What a Biography Costs in India

Rupee prices for a biography or memoir, by writer type, from eleven sellers’ own pages. From a free WhatsApp app to ₹20 lakh.

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Written by Saurabh Garg, ghostwriter and biographer. He writes one book at a time. Prices read on each seller’s own page on 19 October 2026.

Ghostwriter.in in Kolkata charges Rs 500 a page to write a biography. My book starts at ₹10 lakh and typically goes up to ₹20 lakh. Both numbers are published, and the gap between them is the whole question. In India the price of a biography is set by one thing: who writes it, and for how long.

Here is the market as its sellers price it. Every figure below comes from the seller’s own page, linked, read on 19 October 2026. Where a seller publishes no price, I say so. Nothing here is my estimate of someone else’s fee.

The short answer

Prices by writer type

Free to ₹25,000: apps and AI

Memoirji runs on WhatsApp. Your mother sends voice notes, the AI writes, and its site says the first memoir is free. Storyworth emails a question a week for a year and binds the answers. Its page prices plans from $59 in US dollars and shows no rupee price. IIP Books is the cheapest human writer I found: Rs. 25,000 for up to 100 pages with AI support, Rs. 35,000 without.

If your father will write, or talk to his phone, start here. What none of these buys is a person who asks the second question, the one after the story he always tells.

₹50,000 to ₹2.5 lakh: by the word and by the page

Most biography writing in India is sold this way. Ghostwriter.in charges Rs 500 for a 250-word page: Rs 50,000 for a 100-page book in a month, Rs 1,00,000 for 200 pages in sixty days, interviews extra. Pinaki Ghosh’s own site lists INR 600 a page. GhostwritersIndia publishes Rs 2 to 3 a word, which is Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh for 50,000 words. A Mumbai freelancer on IndiaMART lists ₹5 a word, ₹2.5 lakh for the same book.

At Rs 2 a word a writer has to finish many books a year to earn a living. So the book goes to whoever is free, from a brief. Some of these books are honest and good. Before you pay, ask three things: who writes it, will I speak to that person, and can I read three books they wrote.

₹79,999 to Rs 5 lakh: agencies and packages

Authorito sells a ghostwritten book published on Amazon for ₹79,999, and a ₹2,29,999 bundle with print copies, a website and a launch event. EliteOne Stories publishes Rs. 1,50,000 to Rs. 5,00,000+ for a memoir or biography over five to nine months. Estorytellers gives ₹1.5 to ₹3 lakh as its example for a 50,000-word memoir, with no rate card on the page.

An agency buys you a project manager, a deadline and a team. It does not tell you on the page who the writer is. Get the name in the contract.

₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh: one named writer for six months

This is my band, and I am not alone in it. Mangrol Multimedia in Mumbai lists autobiography writing at ₹10,000 a page, six months onward. A 200-page book at that rate is ₹20 lakh. Most writers at this level publish no price at all.

A full book with me starts at ₹10 lakh and typically goes up to ₹20 lakh. That is six months, 30 to 60 hours of interviews, and every page written by the person who sat in the room. The gift book, a shorter book for a parent, starts at ₹5 lakh and typically goes up to ₹10 lakh. Before either, a sample page costs ₹1 lakh, from a five-minute recording, so you hear the voice before you commit.

All travel is paid by the client, at cost. If the book needs me in Ludhiana for three days or at the first factory in Rajkot, you pay the ticket and the hotel, and nothing is marked up. Travel is never in the fee.

Ask what your book would cost See the fee in every currency

What is not in any of these fees

Questions people ask

How much does it cost to get a biography written in India?

From the sellers’ own pages on 19 October 2026: IIP Books starts at ₹25,000 for up to 100 pages with AI support. Ghostwriter.in charges Rs 500 a page, ₹50,000 for a 100-page book. Agencies publish ₹79,999 to Rs 5,00,000 and more. With me, a full book starts at ₹10 lakh and typically goes up to ₹20 lakh, over six months, with the client paying travel at cost.

What does a ghostwriter charge per word in India?

GhostwritersIndia publishes Rs 2 to 3 a word for fiction and non-fiction books. I Content in Mumbai lists ₹5 a word on IndiaMART. At those rates a 50,000-word biography costs ₹1 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh. Ghostwriter.in charges by the page instead, Rs 500 for 250 words, which is Rs 2 a word.

Is there an AI app that writes a parent’s biography in India?

Memoirji works on WhatsApp by voice, and its site says the first memoir is free. Storyworth sends a question a week and prints a hardcover, priced in US dollars from $59. IIP Books sells human writing with AI support at ₹25,000 for up to 100 pages, plus 18% GST. In each case the parent or the app does the telling. Nobody interviews her.

Does the writing fee include publishing and printing?

At most sellers, no. Publishing is a second bill. Evincepub’s packages run ₹9,999 to ₹1,24,999 plus GST, OrangeBooks’ ₹9,990 to ₹64,990 plus GST, and Ghostwriter.in publishes a black and white book for ₹25,000. Printed copies, translation, travel and GST are separate lines too. Ask for each one in writing.

Why does a named biographer cost ₹10 lakh when an agency costs ₹1 lakh?

Time and hands. At Rs 2 a word a writer has to finish many books a year, so the work goes to a roster. A full book with me is one writer for six months, 30 to 60 hours of interviews, and every page written by the person who did them. Mangrol Multimedia lists ₹10,000 a page on IndiaMART, which puts a 200-page book at ₹20 lakh. The top of this market is published too.