This is a complete guide to Storyworth. We’ll walk you through everything you need to know about Storyworth – how it works, the pricing, real customer reviews, and top Storyworth alternatives to help you make an informed buying decision.
If you’re thinking of gifting Storyworth to a loved one or yourself, or it’s your first time hearing Storyworth and just want to know more about it, this guide is for you.
Below, we’ll cover:
Storyworth is a platform that lets you preserve family stories through weekly emailed prompts compiled into a personal memoir. Many customers buy Storyworth as a gift for their older parents or grandparents who already have everything they need. As for others, Storyworth keeps their retired or soon-to-retire parents busy and their memory active.
Further Reading: Storyworth v. Remento
Storyworth was founded in 2013 by Nick and Krista Baum. Nick initially built the platform to record stories of his dad but soon realized people were also interested in the service. The company is based in Delaware, United States, and has been operating for about 10 years.
In short, Storyworth turns emailed answers into a book. Storytellers reply to the weekly emails from Storyworth sharing their stories. And after a year, these stories will be compiled and printed into a beautiful hardcover book.
Let’s take a closer look at how this actually works:
Once you’ve purchased a Storyworth subscription, you’ll get a Storyworth account to manage your project(s). You can also send custom welcome notes to the storyteller.
Note: Each subscription is tied to one storyteller email address, and you can have multiple subscriptions for different storytellers. You can manage all storytellers from your dashboard.
While Storyworth will automatically select questions for you, we notice the best Storyworth experiences are when the storyteller receives personalized questions from their loved ones.
The default questions are randomly selected so the storyteller may receive repetitive questions. One customer reviewed, “Several questions, though worded differently, were redundant.”
While these questions are great starting points, we recommend you pick and choose questions relevant to your storyteller from Storyworth’s question bank (see example questions) or crowdsource questions from friends and families by inviting them to the project. We have collections of deep questions if you need inspiration.
Once a week, the storyteller receives a writing prompt in their inbox asking about their life experiences, to which they’ll reply with their answers/stories. They can also include images in the reply email. All replies will be automatically saved in their private Storyworth account and shared with you (the gifter).
It’s common for storytellers to feel uninspired by the prompt or uncomfortable answering the question. In such cases, storytellers can skip the question and choose another prompt from the question bank or use their own prompts. If the storyteller missed a question, they can log in to their Storyworth account and respond from there.
After the storyteller has completed all 52 prompts, you can review the stories and preview the book on your Storyworth account before printing. Here are a few tips:
As for the book cover, you can customize the title and image, not the title’s typeface or font size. There’s also a selection of cover styles and colors to choose from.
Once you have reviewed everything, place an order to print the book, which should arrive in around 10 business days.
You’ll have 3 months to edit your stories and order the book after the subscription ends. Once your subscription ended, you would still be able to keep your account and stories. But if you haven’t finished writing your stories within the year and wish to write more, you’ll have to renew your subscription for another year.
A Storyworth book costs $99. The package includes a year’s worth of weekly emailed story prompts, unlimited project guests who can add prompts and view stories, and a 6x9-inch black & white hardcover book (with free shipping). You’ll have to pay additional charges if you want to print your book in color.
Also, the $99 package is an annual subscription, so you’ll need to finish writing your book within a year, or you’ll have to renew your subscription.
Pricing for additional books is less straightforward as it depends on the print format and number of pages, but here’s a breakdown:
You can select up to 10 extra black & white books or buy additional books later at the end of your subscription. During the checkout, you can only order the black & white books. To get the colored books, you’ll need to upgrade your book credits when printing, which costs an additional $40 or $60, depending on the number of pages.
Pro Tip: You can get credits for a free black & white book by referring a friend using your referral code. Your friend will also get $10 😉
Storyworth offers a full refund within 30 days after purchase, as long as no books have been printed. They do not offer returns or exchanges for printed books. You can manage refunds from your Storyworth account under Manage account > Billing.
Overall, most people had a positive experience with Storyworth as storytellers enjoyed recalling memories that would have been forgotten, and their loved ones got to read stories from them. However, the main downsides we hear include:
We’ve also written an extensive blog on Storyworth reviews where we deep dive into what people liked and disliked about Storyworth.
In terms of similar products to Storyworth, Remento is one of the top Storyworth alternatives. Here are some features that make Remento stand out:
Here’s a full comparison between Remento vs Storyworth.
Other competitors offering similar products to Storyworth:
If you’re looking for Storyworth alternatives to capture family stories that are not necessarily life storybooks, you can read our blog on top tools to record family memories.
Storyworth is great for natural writers and storytellers. Gifters of Storyworth also mentioned that, ultimately, it is a gift for them as they get to hear the stories of their loved ones. However, for non-writers and people who aren’t particularly interested in telling their stories, Storyworth is a lot of hard work, and they often struggle to stay motivated to complete the book.
This is a complete guide to Storyworth. We’ll walk you through everything you need to know about Storyworth – how it works, the pricing, real customer reviews, and top Storyworth alternatives to help you make an informed buying decision.
If you’re thinking of gifting Storyworth to a loved one or yourself, or it’s your first time hearing Storyworth and just want to know more about it, this guide is for you.
Below, we’ll cover:
Storyworth is a platform that lets you preserve family stories through weekly emailed prompts compiled into a personal memoir. Many customers buy Storyworth as a gift for their older parents or grandparents who already have everything they need. As for others, Storyworth keeps their retired or soon-to-retire parents busy and their memory active.
Further Reading: Storyworth v. Remento
Storyworth was founded in 2013 by Nick and Krista Baum. Nick initially built the platform to record stories of his dad but soon realized people were also interested in the service. The company is based in Delaware, United States, and has been operating for about 10 years.
In short, Storyworth turns emailed answers into a book. Storytellers reply to the weekly emails from Storyworth sharing their stories. And after a year, these stories will be compiled and printed into a beautiful hardcover book.
Let’s take a closer look at how this actually works:
Once you’ve purchased a Storyworth subscription, you’ll get a Storyworth account to manage your project(s). You can also send custom welcome notes to the storyteller.
Note: Each subscription is tied to one storyteller email address, and you can have multiple subscriptions for different storytellers. You can manage all storytellers from your dashboard.
While Storyworth will automatically select questions for you, we notice the best Storyworth experiences are when the storyteller receives personalized questions from their loved ones.
The default questions are randomly selected so the storyteller may receive repetitive questions. One customer reviewed, “Several questions, though worded differently, were redundant.”
While these questions are great starting points, we recommend you pick and choose questions relevant to your storyteller from Storyworth’s question bank (see example questions) or crowdsource questions from friends and families by inviting them to the project. We have collections of deep questions if you need inspiration.
Once a week, the storyteller receives a writing prompt in their inbox asking about their life experiences, to which they’ll reply with their answers/stories. They can also include images in the reply email. All replies will be automatically saved in their private Storyworth account and shared with you (the gifter).
It’s common for storytellers to feel uninspired by the prompt or uncomfortable answering the question. In such cases, storytellers can skip the question and choose another prompt from the question bank or use their own prompts. If the storyteller missed a question, they can log in to their Storyworth account and respond from there.
After the storyteller has completed all 52 prompts, you can review the stories and preview the book on your Storyworth account before printing. Here are a few tips:
As for the book cover, you can customize the title and image, not the title’s typeface or font size. There’s also a selection of cover styles and colors to choose from.
Once you have reviewed everything, place an order to print the book, which should arrive in around 10 business days.
You’ll have 3 months to edit your stories and order the book after the subscription ends. Once your subscription ended, you would still be able to keep your account and stories. But if you haven’t finished writing your stories within the year and wish to write more, you’ll have to renew your subscription for another year.
A Storyworth book costs $99. The package includes a year’s worth of weekly emailed story prompts, unlimited project guests who can add prompts and view stories, and a 6x9-inch black & white hardcover book (with free shipping). You’ll have to pay additional charges if you want to print your book in color.
Also, the $99 package is an annual subscription, so you’ll need to finish writing your book within a year, or you’ll have to renew your subscription.
Pricing for additional books is less straightforward as it depends on the print format and number of pages, but here’s a breakdown:
You can select up to 10 extra black & white books or buy additional books later at the end of your subscription. During the checkout, you can only order the black & white books. To get the colored books, you’ll need to upgrade your book credits when printing, which costs an additional $40 or $60, depending on the number of pages.
Pro Tip: You can get credits for a free black & white book by referring a friend using your referral code. Your friend will also get $10 😉
Storyworth offers a full refund within 30 days after purchase, as long as no books have been printed. They do not offer returns or exchanges for printed books. You can manage refunds from your Storyworth account under Manage account > Billing.
Overall, most people had a positive experience with Storyworth as storytellers enjoyed recalling memories that would have been forgotten, and their loved ones got to read stories from them. However, the main downsides we hear include:
We’ve also written an extensive blog on Storyworth reviews where we deep dive into what people liked and disliked about Storyworth.
In terms of similar products to Storyworth, Remento is one of the top Storyworth alternatives. Here are some features that make Remento stand out:
Here’s a full comparison between Remento vs Storyworth.
Other competitors offering similar products to Storyworth:
If you’re looking for Storyworth alternatives to capture family stories that are not necessarily life storybooks, you can read our blog on top tools to record family memories.
Storyworth is great for natural writers and storytellers. Gifters of Storyworth also mentioned that, ultimately, it is a gift for them as they get to hear the stories of their loved ones. However, for non-writers and people who aren’t particularly interested in telling their stories, Storyworth is a lot of hard work, and they often struggle to stay motivated to complete the book.
The story book that writes itself
Preserve family stories.
No writing required.
