# Tellforth vs No Story Lost

No Story Lost (Vancouver) is a done-for-you service: a human interviewer calls your parent for a fixed number of one-hour phone interviews, a team transcribes, writes and edits the stories "in the style and tone that our storytellers speak", lays them out with your photos, and prints a hardcover coffee-table book. Packages are The Chronicle (2 interviews, about $1,099), The Anthology (4, about $1,649), The Odyssey (6, about $2,199) and The Legacy (8 hours for up to two storytellers, five copies, about $4,450). It promises "from hello to hardcover in as little as 3 months" and a "Happy Tears Guarantee": they make it right or refund your money. At the time of writing their storefront showed "This store is unavailable", so these details come from their own pages as archived in September 2025.

## What No Story Lost does well

- A real person interviews, by phone or video call; nothing for the teller to type or install
- Transcribed, written, edited and designed by a team, with the family approving the text and design before printing
- Written to sound like the teller; audio recordings and a digital copy of the book are included
- A hardcover coffee-table book with photos placed by hand; shipping included in Canada and the US
- A stated "make it right or refund your money" guarantee, and interviews can be done within a week if time is short

## Where No Story Lost falls short

- A fixed number of interviews: two, four or six hours on the standard packages; more is an upgrade
- Written by their writers from the transcripts, with the teller's words edited into "a beautifully flowing story"
- Priced from about $1,099 to $4,450, plus about $100 per extra premium copy
- English only, by their FAQ
- Rights are for personal use; publishing or selling needs extra paperwork from them
- Their site was unavailable when we checked, so confirm the service is taking orders

## Side by side

| | No Story Lost | Tellforth |
|---|---|---|
| How stories are gathered | Two, four or six one-hour phone (or video) interviews with a human interviewer | Voice visits of 15 to 20 minutes with a live interviewer that asks follow-ups, plus a 30-second daily card; no typing, no login for the teller |
| Follow-up questions | Inside each hour, yes: a human asks; nothing between or after the booked hours | One record of every person, place, saying and story; the next question comes from what is still missing |
| What you get | A hardcover coffee-table book written and designed by their team from the transcripts, with photos, audio recordings and a digital copy | A designed, finished book: a memoir in the teller's own words, or a novel built on the true story with what was invented listed at the back |
| Ownership | Rights for personal use; commercial rights by separate paperwork | You own every recording and word; export everything free, any time; no subscription |
| Price | About $1,099 (2 interviews), $1,649 (4), $2,199 (6), $4,450 (Legacy); extra copies about $100 or $50 (check their site) | One-time price; no renewal |
| If it isn't finished | "Happy Tears Guarantee": make it right or refund | No deadline and no renewal: the record stays open until the book is finished, and we step in early if it stalls |

## Verdict

Choose No Story Lost if you want a human team to do everything in about three months, two to six hours of interviews is enough, and the budget is one to two thousand dollars. Choose this if your parent has more to say than six hours can hold, you want the book in their own words rather than a writer's edit, and you want a one-time price under two hundred dollars.

## Sources

- No Story Lost home page (archived 4 Sept 2025; the live store was unavailable when we checked): http://web.archive.org/web/20250904095423/https://nostorylost.com/
- No Story Lost packages (archived): http://web.archive.org/web/20250904095423/https://nostorylost.com/products/select-your-life-story-book
- No Story Lost FAQ (archived): http://web.archive.org/web/20250904095423/https://nostorylost.com/pages/questions-about-your-life-story
- No Story Lost: The Legacy (archived): http://web.archive.org/web/20250915092400/https://nostorylost.com/products/the-legacy
- No Story Lost (live site): https://nostorylost.com/

Prices and features of other products are as published on their own sites at the time of writing and may have changed.