What's a Raconteur?
A person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way; a storyteller; a narrator
Writing, designing, and printing a life story book involves a lot of work. At Raconteur, we have written and produced more than 70 life story books for a diverse group of subjects, so we know the process well and have perfected our art. Our team of professional writers, editors, and designers work diligently to ensure a high-quality heirloom book for you and your family.
When you work with Raconteur, you receive the following:
A Caring Writer
We offer in-person or remote interviews and we use a guided questionnaire to ensure we cover a lifetime of memories without putting pressure on the subject to recall too much on their own. Unlike some other life story writing service providers, our interviewer and writer are one and the same. That way, the writer gets to know the subject. You can rest assured that the person who looked you in the eyes and heard your story will be the person who writes your story.
Meticulous Proofreading
We want your life story book to be the best it can be and free of any and all errors we can find. That means we send the manuscript through multiple rounds of review with our editors and proofreaders. Unlike some other life story writing service providers who review the manuscript once or twice, our books are usually proofread upwards of seven times. By the time you receive a copy of the manuscript to review, we will have proofread it a few times already. After you complete your review, we will do our best to incorporate any edits you wish to make and then proofread more. Once the book is designed, yet again, we proofread a few times.
Thoughtful Design
Once the manuscript is completed, your writer and our project manager will assess your photo options and decide on photo placements so that relevant photos are placed beside relevant text. Then, we send the text and selected photos to our graphic designer for design. The designer designs a custom cover and book interior, often that includes family trees and timelines.
Heirloom-Quality Printing
When the book file is perfected, we send it to the printer. We order as many copies of the book as you want—be it 10 or 100 copies. The result is a beautiful, full-color, hardcover heirloom book for you and your family to treasure.