Your life,
beautifully written.
VELLUM is a private memoir studio. Twelve guided chapters carry you from childhood to legacy — answer warm interview questions out loud, and watch your story become a book worth handing down. No blank page. No writing required.
A memoir in twelve chapters
The Way
It Was
as told by you
VELLUM Press
8/12
CHAPTERS DONE
Why VELLUM
Built for the storyteller in you — even if you never write.
A map of your whole life
Twelve chapters across four eras — Roots, Becoming, Turning Points, Legacy. You always know where you are and what remains. Other apps hand you a loose pile of topics; VELLUM hands you a spine.
Speak, don't type
Every prompt has a microphone. Tell the story the way you'd tell it at the kitchen table — your words appear as you talk. Rambling is welcome; shape comes later.
Your book, live as you write
Watch the memoir typeset itself. The manuscript grows beside your answers, and a print-ready preview is always one click away — not locked behind a checkout.
Every word is yours to edit
Nothing is sealed. Rewrite any answer, expand any chapter, mark it complete when it feels true. The book wears your voice, not ours.
Progress you can feel
Completion rings, word counts and a twelve-chapter goal keep momentum honest. Most memoirists finish in about five hours of talking — ten minutes at a time.
Private, portable, permanent
Your stories are never sold, never shown, never fed to an ad. Export or print everything, whenever you like, even if you leave.
From memory to page
Four minutes of talking. A chapter you're proud of.
What you said · out loud
VELLUM asks —
You said you met Eleanor in Buffalo. Set the scene. What month, what was the weather doing?
transcribed as you spoke
“winter. '76 i think. outside the chippewa street diner, snow coming down sideways.”
VELLUM asks —
And Eleanor. What's the first thing you noticed about her?
“she was laughing at something. didn't have a coat. i gave her mine and she kept it a week.”
End of session · about 4 minutes
The chapter it becomes
The Coat
It was the winter of 1976, and the snow on Chippewa Street came down sideways, the way it only does in Buffalo. I had my collar up and nowhere in particular to be.
That was when I saw Eleanor. She was laughing at something I couldn't hear, standing in the cold without a coat as if the weather were someone else's problem. So I gave her mine. She kept it a week. I like to think I never really got it back.
You never write a word. You just talk — and your life becomes the book.
How it works
A whole life story, in about five hours of talking.
Open your life map
Your memoir arrives pre-structured: twelve chapters across four eras, each with three or four warm interview questions. Start anywhere; pick up effortlessly.
Talk it through
Tap the microphone or type. Ten minutes answers a question; an evening finishes an era. Every word saves itself the moment you pause.
Hold the book
Chapters become pages the moment you finish them. Print at home, hand the file to a local binder, or order your personalized hardcover when the story feels done.
The keepsake
Some things shouldn't live on a screen.
When your twelfth chapter settles, VELLUM typesets your memoir into a personalized 6×9 casewrap hardcover — your title and name on a durable full-color cover, a dedication page, and each era opening on its own leaf. It is the kind of object grandchildren rescue first.
- Glossy casewrap hardcover with a personalized front and spine
- Smooth 60# cream paper selected for comfortable long-form reading
- Dedication page written in your words
- Era title pages — Roots, Becoming, Turning Points, Legacy
- Professional typesetting and print-ready PDF included
VELLUM Press · Volume I
A Life
in Eras
your story, on the cover
PRINT-READY
One click typesets the whole memoir for your home printer or bookbinder.
Simple pricing
Free to write. Pay when you want it bound.
The studio and digital book are free forever. A printed edition includes personalized cover production, fine book typesetting, file preparation, printing, and shipping — with family-set discounts when you want more than one.
Printed-edition prices include up to 300 interior pages.
Standard Digital PDF
$0
Your whole book, free, forever.
- Every chapter, single-spaced and clean
- Print at home or read on any device
- Chapter titles, photos and captions
- Discreet VELLUM footer on each page
- Unlimited re-downloads as you write
Keepsake Softcover
$39 /copy
The one you hand around the table.
- Professional book typesetting
- Drop caps and tuned margins
- Matte laminate cover, cream paper
- No watermark, no footer
- Perfect for extra family copies
HEIRLOOM Hardcover
$89 /copy
The one that outlives you.
- Personalized glossy casewrap hardcover
- Full-wrap cover and spine sized to your exact page count
- 6×9 format with standard black-and-white printing
- Smooth 60# cream uncoated paper
- Drop caps, era title pages, hand-tuned margins
- Dedication page and print-ready PDF included
Volume pricing
One for every branch of the family.
Multi-copy orders share fulfillment and shipping overhead, so we pass those savings on. The discount applies to every copy in the order.
—
Single copy
Standard price
10%
2–4 copies
10% off every copy — for couples and siblings.
15%
5+ copies
15% off every copy — one for each branch of the family.
Example — five HEIRLOOM hardcovers: $75.65 each, $378.25 total (save $66.75).
Testimonials
Lives worth telling, told at last.
Every testimonial here was submitted for publication and approved. We never take words from a private memoir.
The first shared experiences will appear here after their authors choose to share them.
Share a testimonialReviews
Honest words from our community.
Ratings and reviews are shared voluntarily and reviewed before they appear here.
No reviews have been published yet. Your honest experience can help the next storyteller.
Write a review
A message from the creator
Some stories have expiration dates.
Hi, I’m Jesse. Like many of you, I’ve always been drawn to the history locked in people’s memories.
But some stories I would have given anything to hear are now permanently beyond my reach. It’s an absence that has stuck with me—a piece of family heritage lost forever just because nobody wrote it down.
That’s why I created Vellum. Not as another complicated project, but as a simple, thoughtful environment where any voice can quickly and easily build a lasting memoir. Every life has a spine; this just helps you typeset it.
VELLUM is still new, and I’m improving it as people use it. If something feels confusing—or you have an idea that would make it better—I genuinely want to hear it.
Everything you're wondering
Questions, answered.
Two things. Structure: your memoir is mapped into twelve chapters across four life eras, so you always know what's next and what's left. And freedom: the print-ready book is yours on day one — we don't hold your own story behind a checkout page.
No. Most memoirists never type a word — they tap the microphone and talk the way they'd talk to a friend. Your spoken answers become your chapter draft, and every word stays editable forever.
About five hours of talking, spread however you like. A question takes ten minutes; a chapter, a quiet evening. Small, steady sessions beat heroic ones.
Your memoir is private by default and is never copied into testimonials or reviews. Only words you choose to submit separately can appear publicly, with your permission and after review. You can export or delete your memoir at any time.
The studio is free — every chapter, every question, voice capture, and a complete typeset PDF of your book. Printed editions are optional: the Keepsake Softcover is $39 and the HEIRLOOM Hardcover is $89, with 10% off two to four copies and 15% off five or more.
Printed-edition prices include up to 300 interior pages — more than enough for most VELLUM memoirs. Exceptionally long books carry a production charge based on the final typeset length: $10 per copy for 301–500 pages, $20 for 501–700, and $30 for 701–800. Lulu's hardcover maximum is 800 pages, and you will see the final page count and price before checkout.
That's one of the most common ways VELLUM is used. Sit beside them, press record, and let them talk. Many families pass the printed draft around and fill the margins together.
Begin tonight
Someday is not a day of the week.
Everyone means to write it all down. Start with one question tonight — the one about the kitchen, or the coat, or the day you left — and see your life take shape.
Start your memoir freeFree forever · your stories stay yours