How a book gets you paid speaking gigs and raises the fee when it does.
Event organizers do not hire the most polished talker in a field; they hire the person who wrote the book on it. Here is how that works, what it did to six Scribe authors' fees, and when a speaker should not write the book yet.
A book gets you booked because it makes you the person who wrote the book on it, and that is what raises the fee.
Four things follow from that: how organizers choose, what happens to the fee, why the audiobook and the talk feed each other, and when the book is the wrong move.
Organizers book the author. A program chair has to defend every name on the agenda, and a book is the defense. Cameron Herold had spoken hundreds of times before his two Scribe books. After Meetings Suck and Vivid Vision his fee went from $15,000 to $30,000 a talk, and bureaus that had ignored him asked to represent him. That is his account, on his story page.
The fee moves before the calendar fills. John Ruhlin did not write Giftology to get booked, and it nearly tripled his fee anyway, from $7,500 to $20,000 and up, with more than fifteen paid talks in the first year. An event that had turned him down for a free slot came back offering the full fee plus travel. His figures, on his story page.
The audiobook and the talk feed each other. Every Scribe book ships as an audiobook. A talk sends a room to the audiobook, and the audiobook puts your talk in the ears of the next program chair months later. Robin Farmanfarmaian built a speaking division first, then the book, and has since given more than 225 keynotes in 16 countries. Three VP roles came from people who saw her speak.
When the book is the wrong move. If you have not yet given one talk enough times to know which idea the room comes back for, write the talk first. A book fixes your idea in print for years. And if there is no stage, practice or platform to feed the book into, a $135,000 book bought with personal money is the wrong purchase, and we will say so.
What do the speaking-gig guides leave out?
Organizers book a point of view, not a topic. Kirk Drake wrote CU 2.0 about one industry he had served for decades, then signed fifteen keynote contracts and built a 13,000-person executive list, by his account.
Cameron Herold worried a ghostwritten book would not sound like the speaker people had already heard. He sent an early section back, and the rewrite read like him. Two voice checks exist for exactly that reason.
Matt Shoup's speaking agent kept him at smaller events until Painted Baby landed. His first pitch after publishing was his first five-figure talk, and the bigger stages followed. The book was the threshold.
Robin Farmanfarmaian on what changed for her career once the book was out.
What the book did to the fee and the calendar
Every number below comes from a published success story on scribemedia.com, and each one links to the page it came from.
These are the best documented results among authors who told us. Every one of them had a business or a stage the book could feed. Most authors do not track a number, and a book without a business behind it should not be bought for a financial return.
Cameron Herold was already a working speaker when he wrote Meetings Suck and Vivid Vision with Scribe. His fee, which had reached $15,000 after a first book he wrote alone, went to $30,000 once the two books were out, and speaker bureaus that had ignored him asked to represent him. COOs now buy his books for their teams.
More than fifteen paid talks in year one, and an event that once declined him for free came back offering the full fee.
Read the story →Ten years of free talks, then twenty paid ones at higher fees after the book. He now declines rooms that are not a fit.
Read the story →You would be in good company
From first-time authors to number-one bestsellers, these are books our teams helped create.
What speakers ask before they commit
Because the return is the fee, not the royalty. Cameron Herold's fee went from $15,000 to $30,000 after his two Scribe books. John Ruhlin's went from $7,500 to $20,000 and up, and by his account the book paid for itself within three months in speaking fees and book sales. At those fees, a handful of talks a year carries the cost of Elite. Copies sold are a side effect. If selling copies is the business, Scribe is the wrong purchase.
About 50 hours in total for Professional, one to two hours a week across nine to twelve months: roughly twenty hours in interviews, the rest in roadmapping, voice checks and revisions. Elite adds up to three days in person, which most speakers schedule around their travel. Your publishing manager runs the project from day one through launch, so the book does not become a second calendar you have to manage.
That is the whole risk for a speaker, and the process is built around it. You interview three matched senior writers and choose. Preview pages arrive after the first interviews, a midpoint voice check follows, and nothing proceeds until you approve the voice. Then you revise in four sections, line by line, until every line is yours. Cameron Herold sent an early section of Meetings Suck back because it did not sound like him. The rewrite did.
Choose Professional, $4,667 a month for twelve months, $56,000 total, if your fee is still in the four figures, your business rather than the stage will carry the return, or $135,000 is a stretch against current speaking revenue. Choose Elite, $9,000 a month for fifteen months, $135,000 total, if you are already on the circuit with a brand to protect and want a premier ghostwriter, a team that has done this for people at your level, and the launch handled for you.
Every project has a publishing manager, an executive editor and quality review. The writers are vetted senior professionals; many have been with Scribe five to ten years, and many hold traditional publishing credits and MFAs. On Elite, a premier ghostwriter leads twenty in-depth interviews backed by twenty hours of research, with ten revision calls. You have direct access to the team throughout, and if the pairing is not right, we re-pair you.
Yes. You keep 100% of the rights and 100% of the royalties. Scribe is fee for service and takes no royalty. You can quote the book from stage, hand chapters to organizers, turn it into a course, write a sequel or license it abroad. John Ruhlin sold the Korean publishing rights to Giftology on his own terms. Every package carries a $1,000 deposit at signing, deducted from the first payment.
When Scribe is the wrong choice
We would rather say this here than on a call.
- You want to sell copies as the business. The speakers on this page were paid in fees, not royalties, and a book bought to sell copies is the wrong purchase.
- You have no stage, practice or platform to feed the book into, and this is personal money. Write the talk first, give it until you know which idea the room comes back for, then write the book.
- You need the book in under nine months. Scribe runs nine to twelve months from first call to launch, on purpose, and a book that is not ready costs more than one that took another month.
The real numbers, before you talk to anyone
Every package is one price, paid monthly, with a $1,000 deposit at signing that comes off the first payment. You own every right and every dollar of royalties. The monthly figure and the total are both here, before any call.
A premier ghostwriter and a dedicated team, built to the standard of a major-house book: twenty in-depth interviews, research, ten revision calls, and a $25,000 launch budget.
If you want to start smaller, Compass is $5,000, five coaching calls, and the full amount is credited toward Elite. How Compass works.
A private conversation about your fee and your book
Elite is $9,000 a month for fifteen months, $135,000 total, and Professional is $4,667 a month for twelve months, $56,000 total, each with a $1,000 deposit at signing that comes off the first payment. We talk about your current fee, your target fee, and whether a book is the right move now. We tell you the price and whether you fit, and we will say so if you do not. We reply during business hours, usually the same day.
Why the program chair chooses the author
Every speaker on the circuit knows the moment: the organizer likes you, the audience liked you, and the fee conversation still stalls. The reason is rarely the talk. It is that the organizer has nothing to hold up when someone asks why you, at that number. A book answers the question before it is asked. It is the reason a bureau will list you, the reason a committee approves the fee, and the thing an attendee carries home and hands to the person who books next year's event. The authors on this page were already speaking. The book changed what they were paid and who called.
Cameron Herold was speaking hundreds of times a year before Meetings Suck and Vivid Vision, and his fee doubled to $30,000 after them. John Ruhlin was turned down for a free slot at an event that later offered his full fee. Robin Farmanfarmaian built a speaking business around one idea, put the book behind it, and has given more than 225 keynotes in 16 countries; three VP roles came from people who saw her on stage. Jesse Cole spoke for free for a decade and then had twenty paid talks at higher fees. Every one of those figures is the author's own, on a story page you can read.
Elite is built for the speaker who already has a brand to protect and a calendar to work around: a premier ghostwriter, twenty in-depth interviews, twenty hours of research, ten revision calls, up to three days in person, and a $25,000 launch budget, at $9,000 a month for fifteen months, $135,000 total. Professional at $4,667 a month for twelve months, $56,000 total, fits the speaker whose business will carry the return. The next step is a private conversation about your current fee, your target fee, and whether a book is the right move for you now.