A personal historian records and organises a family’s memory: interviews, an audio archive, photographs, and in most cases a short book. A biographer researches and writes one life as a full book. Published prices run from about US$2,700 for a short keepsake to US$50,000 and more for a full book.
I work as both, and I say what each costs on my own personal historian page. This post sets the two side by side, with the profession’s own history and ten services’ published prices, read on their own pages on 19 October 2026.
What does a personal historian do?
A personal historian helps a family record a life in the person’s own words, then turns the recordings into something the family keeps.
The Association of Personal Historians, the profession’s association from 1995 to 2017, defined a personal history as “a memoir, a tribute, a life story, an autobiography, a biography, or an oral history”. Its FAQ put the difference from genealogy in one line: a genealogist works from records, while a personal historian “may focus more on interviews”.
In practice that means:
- Interviews, recorded, from a few hours to ten or twenty.
- An archive: the audio, transcripts, photographs and documents, labelled and kept.
- A book, in most cases: a short life story, edited from the subject’s own words, with photographs.
What does a biographer do?
A biographer researches a life from many sources and writes it as a book, in their own prose.
The interviews are one source among several. A biographer also talks to family, partners and colleagues, reads letters, company records and old newspapers, and decides the book’s structure. For my own full book that is 30 to 60 hours of interviews and a manuscript of 60,000 to 90,000 words, written over six months, as I set out on what it costs.
So the line is about the output. A personal history keeps the subject’s voice and the family’s material. A biography is a researched account of one life, told by a writer.
Free printable: 100 questions to ask your parents
Ten sessions, ten questions each, in the order that gets a parent talking. Print it, take it home, tick them off as you go. Leave your email and download it straight away.
Personal historian vs biographer, side by side
The two overlap, and many practitioners do both. These are the usual differences.
| Personal historian | Biographer | |
|---|---|---|
| Works from | The subject’s memory, in interviews | Interviews plus family, colleagues and records |
| Interviews | A few hours to about 20 | 30 hours and more for a full book |
| Produces | Recordings, transcripts, an archive, and a short book in most cases | A full-length book |
| Voice | The subject’s own words, edited | The writer’s, or the subject’s in a ghostwritten memoir |
| Time | Two to six months or more | Six months to a year or more |
| Published price | About US$2,700 to US$50,000+ | About US$10,000 to US$50,000+ |
The time and interview figures for personal history are the Association of Personal Historians’ own, from its archived FAQ. The price bands come from the table below: the short books at the low end, and the full-length books (Raconteur, LifeBook, Reedsy’s marketplace data, Sellers Easton) for the biographer column.
What does it cost to hire a personal historian?
Personal historians’ own body put it at a few hundred dollars for an audio oral history, a thousand and up for a simple life story with photographs, and “tens of thousands of dollars” for longer projects. Its FAQ added that books ran “to $50,000 and more”.
That guidance dates from 2016. Here is what named services publish today.
| Service | What you get | Published price (19 Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Your Story Your Book | 8 to 10 hours of sessions, 150+ pages, 1 hardcover | US$2,699 |
| The Writers For Hire, keepsake book | Up to 4 hours of interview, up to 100 pages, hardcover | US$2,989 |
| StoryTerrace, Classic | 4 to 10 hours of interviews, 60 to 120 pages, 4 copies | from US$3,250 |
| Raconteur Life Story Writing | Interview-based book, 75 to 250 pages, six months or more | from US$10,000 |
| LifeBook, Royal | Up to 200 pages, 45,000 words, 10 hardbacks | US$18,000 |
| Reedsy, biography and memoir ghostwriters | Its marketplace data for the category | US$18,000 to US$50,000 |
| StoryTerrace, PRO | 10+ hours of interviews, 125+ pages, 20 copies | from US$24,000 |
| LifeBook, Imperial and Signature | 250 pages and 15 copies; 300 pages and 24 copies | US$27,000; US$42,000 |
| Sellers Easton, Life Story Book | 10 to 12 hours of interviews, 100+ pages | from US$50,000 |
| Scribe Media, family history book | About 20 hours of interviews, 25 hardcovers or 50 paperbacks | US$56,000 Professional to US$135,000 Elite |
Three things move the price more than the label on the door. The hours of interview, because each hour is also hours of transcription and editing. The length of the book. And whether the writer researches beyond the interviews, which is where personal history turns into biography.
LifeBook also prices in pounds in the UK, at £12,000, £19,500 and £30,000 for the same three packages. I compare more sellers, including Indian ones, on how much a ghostwriter costs.
Where did the Association of Personal Historians go?
The Association of Personal Historians was founded in 1995 and dissolved in May 2017. There is no single body for the profession now.
Its own history page, in the Internet Archive, says twenty people met in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1995, and twelve of them started the organisation. Its founder was Kitty Axelson-Berry. It had 57 members in 1997, 277 in 2000 and over 650 worldwide by 2014.
In May 2017 its board voted to dissolve it, citing financial constraints and membership trends, as a member wrote at the time. Former members kept in touch through a Facebook page. The old personalhistorians.org address now belongs to an unrelated site, so don’t rely on it for referrals.
The bodies still running are adjacent ones. The Oral History Association covers the interviewing method. Biographers International Organization covers biography as a craft. Neither is a directory of people you can hire for a family book.
Which should you hire?
Hire a personal historian when the recordings are the point. Hire a biographer when the book is.
| Your situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| A parent over 85, and nothing recorded yet | A personal historian, or record them yourself this month |
| You want their stories in their own words, as a keepsake for the family | A personal historian’s short book |
| A founder, a business family, or a life with records and other people to interview | A biographer |
| The family is spread across countries and languages | Whoever can interview in the parent’s language, and travel to them at your cost |
| The budget is under US$3,000 | Do it yourself: record them on a phone and print through a service |
Whoever you hire, ask three questions. Who does the interviews? Who writes the words, and will I see a sample page first? Who owns the recordings and the copyright when it is done? My guide to hiring a biographer covers the contract.
From the desk
On my personal historian page I wrote that about a third of the families who come to me asking for a book need something else first: somebody to look at what exists, work out what is disappearing fastest, and decide the order of the work. The book is one possible output, and comes second in many cases.
I also wrote there that the recordings are the urgent part, because they expire with the people who hold them. Records keep. Memory does not. That is why I’d call a personal historian before a biographer when a parent is over 85.
My own work covers both ends. The gift book is ten to twelve stories from 15 to 20 hours of interviews, from US$5,000 and typically up to US$10,000. The full book starts at US$12,500 and typically goes up to US$25,000, over six months. Travel is never in the fee; the client pays it at cost.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a personal historian and a biographer?
A personal historian records a family’s memory in interviews and keeps it as recordings, an archive and, in most cases, a short book in the subject’s own words. A biographer researches one life from interviews and records and writes it as a full book. Many practitioners do both.
How much does it cost to hire a personal historian?
Published prices on 19 October 2026 ran from US$2,699 (Your Story Your Book) and US$3,250 (StoryTerrace Classic) for a short book, to US$18,000 and US$42,000 for LifeBook’s packages, and US$50,000 and up for Sellers Easton. A recorded oral history alone costs less.
Is the Association of Personal Historians still active?
No. It was founded in 1995 and its board voted to dissolve it in May 2017. Its old web address now belongs to an unrelated site.
Can a personal historian work in Hindi or Punjabi?
If your parent thinks in Hindi, Punjabi or Gujarati, ask before you pay who will do the interviews, and in what language. I interview in whatever mix of English, Hindi and Punjabi a parent thinks in.
If you want to see how your parent would read on a page before choosing anyone, A Page in Your Voice turns a five-minute recording into one page within a week, for US$1,000, credited against a book.
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