I built a WhatsApp-to-book pipeline with Make.com, OpenAI and Lulu.com — here's the full stack

Minha Historia turns your parents' voice notes into a hardcover memoir book. The French version is Mon Livre de Vie. Here's how the entire pipeline works, with no custom backend.

The concept

1. We send one question per week via WhatsApp
2. Parents answer with a voice note (60 seconds average)
3. We transcribe, edit, and compile 36 answers into a hardcover book
4. Every chapter has a QR code that plays the original voice recording

The stack (zero custom backend)

• Shopify (Dawn theme) — storefront, payments, order management
• WhatsApp Business Cloud API — question delivery and voice note collection
• Make.com — 10 scenarios orchestrating the entire pipeline (question scheduling, response collection, transcription triggers, relance sequences, PDF generation)
• OpenAI API — transcription (Whisper) + editing (GPT-4o for grammar and flow without changing the person's voice)
• Airtable — client database, response tracking, progress dashboard
• Brevo — transactional emails and marketing sequences
• Cloudflare R2 — audio file storage (cheap, fast, S3-compatible)
• Cloudflare Workers — PDF interior generation (custom worker iterating through chapters)
• Lulu.com — print-on-demand hardcover books, ships worldwide

Why WhatsApp and not an app

The target user is a 70-80 year old parent in a small Portuguese village. They don't install apps. They don't create accounts. But they send WhatsApp voice notes to their grandchildren every single day.

WhatsApp is the only interface. No app, no login, no dashboard for the parent. They just receive a question and talk.

The Make.com architecture

10 scenarios handle everything:

• S1: Order webhook from Shopify → create client in Airtable
• S2: Weekly question scheduler → send via WhatsApp Business API
• S3: Response receiver → transcribe via Whisper → store in Airtable
• S4-S5: Relance sequences (gentle reminders if no response after 48h)
• S6: Progress tracking → dashboard updates
• S7: Transcription editing → GPT-4o polishes grammar without changing voice
• S8: PDF generation trigger → Cloudflare Worker builds the interior
• S9: Print order → Lulu.com API
• S10: QR code generation → links each chapter to its audio file on R2

Cloning to a second market

The French version (Mon Livre de Vie) took 2 weeks to clone because the stack is market-agnostic. The only real work was translating the 36 questions, the email sequences, and the Shopify theme. The WhatsApp flows, Make scenarios, and printing pipeline didn't change at all.

The product

• Portuguese version: minhahistoria.pt — 99€ one-time, no subscription
• French version: monlivredevie.fr — 114€ one-time, no subscription
• No app to install, works on any phone with WhatsApp
• 4 hardcover designs (Terra, Mar, Serra, Vinho), gold ornaments, premium typography

Also building SiftedTools, an independent AI tool comparator for e-commerce in 7 languages.

Would love feedback from anyone who's built WhatsApp-based products or print-on-demand pipelines.