May 2024

Storyworth – How it Works, Price, Reviews & Top Alternatives

Storyworth offers a structured way for families to document personal histories through weekly prompts, creating a hardcover keepsake book, but alternatives like Remento offer innovative approaches that make the process easier and more interactive without the need for writing.

by
Remento Staff

Capturing and preserving family memories can often feel daunting, but tools like Storyworth® are designed to help make the process straightforward. Storyworth is a service designed to help families easily document their personal histories and create lasting keepsakes. This guide walks through everything you need to know about Storyworth, including how Storyworth works, how to log into Storyworth, what's special about the Storyworth book, and top Storyworth alternatives to help you make an informed buying decision. 

Below, we’ll cover:

  • What is Storyworth?
  • Who is Storyworth for?
  • How Does Storyworth Work?
  • What are some Storyworth questions?
  • How does Storyworth work?
  • How much does Storyworth cost?
  • What people say about storyworth
  • Storyworth alternatives

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. 

What is Storyworth?

From Storyworth

Storyworth is a platform that structures the process of writing a memoir through weekly responses to storytelling prompts. Over a year, these written stories are transformed into a hardcover book, creating a lasting keepsake. 

Who is Storyworth for?

The ideal Storyworth customer loves to write and doesn’t find the prospect of writing an entire book over a year intimidating. They are also comfortable with technology as they’ll be instructed to log into Storyworth to write their reflections and add photographs.

What are some Storyworth questions / prompts?

Storyworth has developed a list of general-purpose questions designed to inspire the recall of memories, ranging from distant family history to more contemporary memories.

From: mommystreasures.blogspot.com

These questions are designed to encourage people to share their memories, thoughts, and experiences in a meaningful way.

Explore a list of 48 sample Storyworth questions and prompts 

What do Storyworth book look like? Can Storyworth books be customized?

From: simpleshenanigans.com

Storyworth books are hardcover 6ⅹ9 inch books, and no formatting is allowed—no italics, bold, or underlining. These books are printed in black and white, although customers can purchase a color-printed book for an additional fee.

How does Storyworth work?

In short, Storyworth turns written responses to storytelling prompts into a hardcover book. 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:

1. Set up your Storyworth account

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.

Storyworth dashboard to manage your project(s) and storyteller(s)

2. Choose your questions

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, many customers enjoy picking and choosing questions relevant to their storyteller from Storyworth’s question bank (see example questions). If you need additional inspiration beyond those provided by Storyworth, we’ve collected a selection of deep questions to go a bit further with someone you love.

3. Storyteller receives weekly writing prompts

Once a week, the storyteller receives a writing prompt in their inbox asking about their life experiences. They can either reply via email, or log into the platform to type their story. All replies will be automatically saved in their private Storyworth account and shared with you (the gifter).

In our research speaking with Storyworth storytellers, many described the process of writing these stories to be novel at first, but then started to feel a bit like homework over time, which led to them falling behind. If you’re considering purchasing Storyworth for a parent or grandparent, you might consider calling them every week to keep them motivated to keep writing each week.

Learn more from Storyworth customers

4. Review stories

After the storyteller has completed all 52 prompts, anyone with access can review the stories and preview the book on your Storyworth account before printing.

Here are a few tips to reviewing these stories and organizing them for printing in your Storywoth book:

  • While the questions are not sent in chronological order, you can rearrange stories in the table of contents on your Storyworth dashboard. Just click and hold the story, and drag it to your preferred order. 
  • Preview the book before ordering, as it cannot be canceled or returned once printed.
  • Add images if you haven’t already. While there’s no limit to the number of images you can include, your Storyworth book must not exceed 480 pages. Just remember you’ll be charged a fee if you decide to print your book in color.

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.

You can choose the style and colors of your Storyworth book cover

5. Order your book

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. 

Storyworth book: Black & White interior with colored cover 

How much does Storyworth cost?

A Storyworth annual subscription 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. 

Storyworth’s subscription plan

How much do additional books cost?

Pricing for additional books is less straightforward as it depends on the print format and number of pages, but here’s a breakdown: 

  • Each black & white book up to 480 pages costs $39
  • Each colored book up to 300 pages costs $79
  • Each colored book between 301 to 480 pages costs $99

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 😉

Returns & refunds

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.

Managing returns & refunds on your Storyworth account

Are Storyworth coupons or discounts ever offered?

Storyworth will occasionally offer a $10 discount during key holidays, like Mother's Day, Father's Day, and in December.

Storyworth reviews

After speaking with hundreds of Storyworth families, we’ve compiled an overview of what customers like most and least about the Storyworth platform.

Pros of Storyworth

  • Great gift: Storyworth makes for a meaningful gift for parents and grandparents, demonstrating genuine curiosity and signalling interest in preserving their memories
  • Quality books: Storyworth’s books black and white books are printed in hardcover and built to stand the test of time.
  • Good questions: Storyworth’s questions are insightful and thought-provoking, ranging from the simple and fun to the deep and meaningful.

Cons of Storyworth

  • Feels like homework: Manually typing stories weekly for a year feels like homework to most storytellers and as a result, many never finish their book.
  • Time consuming editing: Once users have written their stories, editing can be lengthy and cumbersome.
  • Security concernsSome users have expressed concerns about Storyworth's platform reliability, citing instances where data disappeared
  • No photo prompts: Although photos can be added to stories, many users, particularly older individuals, found this process difficult to navigate.

Read additional Storyworth reviews 

Storyworth alternatives

Several new services have emerged in the last several years designed to help families capture and preserve stories of aging relatives. Here are some of their offerings:

Storyworth v. Remento

Remento makes it easy to create an entire book of life stories without writing a word. Remento’s automated interviewing technology interviews your parents or grandparents each week for a year, and compiles their responses into a printed keepsake book.

From Remento

Here are some features that make Remento stand out:

  • No writing required: Remento’s Speech-to-Story technology transforms recording reflections each week into a book of stories. That means no tedious writing or editing required. 
  • Scan the book to watch recordings: Remento makes it easy to document both written stories and the recordings of your storyteller sharing them. Simply scan the QR code printed inside so that anyone in your family can read the stories or watch the recordings whenever they want - forever.
  • Color printing included: Purchasing Remento includes the printing and free shipping of a color-printed, hardcover book, designed to bring the photographs printed through the book to life. 
  • Photo-based prompts: Storyworth lets you add photos to the book, but not as prompts. Remento allows image prompts for users to share stories behind photos, enabling the creation of a “narrated photo album” as many customers refer to it as. 

Price: $99 (with $10 discount available for new customers)

Learn more about the differences between Storyworth and Remento

Storyworth v. No Story Lost

No Story Lost is a service that helps families capture and preserve their cherished memories through professional interviews and beautifully bound books. The process starts with a friendly interviewer conducting recorded conversations with your loved ones, focusing on their unique stories and experiences.

From No Story Lost

Here are some features that make No Story Lost Stand Out.

  • Professional interviewers: Experienced interviewers conduct engaging and thoughtful conversations to draw out the most meaningful stories from your loved ones.
  • Personalized editing: Each story is carefully transcribed and edited to reflect the storyteller's authentic voice and essence, maintaining authenticity and emotional depth.
  • High-quality keepsake books: The final product is a beautifully designed, hardbound book that integrates personal photos and stories into a lasting heirloom.

Price: Starting at $1,099

Other companies offering similar products to Storyworth include:

  • My Life in a Book: Like Storyworth, My Life in a Book sends weekly emails to prompt users to write about their lives. We wrote an article comparing Storyworth, My Life in a Book and Remento.
  • A Life Untold: Storytellers type their answers and stories into an online interview. The company is based in Australia but offers global shipping to Canada, the USA, New Zealand, and the UK. 
  • Storykeeper: Storykeeper uses an online web application where you start responding to story prompts or wait for their weekly email prompt.
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An older woman with short gray hair, sitting comfortably on a white couch, smiling warmly while holding a pink book titled 'Claudette's Best Stories' with a black-and-white photo on the cover. The cozy living room features soft lighting and a large window in the background.

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