Biography Genre
Biography Book Publishing Services
A biography stands or falls on its sources. We help you research, write or edit, and publish the life of someone else, whether that is a parent, a community figure, a founder or a historical subject, with every claim traceable.
- Researchers, writers and editors in-house
- Sources logged for every factual claim
- Revisions included until the brief is met
- Each book quoted with its own timeline
The problem
A biography is a research project before it is a book
Writing about someone else means writing about events you did not see. Everything has to come from somewhere: interviews, letters, archives, newspapers, public records, other books. When a biography goes wrong, it is usually because that groundwork was thin. Dates contradict each other, a family story is repeated as fact, or a quotation turns out to be misremembered.
The other common problem is distance. Some biographies are so admiring that the subject never becomes a real person; others bury the person under research notes. Readers want to understand why the subject made the choices they made, and that needs both evidence and storytelling.
We help on both fronts: building a reliable research base and then shaping it into a narrative people want to read.
What we do
Biography services
Research support
Locating and organising sources: public records, newspaper archives, published interviews and books, plus a source log that ties each fact to where it came from.
Interviews
Prepared interviews with family, colleagues or the subject, recorded and transcribed so quotations are accurate.
Ghostwriting
A writer drafts the biography from the research and interviews, published under your name.
Editing and fact-checking
For a draft you have written: structure, readability and a check of names, dates and quotations against the sources.
Photo and document sections
Layout of photographs, letters and documents with captions and credit lines.
Design and publishing
Cover, interior, index if needed, and print and ebook files ready for distribution.
Not sure which option fits?
Send us the brief. You will get a scope, a timeline and a fixed price within 24 hours — no obligation.
Permissions and care
Photos, quotations and living people
Owning a photograph is not the same as owning its copyright. Pictures taken by a professional photographer, a newspaper or an archive may need permission to reprint, and long quotations from letters, songs or other books can need permission too. We track every image and quotation that might need clearance and tell you which ones to ask about before the book goes to print.
If your subject or people in the story are still alive, accuracy matters even more. We flag passages that make serious allegations or reveal private information so you can check them, soften them or take legal advice. We are editors, not lawyers, and we will say so when a passage needs one.
For family biographies, it often helps to share the draft with relatives before publishing. It catches errors and avoids surprises.
Before you publish
A biography is ready when
This is the checklist our editors work through before a biography goes to design.
- Every date, name and place has been checked against at least one reliable source
- Quotations match the recording, letter or publication they came from
- Family stories that cannot be confirmed are presented as stories, not facts
- The book has a clear angle on the subject, not only a sequence of events
- Photos and long quotations have permission, or are confirmed not to need it
- Notes or a bibliography let readers see where the information came from
- Passages about living people have been reviewed for accuracy and fairness
Length and format
How long a biography should be
Full-length biographies for the general market commonly run between about 70,000 and 100,000 words, and books on major public figures often go longer. A family biography or a short life of a local figure can be much shorter and still complete. Length should follow the material: if the sources support a rich book, write it; if they do not, padding shows.
Biographies benefit from good back matter. Endnotes or a source list, a short chronology and, for longer books, an index make the book more useful and more credible, particularly for readers using it as a reference.
How it works
Our process
1. Scope call
Who the subject is, what material exists, who the book is for and whether you are writing or we are. Fixed quote and timeline follow.
2. Research and outline
Sources gathered and logged, interviews held, and a chapter outline agreed with you.
3. Draft and check
Writing or editing in stages, with fact-checking and a permissions list as we go.
4. Production
Cover, photo layout, interior and publishing setup for print and ebook.
Free proposal
Tell us the goal. We’ll send the plan.
Share your requirements and a strategist gets back to you within 24 hours with scope, timeline and a fixed price. No obligation, no sales pressure.
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Response within 24 hours
Usually much sooner during business hours.
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Talk to a strategist
Not a call centre — the person who scopes your work.
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Fixed pricing upfront
You approve the number before anything starts.
Prefer to talk?
[email protected]Questions
Questions about biography publishing
Still unsure about something? Talk to a specialist — no script, no sales pitch.
Generally you do not need a subject's permission to write about their life using facts and public sources, but you do need to be accurate and fair, and some material, such as photos and long quotations, may need permission to reproduce. Rules vary by country, so for anything sensitive we recommend legal advice before publication.
Yes. Family biographies are among the most common projects we see. We work from interviews with relatives, letters, photos and any records you have, and we can add research into the places and times they lived through to give the story context.
We say so in the text. A family story that cannot be verified can still be included, framed as what the family remembers rather than as established fact. That keeps the book honest and protects you if someone later disputes the detail.
It depends on the reader. A family biography rarely needs footnotes but benefits from a short source list. A biography of a public or historical figure is more credible with endnotes or a bibliography. We recommend endnotes over footnotes for most general readers because they keep the page clean.
Usually, yes. High-resolution scans can be cleaned up for print, though very small or badly damaged originals have limits. We will tell you which images will reproduce well before they are placed in the layout, and we add captions and credit lines so readers know who is pictured and where each image came from.
Works well with
Pair it with the rest of the stack
Ready when you are
Ready to work with the pros?
Get a free proposal in 24 hours — scope, timeline and fixed price. No obligation, no lock-in contract.
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