Detours

I once took a stack of worn, printed prayers and turned them into a hardback book. When I gave it to the woman who wrote them, she cried. That moment has stayed with me. I’m Angie Norris, and this is Side Hustle GPS. Today, we’re stopping in Storybook Valley to explore Personalized Storybooks. In our last episode, we talked about imagining a story. This time, the story might already exist—in photographs, family memories, or papers someone has treasured for years. Since my kids were little, one of my mothers-in-law has created beautiful personalized books for our family. Large, colorful hardback books with photographs that practically jump off the page. She’s also been putting together individual books for each of my three children. Their lives, from birth through the years. Their activities. Their milestones. Those little moments you’re so glad someone remembered to capture. These books are special because they’re ours. A friend did something similar for me, gathering favorite photographs of some of my very best friends into a book. You turn a page and think, “Oh, I remember that.” Then another page brings back another moment. That’s the feeling I love about personalized books. And it reminds me of a project I created in 2009. A woman I had worked for had given me prayers when my daughter was born. She called them Prayers for Moms. They were printed on regular eight-and-a-half-by-eleven paper, worn from years of use. Her thoughts, prayers, wishes, and hopes for her children were woven together with Bible verses. These pages meant something to her. And after she shared them with me, they meant something to me, too. So I retyped them, added imagery, and arranged them into a hardback book. The cover showed a mother’s and child’s hands, with the title Praying Moms by Lisa Nichols. We put together a foreword and dedication. Then I surprised her with the printed book. She cried. She was touched that something she had carried on those tattered pages had become something she could hold, keep, and share. Eventually, that gift grew into a bigger project. We sold the books for twenty to twenty-five dollars, with proceeds supporting a children’s organization serving people with Down syndrome. Her daughter had Down syndrome, so that connection was deeply personal. And the children, including her daughter, helped package the books when orders came in. I built a website. We took orders online. A gift became a project that involved and touched more people than I originally imagined. That’s one of the possibilities in this route. A personalized book doesn’t have to be a fictional adventure for a child. It could tell a couple’s wedding story. Celebrate a best friend’s birthday. Capture a family’s year together. Or preserve someone’s words in a form that honors what they mean. You’re helping someone gather the pieces and give them a place to live. And that can be a service. Someone may have hundreds of photographs but no time to choose them. A folder full of memories but no idea how to arrange them. Or something meaningful they want to give, but they need help making it. You can offer to organize the material, shape the story, design the pages, and prepare the book for printing. AI can help you develop captions or organize a draft, but the personal details need your attention. Names. Dates. Relationships. The words someone actually said. You want the person receiving it to recognize their own story. So here’s your first money move: Choose one person and one occasion. Gather a small selection of photos or memories you have permission to use. Then create a few sample pages. Think about the story those pages tell—not just how many pictures you can fit. What would make that person smile? What would they want to remember? If you decide to offer this as a service, be clear about the number of pages, revisions, printing costs, and delivery. You can explore teaching the process later, too. But begin by making one thoughtful book. So here’s your question today: Whose story could you help preserve? Maybe it’s sitting in a phone’s photo library. Maybe it’s tucked inside a drawer. Maybe it’s printed on paper that’s getting a little worn around the edges. Explore Personalized Storybooks in Storybook Valley at SideHustleGPS.com. Some gifts say, “I bought you something.” A personalized book can say, “I see you. I remember. Your story matters.” And that’s a gift worth creating.