Transcription for memoir writers hours of dictated life story, as text to write from.
A 90-minute session of dictated memoir comes back as text in about 3 minutes, with chapters where the story turns and the names, places and years you mentioned gathered in a brief. Twenty sessions of that length come to 1,800 minutes, which fits the $18 pack of 3,000 minutes, and the opening minutes are a free preview.
Talking a life onto the page
Many people tell their story more easily than they type it.
How memoir gets dictated
Most memoir writers talk into a phone's voice recorder on a walk, at the kitchen table, or with a family member asking questions. Each session uploads as a file. Long ones are fine: one file can run to 10 hours, and a 90-minute voice memo is small, typically under 150 MB.
From talk to raw material
Spoken memory wanders, doubles back and starts again, and the transcript keeps all of it. That is a strength: the chapters show where one memory ends and the next begins, so you can lift the passages that work and leave the rest. The brief's list of names and years becomes a running timeline.
The caution: check every name
The names of a childhood street, a grandparent's village or a family friend are said once and spelled however they sound. Keep a short list of the names that matter and use find-and-replace in the DOCX export to fix them across every session at once.
A book's worth of sessions
Twenty 90-minute sessions are 1,800 minutes, inside the $18 pack of 3,000. The box here takes files up to 500 MB, and a long video interview continues on the main upload page. Credits never expire, so a book that takes two years costs the same.
Where memoir drafts stall
Recordings pile up on the phone and never become pages.
✗ Stuck on the recordings
Hours of your own voice that nobody has time to type up.
- A phone full of untouched voice memos
- Typing up your own dictation for weeks
- Hiring help by the audio hour
- Losing track of which story is in which file
- Free tools that cap at a few minutes
- A subscription that runs while you edit
✓ Sessions as pages
Every session as text you can cut, rearrange and rewrite.
- About 3 minutes per 90-minute session
- Chapters where each memory starts
- Names and years in a running list
- A chat to find 'the story about the flood'
- $18 for 3,000 minutes, never expiring
- DOCX ready for the first draft
Sample
Part of a dictated memoir session, as text.
Illustrative only: written for this page and not from anyone's memoir.
Export
One transcript. Five clean formats.
Every pack exports all five — no format is held back for a higher tier.
Plain text
De-ummed paragraphs. Ready to paste.
SRT captions
Timed to the speech. Every video editor reads this.
WebVTT
HTML5 player + YouTube uploads.
Show notes
Formatted with chapters and pull-quotes.
Machine-readable
Timestamped text for your own tools.
Pricing
Honest pricing, no surprises.
A pack from $4 (300 minutes) opens the full transcript. After that, no subscription and no auto-renew — every tier is a one-time minute pack, and credits never expire. Buy once, use the minutes whenever you need them.
Casual pack
$4/300 min
5 hours of audio — $0.80 an hour. One-time — credits never expire.
- 300 minutes of audio
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
- Executive summary & key quote
Best value
$18/3,000 min
50 hours of audio — $0.36 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 3,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
Bulk pack
$32/6,000 min
100 hours of audio — $0.32 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 6,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Memoir writers' questions, answered.
How long does a dictation session take?
About 2 minutes per hour of audio. A 90-minute session is ready in about 3 minutes, and a 3-hour afternoon of storytelling in about 6.
What does a whole memoir cost?
Twenty sessions of 90 minutes come to 1,800 minutes, which fits the $18 pack of 3,000 minutes. A shorter project of six sessions, 540 minutes, also fits the $18 pack. Packs start at $4 for 300 minutes, and credits never expire. The opening minutes are a free preview.
A relative is asking the questions. Does that work?
Yes. Both voices are transcribed, and the speakers are named in the summary, key quotes and chapters when they introduce themselves. Saying 'this is my daughter asking' at the start helps.
I switch into the language I grew up with. Is that kept?
99 languages are detected automatically. A session that switches language is detected on its main language, so long stretches in a second language are best recorded as their own session.
The television was on. Will it end up in the text?
Background speech from a television can creep in when it is loud. Music and sound effects are not transcribed. A quiet room and the phone close to you give the cleanest text.
Who can read my recordings?
Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training. Delete any session from the account whenever you choose.
Related
Related long recordings
Send your first session. The opening minutes are a free preview.
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