Dear Authors,

As a reminder, my name is Sieva Kozinsky from Enduring Ventures. I’m the interim CEO of the “NewCo” seeking to help authors left behind by Scribe.

I know many of your experiences over the past few months have been turbulent and frustrating.

I’m writing this email in an effort to give you as much insight as possible into the current situation at Scribe Media LLC.

We are sharing information as we learn it, but unfortunately we don’t have answers to a lot of the problems that were created at Scribe Media LLC before we stepped in.

Where we are today:

●  Unfortunately Scribe Media LLC spent all of its money before delivering many authors with completed projects. It’s an awful situation. In May, that business ran out of money.

●  In the following months it laid off all of its employees and left many freelancers without pay. It has significant debts, and there are ongoing legal proceedings against the owners.

●  We, Enduring Ventures, were interested in buying the LLC to attempt to turn the business around. Unfortunately, during our due diligence at Scribe, we discovered that the situation was a lot worse than our initial understanding.

●  We believe there are two great reasons to try to save this business: An extraordinary core team who are gifted at creating great books, and a superb community of authors with books that need to be shared with the world. We realize that if we walk away from this deal, the remaining Scribe Media LLC staff and all these authors would be left in a horrible situation.

● Enduring Ventures has created a new organization, and we are doing our best to salvage what is left of Scribe Media LLC. At this point we do not own Scribe Media LLC. We have an agreement that allows us to service authors and work with freelancers. We have hired some of its staff, and we are doing our best to help former customers of Scribe Media LLC (you, the authors).

●  Over the past weeks, our small but mighty team has put together project plans and timelines to ensure every author can publish their book. We know a lot of the additional costs and timelines were not what you were hoping for. Truly, though, we are keeping new costs as low as possible to cover the cost of the work being done. The alternative to this path is nobody receives their book and all work is lost.

What’s happening next:

●  Our number one priority is finding a way to serve you as our authors, and taking care of the remaining employees.

●  Our second priority is sustainability. We want to be here helping authors write and publish books for years to come, and to do this, we have to ensure we are creating a sustainable future.

●  Throughout all of this, our goal is to rebuild trust with you. We will be as transparent as we can. We will tell you what we can and cannot deliver. And, we will give you our best estimates of any timeframes and costs involved. Most importantly, you have my commitment to do the right thing. The right thing for the new business, its employees, and for the authors that decide to join us on this journey forward.

●  Please note:  I am not an executive of Scribe Media LLC. I cannot make changes to agreements on behalf of that company. Only a Scribe Media LLC representative can do that. Some authors are asking for things that unfortunately we may not be able to accommodate, but we will do our very best to point you in the right direction.

How can we keep everything moving forward?

●  What is in our control right now is how we move forward. While we may not have been responsible for the mistakes that happened to get Scribe Media LLC to this point, we are here to find a path forward for this business to the very best of our abilities. We know we have an incredible team in place to serve authors in writing and publishing their books.

●  We cannot change what has already happened, and we know it has caused much pain to many of our authors, former and current Scribe Media LLC crew members, freelancers and many others.

●  Our commitment to you is moving forward with transparency, honesty, hard truths when needed, and if we are able to get a plan agreed upon with you, the assurance that you will have your book at the end of this journey. We know we need to rebuild trust, and we know it is not an easy road ahead. We ask that you consider taking a chance on us – tell us how we can make this right for you and give us the opportunity to help you share your book with the world.

What I ask of You

We are still developing our plan for moving forward with all authors. You should have received a personal email with the status of your project, next steps and timeframes.

I fully acknowledge that these plans are bringing forth many questions and emotions. This is an incredibly challenging situation with no perfect plan forward.

I have a few minor requests…

Please do not be mean or threaten the current employees.

The current employees and freelancers did not create this issue, and our only chance of completing books is if these brave people stay and continue helping you and other authors.

The people working at Scribe Media LLC have been on the front lines of doing work and supporting authors for years. These employees want to take good care of you as authors, and will do their best to deliver an incredible book.

For many of you who have been so thoughtful, and supportive with random messages of kindness to the staff, thank you. That is the kind energy we need at this time.

Moving Forward

Since I am not an executive of Scribe Media LLC, I cannot make changes to agreements on behalf of that company.

So any agreement changes, updates, etc. must be taken to the lender and to Scribe Media LLC representatives for approval.

We do have a consulting agreement between Scribe Media LLC and the new company which allows us to work on previous agreements under Scribe Media LLC and sign new agreements – with the approvals of Scribe Media LLC and its lender – which we will exercise our best efforts to obtain when appropriate. This is why you are emailing with employees under a Scribe Media LLC email address and discussing what it looks like to continue working with Scribe Media LLC even though Scribe Media LLC has no current employees.

Our goal is to help every author get their book completed and published. That may mean with us, a freelancer directly, or some other method not yet identified at this time.

I hope all of you give us a chance to finish and publish your book under the new plans.

And, if we are given the opportunity to complete your book, we will do our best to make you happy with your final product. I believe in this amazing team, and I feel confident that together we can get back to making amazing products. Our team, both the full-time crew and our freelancers are simply incredible at what they do.

Timelines

On July 7, 2023 we sent out the worst case scenario timelines for completing books. Some folks were shocked by this, though it is the reality of the current situation.

As we receive feedback on who is moving forward with Scribe Media LLC and who is not, we will update those timelines. It is very likely that those timelines can be meaningfully shortened.

If timeline is your main concern, I encourage you to respond as a “maybe” to your Author Success Manager. Then over the next couple weeks they can present a more definitive timeline for you, at which point you can make a final decision.

How Can you Support

If you have specific suggestions on how to complete your book on a shortened timeline let us know.  We are open to any ideas and specific suggestions that are relevant to your situation.

Again, we cannot approve it ourselves when you make the request. But if you provide all of the information requested, we can do the following:

1. Present it to the Scribe Media LLC board and lender with our recommendation
2. Try to help you find a way to complete your project in your desired way within our new structure.

Please keep in mind this situation is in flux. We do not have all the information, and are learning more as we go.

We believe this is a business worth saving and we are expending considerable capital in an attempt to save it. But, it will take a village to get there. Right now, we are asking for your patience, your input and grace. There are no guarantees, but we believe we can do this with the right people and resources.

Thank you for reading and helping us find a way to solve this for you.

Sieva

Miscellaneous Note Below 

Author Advisory Committee for the Turnaround

In my first email to you a couple weeks ago I asked for some volunteers to help advise on this situation. Thank you to those of you who have volunteered to help and advise, you’ll all be hearing more from me soon.

We had our first meeting this week with a group whose backgrounds we feel will be instrumental in addressing the biggest challenges facing Scribe Media LLC today.

I’m astounded by the quality of people and level of support in this community. In the group are multiple people that started businesses sold for over $500M, a C-level executive of a $15Bn company, a crisis communications professional and more.

The guidance for this email came from our first meeting with this group. I look forward to future meetings with our advisory committees as we work together to figure out how to navigate out of this.

CEO referral – I’m here as interim CEO while we try to turn the ship around, but I’m actively looking for someone who will be the best CEO for this company moving forward.

If you know anyone you can refer, please let me know ([email protected]).

I would like to hire someone that has senior level / CEO or SVP type experience running a high quality service business with 30 to 100 employees.

Can I have a refund from Scribe Media LLC?

To request a refund with the previous company please fill-out this form.

From what we can tell at this time it’s unlikely you will receive any sort of refund.

However, we don’t want to leave anyone behind. We want to work with you to find a way for you to complete your book with our team.