Below are the nine questions worth asking before you commit a year of an elderly parent's time to any of them, including ours. We have put our own answers in plainly so you can hold us to the same standard.
The nine questions
1. Who owns the finished file, and can I download it?
Why it works. This is the most important question on the list and the one people ask last. If you cannot download a print-ready file, then the story exists only for as long as that company does and only on terms it sets.
How to ask it. Ask specifically for a print-ready file, not access to a web version or an app.
What it opens up. Our answer: you download the print-ready book and it is yours. If we vanished tomorrow you would still have it.
2. What does a second copy cost?
Why it works. A family book is almost never wanted in a quantity of one. There are siblings. If each additional copy is priced like the first, the real cost of this project is several times what the headline suggests.
How to ask it. Ask the price for five copies, not one, and ask again for five more in three years.
What it opens up. Our answer: you own the file, so extra copies cost whatever your print shop charges. There is no extra charge from us, ever, at any quantity.
3. Does their actual voice survive?
Why it works. There is a large difference between a book of somebody's words and a book about them. Editing for tidiness is exactly what strips out the phrasing that made it theirs.
How to ask it. Ask whether answers are published as written, and whether audio can be attached.
What it opens up. Our answer: replies go in as written, and answers can be recorded, so the way they tell it is kept and not only the words.
4. What happens on the weeks they do not reply?
Why it works. They will miss weeks. Everybody misses weeks, and the weeks people miss are disproportionately the ones worth having. A system that simply moves on loses that material permanently.
How to ask it. Ask whether missed questions can be answered later, and whether anything is lost.
What it opens up. Our answer: nothing expires. A question missed in March can be answered in September and it lands in the right place.
5. Can other people in the family add to it?
Why it works. One person's memory has holes that a sibling can fill instantly. A single-author model quietly discards most of what the family collectively knows.
How to ask it. Ask whether you can invite others to contribute, and whether it costs more.
What it opens up. Our answer: you can invite brothers, sisters, grandchildren and anybody else to add what they remember.
6. Are places and dates actually captured, or just mentioned?
Why it works. Descendants want the specifics: where, and when. A book that mentions a town in passing is far less useful than one that records it properly.
How to ask it. Ask whether there is a structured way to record locations and a timeline, or whether it all lives in prose.
What it opens up. Our answer: a map they can pin the places on, a timeline of the years, and a bucket list of what they still want to do, all built in.
7. How much does the person answering have to learn?
Why it works. The single biggest cause of failure is an eighty year old being asked to use an app. If there is a login to remember, a meaningful share of the people this is bought for will simply not do it.
How to ask it. Ask what they have to install and what they have to log into.
What it opens up. Our answer: nothing. The question arrives by email and they reply to it. That is the entire interface.
8. What is the total price, including everything?
Why it works. Compare the whole cost, not the entry price. Some models charge for the year and then again for the book, and again per copy.
How to ask it. Ask what you will have paid, in total, on the day you are holding a printed copy in your hands.
What it opens up. Our answer: books start at $29 for the year. The mission journal for a missionary still serving is $39. A handmade cover, if you want one, is $129 to $189 with shipping included. Nothing else.
9. What is the money actually funding?
Why it works. It matters to some buyers and not to others, and it is worth asking rather than assuming, because it is the one difference that survives after the book is on the shelf.
How to ask it. Ask what the company is for, beyond selling books.
What it opens up. Our answer: every book bought here funds our work making people untraffickable. Purpose, a skill they can earn a living with, and a community around them while they build it.
The two that matter most
If you only ask two, ask the first and the seventh. Who owns the file decides whether this survives, and how much they have to learn decides whether it ever gets written at all. Everything else is a preference. Those two are the ones that quietly kill projects.