Relax and enjoy the journey, we're with you every step along the way.
Here's how it works....
We schedule a no-obligation consultation, free of charge, to share information and determine the scope of your project. Every project is different and once we’ve learned all about your unique requirements, we can provide an estimate of the amount of time it will take to complete the project and what it will cost.
Plan
Planning a project as much as possible is helpful for everyone. After the complimentary consultation, time is taken during the first meeting to plan the project, understand priorities and conduct pre-interview research if necessary.
The client - completes a preliminary questionnaire allowing time to organise their memories before our next phase of interviews. This is the time to consider all content to cover and any contributions from family members to call for.
Interview
During this phase interviews are conducted, notes are transcribed and supporting articles and information gathered so the story can be drafted. A transfer of drafts for revision and correction follows until the client is happy with the content.
The client - this is the fun stage where you decide on photos and other documents you wish to include, review the draft and approve the final manuscript. Now your story is coming to life!
Design
Once all the content is signed off, photos in hand - that's where the magic begins - the design. If it’s for a book our talented designers will bring that story to life with clever design, personalising each book for each client. No two are the same.
The client - for the first time you get to see the designed book. It’s also time to make any final alterations before it's sent to the printers.
Before any book is printed, the client reviews the graphics options, the page layout and approves the design proof. The number of copies and type of cover will have already been collected in a design brief.
The client – it’s time to sit back and relax. We supervise the printing and delivery of book(s) to you.
Choose the book style
to fill with your life story
Your words from your interviews will be presented
in a stunning book surrounded by photographs,
letters, documents, and other precious memorabilia.
At Forget Me Not Life Stories we believe passionately that memoirs should not only be graphically beautiful inside and out, but bound beautifully. For this reason, we offer a range of four luxurious coffee-table quality books where your life stories will give readers a peek back into history.
The Traditional
This option has a soft cover and is ideal when the budget is particularly important. The work, both inside and out is of the same high standard as our other options.
The Heritage
The Heritage is a superbly hand-crafted presentation book with a number of beautiful features such as ribbon page markers, metal corners and the choice of a colour-combination binding material. The title and author name is foil stamped on the front cover.
The DeLuxe
The DeLuxe offers two distinct features:
The binding is 'flexible' so that chapters can be added at a later date - a unique advantage!
The cover of the DeLuxe is padded giving a luxurious look and feel. It also features ribbon page markers, metal corners and the choice of colour-combination binding material. The title and author name is foil stamped on the front cover.
Hardcover Landscape
The A4 Hardcover Landscape is perfect for a thicker book as it is section sewn for greater page stability. The binding is ideal when clients wish to showcase photos as stunning double-page spreads on the inside, and the outside covers can be designed to feature their own photos.
If you don't tell your story - who will?
Don't wait until it's too late.
The benefits of preserving your life story:
- Who will tell your story if you don't? Sadly, many have waited until it was too late.
- No one else knows your stories like you do and only you can reflect on the lessons learned and the wisdom gained during your journey.
- People lead busy lives, and even those passionate about saving stories don't necessarily have the skills or time needed to produce a beautiful book.
- In telling how you survived through difficult, painful, or dark times, you teach important life coping skills and resiliency to your descendants.
- You are an important link in the chain of life. Through your memories, you can connect your children and your children's children to voices of their past.
- Family photos and memorabilia treasured for years can be scanned and preserved in your memoir so that loved ones and future generations can bear witness to your story.
- Your story will let your loved ones and your descendants know you were a real, three-dimensional, vibrant person, and not just a name on a family tree.
- Your life gives young people a glimpse into a past, though not too distant, which may seem unrecognisable to them - a life before computers, email, texting, iPads and maybe even before television!
- In sharing the truth about your life, you will be passing down to future generations your personal values, the life lessons you've learned, and the ethical code that guided your life.
- Preserving your stories in a beautiful, heirloom-quality volume, gives your loved ones a precious gift they can treasure forever and pass on to their children and grandchildren.
- We can also make your story available online for family and friends overseas. Please take a look at Jim Simmond's Website as an example.
Gift Vouchers - a truly unique gift
A Forget Me Not Life Story gift voucher entitles the recipient to the $Dollar value of personal historian services towards a life story and can be redeemed with any of our writers working throughout New Zealand.
Terms and Conditions apply, and are noted in the shop and also on the voucher when emailed to you.
Bright Sunlight, Dark Shadow
A book written to not only detail her story - but to help others.
Judy Hale, a 78-year-old Cambridge grandmother lost her senses of sight, smell, and taste 32 years ago and with the help of Samantha Cutler of Forget Me Not Life Stories captured the journey of facing the future without sight.
Wanting to help others, Judy will donate proceeds of her book to Blind and Low Vision NZ and specifically its Guide Dog Services.
"Samantha Cutler, you have done an excellent job piecing together Judy's Story. I also love the format that it’s printed in, ideal for those of us with failing vision. I am proud to call Judy and Utah my 'friends'." - Sue Collier, Chairperson for Cambridge Blind & Vision Impaired Support Group
You're never too young to start capturing your memories
Forget Me Not have designed Memory Jogger cards to help capture those special memories. You can start writing down what comes to mind and file them in the box the cards come in ready for the day you want to write your story.
Did you know that if you don't preserve your story,
it will be lost after two generations
Meet our experienced writers
Let's meet for a free of charge, no obligation consultation,
to determine the scope of your project - and let's get your life story book underway.