In short: A grandparent's life story becomes a book most easily in conversation, not in front of a blank page. With the Hermes 3000 life story you prepare the conversation in a few minutes; then Grandpa talks to an AI interviewer that listens, asks follow-up questions and writes everything down. The result is a book outline with chapters, questions for the next conversation and a first page in his own words. The family contributes photos through a link, and if you wish, his voice is kept as an audio recording. The conversation and the outline are free; the finished book is unlocked at the Christmas price of €35 (until 31 December 2026). Printing starts at a single copy through BoD – if you want it under the tree, order the print by the end of November (as of September 2026).
Sooner or later almost every family says it: "We should have written that down." How Grandpa started as a baker's apprentice after the war. How Grandma met him at a dance and why she said no at first. Which street no longer exists. Stories like these are told at family gatherings, a little differently each time – until one day they aren't.
A book of someone's life is one of the most personal gifts there is. The problem is rarely the wish, it is the way there: who writes it, and how do the memories get from Grandpa's head onto paper?
Three ways to a life story
Interview and transcribe it yourself. The classic route: a list of questions, a recorder, a few afternoons at the kitchen table. The conversation is the lovely part – the work afterwards rarely is. Two hours of recording become many pages of raw text that someone has to type up, order and shape into something readable. That is where most projects stall.
Hire a biography service. Professional biographers and ghostwriters conduct the interviews and write the book. The result can be wonderful, but it costs many times a Christmas present and needs months of lead time.
Talk to an AI interviewer. Grandpa tells his story, the AI asks the questions, listens, follows up and writes along. The conversation becomes the outline of the book, which you then write together. That is the route we built the life story for.
How the life story works in Hermes 3000
- Prepare (five minutes). On hermes3000.ai/lebensgeschichte you enter who is telling the story, how you are related, how Hermes should address them and which language they will speak. Add a few notes the interviewer should know – "baker in Kiel for 40 years, met Grandma at a dance in 1961, three children, loves sailing". You don't need an account for this.
- The conversation. Put the phone or laptop on the table, turn the sound up, tap the microphone button. Hermes introduces itself and starts with an easy question – usually: where did you grow up? Then Grandpa simply talks. The interviewer speaks slowly and clearly, asks one question at a time and follows up when something gets interesting. The transcript runs on the screen. Up to four conversations of 20 minutes each are possible, with breaks in between; anyone who prefers can type instead.
- The book outline. After a few minutes of storytelling, Hermes turns the conversation into a title suggestion, six to ten chapters in the order of a life, and three questions per chapter that fill the gaps – for the next conversation. Plus the first page of the book in Grandpa's first person, drawn only from what he told. Nothing is invented: where the conversation is silent, there is a question instead of a claim.
- Keep writing. With a free account it becomes a book in the editor: chapters, first page, questions and the complete transcript as a note. More memories can be dictated there, and the AI helps with the wording – in Grandpa's voice, not its own.
Questions that open good conversations
The interviewer knows its questions, but you know Grandpa. These almost always work – as notes in the preparation or for the next conversation:
- What did the house you grew up in look like? Who lived there?
- What did you eat on Sundays?
- What was the first money you earned – and what did you spend it on?
- How did you two meet? What did you think at first?
- Which day of your life was the most exciting?
- What are you proud of that hardly anyone talks about today?
- What changed most in your line of work?
- Was there a decision that took your life in a different direction?
- What should your grandchildren know about you that they don't know yet?
Difficult topics belong to a life, but they need not be forced. The interviewer is instructed to stay respectful and not to pry.
Photos: the family contributes
A life-story book lives from pictures – and they are rarely in one place. Aunt Inge has the wedding photos, a cousin the holiday pictures from the seventies, the photo of the first car is in Grandma's shoebox.
That is why every book in Hermes has a media library. There you create an upload link and send it to the family by WhatsApp or e-mail. Anyone with the link can upload photos without an account – photographed old prints too – and write who is in each picture, when and where it was taken. The pictures arrive in the media library with sender and description, and one click puts them into a chapter with their caption. Phone photos are turned the right way up, embedded location data is removed on saving, and the link can be deactivated at any time.
Keep the voice
The conversation with Grandpa is often the only longer recording of his voice there will ever be. So you can – only with his consent and separately from everything else – also keep the conversation as an audio recording. It is not public, is stored on servers in Germany, can be listened to, downloaded and deleted at any time. Without that box ticked we store only the text.
From outline to printed book
The outline is a beginning, not a finished book. Plan for one or two more conversations and for expanding the chapters together – the questions for each chapter show what is still missing. A lovely family book often needs 60 to 120 pages.
Once the text is ready, Hermes typesets the book for print: proper book typefaces, a table of contents, chapter openings and photos. It is printed through Books on Demand – from a single copy and, according to BoD, from €2.05 per book, purely for private use if you like, not sold in bookshops, just for the family. The BoD assistant in Hermes prepares the details of the book project for copying and creates the cover file with the right spine.
The Christmas timeline: BoD states three to eight working days for paperbacks and eight to ten for hardcovers – and warns itself that the Christmas season can take longer. If you want the book under the tree, upload the print file by the end of November. Counting backwards: conversations in October, writing in November.
What does the life story cost?
- Preparation, conversations and book outline: free, no account needed.
- The finished book: Christmas price of €35 (until 31 December 2026), one-time, no subscription. If you don't have a book at Hermes yet, you create it for free and unlock it later; if you already have books, you pay before it is created.
- Printing: at BoD from a single copy, according to BoD from €2.05 per book; the exact price depends on page count, format and binding.
Consent and privacy
A life story is about a person who should decide for themselves what they tell. So only hold the conversation if Grandpa or Grandma agrees – you confirm this explicitly in the preparation, and once more separately for the audio recording. The conversation is conducted by a speech model through our HybridAI gateway; the transcript and the book belong to you. Without an account we delete a conversation after seven days. The details are in our privacy policy.
Frequently asked questions
How do I write down my grandparents' life story?
Most easily in conversation: ask about childhood, work, love and turning points, and let them talk. With the Hermes 3000 life story, an AI interviewer conducts the conversation, writes it down and turns it into a book outline with chapters and a first page that you keep writing together.
Does Grandpa need to be good with computers?
No. The grandchild prepares everything and starts the conversation; Grandpa only has to talk. The interviewer speaks slowly and clearly and asks one question at a time.
How long until the book is finished?
The outline is ready right after the first conversation. Depending on its scope, the finished text takes a few weeks with one or two more conversations. BoD prints a paperback in three to eight working days, longer before Christmas.
What does a life-story book cost?
The conversation and the outline are free. The finished book is unlocked at the Christmas price of €35 (until 31 December 2026). Printing starts at a single copy; the print price depends on page count, format and binding.
Is the voice recorded?
Only if you explicitly choose so and the storyteller agrees. Then you can listen to the recording, download it and delete it at any time. Otherwise we store only the text of the conversation.
Can the family contribute photos?
Yes. Through an upload link from the book's media library, relatives upload photos without an account and note who is in them. One click inserts a picture with its caption into the book.
Grandpa's story is waiting. The first conversation takes twenty minutes – prepare the life story now.