Memoir & Life Story

An autobiography covers a whole life in order, cradle to now. A memoir takes one theme — a marriage, an illness, building a company, an immigration — and covers only the years that serve it. Memoirs sell better and are far easier to read, because they have a shape.

60,000 to 80,000 words for a full-length memoir intended for publication. Family legacy books meant for relatives rather than bookshops usually work better at 20,000–40,000 words — short enough that people actually finish them.

Change identifying details, get written permission where the portrayal is unflattering, and stick to what you personally witnessed rather than what you were told. The legal exposure in memoir is defamation and invasion of privacy, and both are far lower when you write only your own experience of events.

Write it yourself if the writing is the point. Hire a ghostwriter if the book existing is the point — particularly if you are over 70, if health is a factor, or if you have started and stalled twice. A memoir ghostwriter costs $30,000–$75,000 for full-length work.