The gift book
Ten or twelve stories from your parents’ life. I ask, I write, I print. Ten hardback copies in four months, for US$10,000.
Ten lakh rupees in India. Ten thousand US dollars everywhere else. That buys a short book about your mother, your father, or both of them. Fifteen to twenty hours of interviews. About 25,000 words. Around 120 pages with photographs. Designed, printed and bound in ten hardback copies. Four months from the first session to the box at your door.
The full book on this site is US$25,000 and takes six months. This is the smaller one. It exists because 80,000 words is too much book for most families who write to me about a parent. They need the stories caught before the 75th birthday, in a book the grandchildren will open.
Short on purpose
Twenty hours cannot hold eighty years. It can hold twelve stories.
So we pick ten or twelve stories and I tell each one in full. The train he took at nineteen. Her first salary and what she bought with it. The flat with one tap. The year the business almost closed. The day you were born, from their side of the room.
I say this in the first conversation because the other version fails. A short book that pretends to be a whole life reads thin on every page. A short book of twelve stories reads like the person.
If your parent’s life needs the long form, the archive work and the thirty to sixty hours, that is the full book and I will tell you so.
What is in the fee
The interviews
Fifteen to twenty hours, in sessions of ninety minutes, recorded and transcribed. One parent or both. In whatever mix of English, Hindi and Punjabi they think in. On video and voice, scheduled around their mornings.
A chapter plan you approve
After the first few sessions I send the list of stories and the order they run in. No prose gets written until you and your parent say yes to the plan.
The manuscript, written by me
About 25,000 words. I write every page. No junior, no outline farmed out, no model drafting for me to clean up.
Two revision rounds
One on the full draft, one on the final. Each has a date. Your parent decides what stays out, and it stays out.
The photographs
You scan them, I place and caption them. The guide shows how to scan a print so it survives the press.
Design, print and ten copies
Cover, typesetting, a proof copy, then ten hardbacks delivered to one address. Extra copies and other addresses are billed at what the printer and the courier charge me.
The audio
Every recording, handed over. Families tell me this is the part they play years later.
An NDA first, the copyright last
The NDA is signed before anyone tells me anything. The copyright is assigned to you on the final payment. My name appears nowhere unless you want it there.
What is not in the fee
- A whole-life biography. That is the full book, at US$25,000.
- Travel. The sessions run on video and voice. If the book asks for a visit, the trip is costed before we sign.
- An ISBN, a listing, bookshops. This is a private book for the family. If you want strangers to buy it, read how to self-publish a biography first.
- Translation. A Hindi or Gujarati edition is a separate commission with a separate translator.
- Speed. Four months is the floor.
The four months
| Month | What happens | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| One | I speak to your parent first, alone. Sessions begin, two a week. | The chapter plan |
| Two | Sessions finish. Writing starts. You send the photographs. | Two sample chapters |
| Three | The full draft goes to you and your parent. Revision round one. | The full draft |
| Four | Final text, design, a proof copy, the print run. | Ten hardbacks |
Count back four months from the date. Then add one. Parents fall ill, weddings land in the middle, printers slip. If the birthday is eight weeks away, give the first session as the present and let the book follow.
How you pay
| Payment | When | What you hold |
|---|---|---|
| US$2,500 | On signature | NDA, contract, the session calendar |
| US$2,500 | On the approved chapter plan | The plan, plus all audio and transcripts so far |
| US$2,500 | On the full draft | The manuscript |
| US$2,500 | On delivery | Ten books, the files, the copyright |
You can stop after any payment and you keep what is done. Siblings split this more often than not. Four children, four payments, and the argument about what to get him is over.
If you want proof before you sign, a page in your parent’s voice costs US$1,000 and is credited against the fee.
Four ways to do this, cheapest first
| Route | Who does the work | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Do it yourself | You. The guide is free and complete. | Your evenings for six months, and the print bill |
| The gift book | I do all of it. Twelve stories, ten copies. | US$10,000 |
| The full book | I do all of it. The whole life, 60,000 to 90,000 words. | US$25,000 |
A question-a-week service costs about a hundred US dollars a year, and your parent does the typing. That is a good product for a parent who writes. Most parents I meet do not write. They talk. Somebody has to ask, listen, come back with the second question, and then sit alone for two months and make the pages sound like them. That somebody is what the ten lakh pays for.
What I cannot do
I cannot do it fast. I announced my second novel in October 2014 and it is unfinished, so I know what a book without a deadline does. The gift book has four dated payments and a delivery month written into the contract for that reason. The dates protect your parent’s birthday from me.
Questions people ask
How is the gift book different from the full book?
Length and ambition. The gift book is about 25,000 words from fifteen to twenty hours of interviews, and it tells ten or twelve stories. The full book is 60,000 to 90,000 words from thirty to sixty hours, with research and archives, and it tells the whole life. The gift book includes design and ten printed copies. The full book does not include printing.
Can one gift book cover both parents?
Yes. The hours are shared, so each parent gets seven to ten hours, and I interview them apart before I interview them together. If each parent needs a full telling, that is the two-parent book, which runs eight to twelve months.
My parents live in India and I live abroad. Does that work?
It is the usual case. The sessions run on video and voice, in their mornings. You do not need to be on the calls, and most parents talk more when their children are not listening. The books ship to one address in any country.
What if my parent refuses?
Some do, the first time. I make the first approach myself, I lead with the grandchildren, and I promise them the red pen. Anything they want out stays out. If they still say no, you have paid nothing.
Can it be ready for a date?
If the date is five months away or more, yes, and the delivery month goes into the contract. Under four months I will say no to the book on that date. Start the interviews, give the first session as the present, and let the book follow.
Can we order more than ten copies?
Yes. Extra copies are billed at the printer’s price, and the files are yours, so a reprint in ten years does not need me.
Is the first conversation free?
Yes. It takes about an hour. I reply to every enquiry within 48 hours.
Tell me the date.
The birthday, the anniversary, the retirement. I will count back from it and tell you which of the three routes still fits. I reply within 48 hours.