Scribe Elite

Scribe Agreement

This agreement is intentionally written in plain English. We think the impenetrable lawyer-speak of modern contracts inhibits understanding, cooperation, and mutual benefit, which helps no one (except the lawyers). We want what's best for both of us, now and in the future, and we think plain English agreements help achieve that.

In short, the purpose of this agreement is simple:

You are hiring us, Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, to perform the services described below. This agreement is the official record of our relationship, and it lays out what we can both expect, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong.

What We Will Do for You

Project Management: As part of your project, you will be assigned a dedicated Publishing Manager. Your Publishing Manager functions as the project manager for your book, ensuring that all next steps are clearly outlined, deadlines are met, and the entire process runs smoothly behind the scenes. They will facilitate all communications, serve as your main point of contact, and act as the quarterback for your project, coordinating all aspects to keep everything on track and aligned with your vision.

Book Creation

Scribe Matching: Your publishing manager will work with our manuscript team to hand-select scribes who have reviewed your book idea and expressed excitement about working with you. After speaking with 2-3 of those scribes, you'll select the best match for you and your book.

Book Positioning & Book Roadmap Creation: Over the course of several in-depth and collaborative conversations with your Scribe, we'll help you first settle on your book idea, and then take that book idea and turn it into a tight, professional book positioning by clearly articulating your objectives and identifying your audience. From there, we'll build what we call a Book Roadmap that lays the foundation for your book and the content interviews to come.

Content Interviews to Create Your Book: Once the Book Roadmap is done, we will start doing the actual content interviews. These interviews will be based on your Book Roadmap, and what you say on these calls will be what creates the manuscript.

Transcription: Your interviews will be transcribed, then your Scribe will go through line by line and word by word, turning that transcription of your spoken words into a cohesive, well written book that reflects the Book Positioning agreed upon.

Revisions: Over the course of ten revisions calls, you and your Scribe will polish your manuscript draft chapter by chapter. Prior to each call, you will carefully edit the chapters to be discussed. After each call, your Scribe will incorporate your changes and create a revised version. You will then have the opportunity to review and edit the whole manuscript prior to your final revisions call.

Research: This agreement includes 20 hours of research. This can include referencing existing written materials you provide us for review, books or other texts that you'd like us to reference, podcasts that you'd like us to review, etc.

In-Person Collaboration: If you choose, your scribe can fly to you to collaborate in person. This trip can be up to 3 days of on-site interviews, in the city of your choosing.

Book Publishing

Proofreading: Your book will go through a full quality assurance and technical preparation to ensure that your book is ready to publish.

Book Cover Design: Our experienced book design team will work with you to create a high-quality book cover for your print and eBook versions. You will get at least three high-quality cover design options to choose from and up to five rounds of edits to lock in your cover design. When we deliver the initial round of designs, we will also provide a report of targeted market research feedback from your specific audience. Based on your front cover we will create a full cover design for your paperback and hardcover formats with up to three rounds of edits to finalize the design. The decision about the cover that you chose to use is yours alone.

Interior Layout Design & eBook Conversion: An interior layout designer will craft the interior for your hardcover, paperback, and eBook editions. The layout design is subject to your approval. You’ll receive sample layout pages that you’ll need to approve before we can move forward with the full layout design. Should you and your creative team decide that visuals such as graphics, tables, images, etc. are beneficial for your manuscript, you can provide up to 25 print-ready visual images for our layout design team to include in your layout. If you need custom graphics designed, it will be at an additional cost. We can quote these to you, and our design team will create them upon agreement.

Copyright & ISBN Registration: Once complete, your manuscript will be copyrighted. We will submit an application to the U.S. Copyright Office on your behalf. Your book will also be registered in Bowker’s Books In Print database and will include all ISBN and Barcodes necessary for retail distribution. We will register and provide ISBNs for all versions of the book.

Publishing Imprint: You will publish under our Scribe Media Imprint. If you request it, you are free to publish under your own imprint.

ISBNs and Publisher of Record: Every edition of your book needs an ISBN, the identification number that retailers and distributors use to list and sell it. We include ISBNs for every edition at no extra cost, and we strongly recommend using them. Your book, its copyright, and all of its royalties remain 100% yours, and the imprint you publish under is shown as the publisher on every edition. The ISBNs are simply registered through our account, which lets our team handle the registration, metadata, barcodes, and distributor uploads from start to finish without depending on anyone outside the project.

If you want to own your ISBNs yourself, you can, but it requires publishing under your own custom imprint, because the ISBN owner and the publisher name on your book must match. Owning your own ISBNs also adds steps that sit outside our control. The registration has to match exactly what Amazon and IngramSpark expect, and when it does not, those platforms can reject the upload. Fixing a rejected registration can take several days, and close to launch that can mean delays or a book that is not available on your launch date.

If you choose to provide your own ISBNs, you will purchase them for every edition, including the audiobook, from the official ISBN agency in your country, and provide them to us before interior layout begins. You are responsible for registering each ISBN with that agency using the publisher and imprint details we provide, and for keeping that registration accurate. If you provide ISBNs after interior layout or cover design has started, we will need to update the completed layout and cover files with the new ISBNs and barcodes. We will quote that work in advance, and it will be charged as described in the Unlock Fees section. Delays caused by ISBN registration count as author-caused delays.

Publishing: We will format, publish, and distribute your title on the Kindle Direct Publishing and Ingramspark self-publishing platforms.

Author Copies: We will provide you with 100 paperback copies or 50 hardcover copies of your book (no extra charge) to give away to friends, family, customers, and other potential readers. You'll also have the ability to order unlimited additional copies at the printer's cost.

Audiobook Creation and Distribution: We will facilitate the creation and publication of an audiobook version of your book. You have the option to narrate your own audiobook, or your audiobook will be recorded by a professional voice actor. Your audiobook will be available on a wide range of platforms, including Amazon, Audible, Apple Books, Scribd, Google Play, Audiobooks.com, and more. It will also be available to libraries.

Book Distribution: Book distribution can be a confusing business, so in this section, we’ll explain everything we do to distribute your book:

1. We will make your eBook/Kindle available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.com.br, Amazon.com.mx, Amazon.com.au, Amazon.ca, Amazon.nl, and Amazon.in.We will also make your eBook available for purchase on several retailer sites such as iBooks (Apple), Kobo, Barnes & Nobles, and more!

2. Your print books will be made available on Amazon's publishing main marketplaces: Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.com, Amazon.com.au, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.es, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, Amazon.nl, Amazon.pl, Amazon.se.

We will also make your title available for distribution via Ingram Book Group's channels. IngramSpark titles are automatically made available to tens of thousands of retailers, libraries, schools, Barnes & Noble, and Independent bookstores around the world.

Global distribution is made available using Ingramspark's expanded distribution. IngramSpark’s book distribution network is one of the largest in the world however, we cannot guarantee that your book will be available for purchase in every country in the world. If you wish to have your book available in a specific territory, please bring this up to your Publishing Manager as soon as possible.

Quality Assurance Commitment: We are dedicated to delivering a professionally crafted book that adheres to the highest traditional publishing standards and meets the requirements of all distribution networks outlined in the "Book Distribution" section.

Book Marketing

Over the course of your book publishing journey, you will receive one strategy consulting session to create a custom marketing plan for you. Your Scribe Elite package includes up to $25,000 to cover our in-house marketing services, or $20,000 towards services with our partners

Every author has unique goals for their book, and we believe that you deserve marketing support that meets your individual needs.

Launch and Promotion

• Targeted Amazon Best Seller Strategy, including discounted eBook campaign and category selection
• Social media graphics and banners to promote your book
• Email strategy and templates to help leverage your network to generate early reviews and sales
• A+ Content to enhance your book's Amazon listing
• Added media opportunities to post and share your book to our network

Author Spotlight Package

Reputable Book Awards: Book Award Pro ensures you have inspiring wins, third-party validation, and exciting accolade progress all working for your book to rise above the crowd. Your book will be entered to win up to 5 professional awards or reviews.

Kirkus Indie Review: Kirkus has been an industry-trusted source for honest and accessible reviews since 1933 and has helped countless authors build credibility in the publishing realm ever since. Indie reviews are written by qualified professionals, such as librarians, nationally published journalists, creative executives and more. We will submit your book prior to launch and receive the review in 7-9 weeks.

IndieReader Review: IndieReader has been providing professional book reviews to indie, hybrid and self-published authors since 2009. Their team of reviewers includes working journalists, editors, librarians, and published writers. We will submit your book and receive a review back in 7-9 weeks. If your title is IR Approved (4 to 5 stars), you will also be invited to talk more about it in their All About the Book interview that will be posted to IR's site.

Expanded Readership Package

NetGalley with Targeted Promotion: We’ll make your book available for the NetGalley community for 6 months, and we’ll also set up a targeted promotion to the hundreds of thousands of members using the site. NetGalley is an industry-standard service that helps publishers and authors promote digital review copies to book advocates and industry professionals. In exchange, members provide reviews, star ratings, industry list nominations, and more. We’ll provide detailed reporting that will show whether members downloaded the book, and specific feedback including reviews, star ratings, reason for request, suggested keywords, and opinions.

Premium Goodreads Giveaway: A premium Goodreads giveaway to promote your book to readers, build more buzz, and generate early reviews. Goodreads promotes your giveaway, helping drive entries, and then randomly selects winners once the giveaway ends. A customizable message is sent by Goodreads to entrants who don't win, providing a unique chance to connect with potentially thousands of readers interested in your book. Goodreads giveaways are open to Goodreads users in the US only.

5-Day Promotion Stack: Reach a combined audience of 135,000 with a 5-day promo stack to drive sustained sales and visibility on Amazon and other retail sites. The stack combines daily Facebook ads with 2 highly targeted email promos (Bargain Booksy and eReaderIQ) to ensure your eBook climbs the ranks! This bundle requires that your eBook be discounted to $0.99 during your launch week. If you book isn't able to be discounted, your publishing manager will go over an alternative option.

What's Included in Your Package

• 4 North Star Creation Calls
• 5 Roadmap Creation Calls
• 20 Content Calls
• 20 Hours of Research
• 10 Revisions Calls
• 1 Full Manuscript Review Call
• Title support and feedback
• Back Cover Copy
• Front cover designs, at least 3 options, with targeted market research
• Up to 5 revisions rounds for front cover
• Full Cover Comps
• Up to 3 revisions rounds for full cover
• Manuscript formatting
• 1 round of manuscript proofreading
• Proofreading of all creative assets
• Layout sample pages with up to 5 rounds of revisions
• Full layout (custom elements may lead to an additional fee, quoted at time of service)
• Launch call
• Account Creations
• Upload
• Launch Promotions and Book Marketing
• Audiobook Narration and Production
• 100 paperback copies of your book
• Exclusive international rights representation

FAQs

What happens if my project lasts more than 12 months?

• No problem at all! Most projects finish within 10 to 12 months. Your agreement includes a 6-month grace period.
• If your project is not launched by month 18, you will be charged a retainer of $1,500 per month until your book launches. This covers the creative and operational work required to complete the services in your agreement. Our intention is never to pressure you. Creating a good book takes time, but additional time adds real costs to the project, and those costs must be accounted for. If a delay is demonstrably caused by Scribe or our affiliated contractors, we will not charge the retainer for the length of that delay. This determination is at the sole discretion of Scribe Media.
• We will outline your target timeline at the start of the project and give you clear reminders, so you have every opportunity to publish before the grace period ends.

What if I request additional support? When do you start charging more?

If you have requests outside the scope of the deliverables covered in your agreement, your Publishing Manager will discuss timeline implications and any additional costs with you before we proceed. Some examples of those requests include:

• Additional calls with your Scribe
• Additional revisions work
• Additional cover comps or cover revisions
• Custom graphics work (photo editing, design work, etc.)
• Citations
• Custom layout elements
• Translating your manuscript into other languages
• Scribe Store Listing
• Seller Central

What happens if I pause work on my project?

We respect family, personal, and business needs that may require a break. Momentum is critical to finishing your book, and part of our job is to help you stay on track. Here is how pauses work.

• One pause up to 3 months
  • You may pause your project once for up to 3 months.
  • During this pause, we will pause your project work, your payments, and your grace period.
  • If our prices increase while you are paused for up to 3 months, we will honor the pricing in your agreement and your monthly payments will resume at the same amount when you restart.
  • We cannot guarantee that the exact same team members will be available when you restart.
• Pauses longer than 3 months
  • After the first 3 months of a pause, your grace period timeline will start again, even though your payments stay paused.
  • If our prices have increased when you restart, you will pay the current service price and be charged the difference going forward.
  • If your grace period has expired by the time you restart, you will be charged the monthly retainer described above in addition to your monthly payments.
• Pauses longer than 12 months
  • If your project is paused for more than 12 months, we will cancel your agreement.
  • Payments already made are not refundable and will not be applied to a future agreement.
  • Any work completed before your pause belongs to you.
  • If you return later, we can create a new agreement that takes into account the work you have already completed, based on our current pricing.
• Automatic pause for non-response
  • If we do not hear from you for one month, we will automatically pause your project.
  • Before we do so, we will try to reach you by text, phone, and email.

What Will Get You What You Want

This section might come off as "lecturing school marm," but that's not the intent. All we're trying to do is ensure you get the best possible book. If you follow the principles below, you'll be golden:

We Want to Talk!: We value your time, so we’ll be very mindful of how many calls we schedule with you. But, a fair amount of our work will require us to speak with you on video and audio calls. We promise we'll keep it mainly to business, all we ask is that you make yourself available and focused for your scheduled calls.

Many times we can't move forward without talking to you first, and delays in communication can subsequently delay the schedule of your book and may result in additional costs. If you're good with that, then we are.

The Golden Rule of Calls; Cancellation Policy: Basically, don't cancel your calls, and if you do, give us as much notice as possible. We value your time, and because of that, we'll do everything in our power to be deeply respectful of it. We'll never miss a call or reschedule at the last minute unless it’s a serious emergency and can't be avoided.

Of course, life has a lot of unexpected turns, and there will be times when moving calls is unavoidable. All we ask is that you apply the golden rule to our time together, and treat our time with the same deep respect that we will treat yours.

We ask that you cancel or reschedule calls 24 hours or more in advance. That said, we understand that things happen outside of your control. We’re happy to let one missed call slide. Beyond that, any no-shows or cancellations/reschedules within 24 hours will be subject to a rescheduling fee of $150.

Unlock Charges: If, at any point, you decide you need to make a change to something you have already locked in, we are happy to make changes, but please understand this will add time and incur an additional cost. You can anticipate locking your manuscript, title, front cover, back cover copy, full cover, proofreading, sample layout pages, and full layout.

If you need to unlock your audiobook, the cost will be based on the amount of material you'd like to change, and any corresponding narrator, studio, and post-production fees. We'll review what you'd like to change and give you an estimate for approval before moving forward.

If you decide to change your launch date after we have already uploaded files to Amazon/KDP, a $1,500.00 charge will apply.

Important Other Things

Delayed Start and Pricing Expiration: The price in this agreement is valid for 3 months from the date you sign.

• If you start your project within 3 months of signing:
  • Your grace period timeline will begin when active work on your project starts.
  • You will keep the pricing in this agreement even if our prices increase during that time.
• If you start your project after 3 months but within 12 months of signing:
  • Your grace period timeline will resume at the 3-month mark.
  • If our prices have increased, you will pay the updated service price and be charged the difference going forward.
• If you do not start your project within 12 months of signing:
  • We will cancel your project.
  • Payments already made are not refundable and will not be applied to a future agreement.
  • Before canceling, we will try to reach you by text, phone, and email.

We define "start" as completing your first call with your scribe.

Total Length: We tell authors that we can do a book of any reasonable size. So now we have to define "reasonable."

Reasonable for us is keeping costs in line with what we charge. Our price works for books that will be no more than 60k words. That translates to roughly 200-300 pages. The majority of our books come in under 60k words.

If an author needs a longer book, we can easily do that, but it is a more time- and labor-intensive process. We don't like nickel-and-diming our authors, so we came up with a solution that usually makes everyone happy:

If the manuscript is over 60k words, we will charge you an additional $300 per 1,000 words, rounded down to the nearest thousand. We evaluate this at the time you lock your manuscript before proofreading.

For clarity, the longer the manuscript, the longer it will take to publish your book. Our standard timeline is based on a 60k-word manuscript. We’ll keep you updated on timeline expectations as we get a better idea of your manuscript length during the writing and revising stages.

Printer Variation and Large Print Runs: We utilize third-party, print-on-demand printers for the majority of our books. If you plan to order large quantities of your book for personal use or to sell directly to customers, we encourage you to order (1) copy first to ensure there are no printing errors or variations. You can discuss this more with your Publishing Manager, and they'll let you know how this will impact your timeline and process.

Audiobook Overage Costs: If you’d like to work with a professional narrator, this agreement covers recording and production for a manuscript of up to 75,430 words with a final runtime of up to 8.38 hours and a narrator that works for SAG-AFTRA scale. If your manuscript exceeds the word count or runtime, or if you choose a professional narrator with a premium rate, we'll provide a quote for the overage before we begin recording.

If you choose to self-narrate your audiobook, this agreement will cover a manuscript of up to 56,298 words and a final runtime of up to 6.26 hours. It will also cover 18 hours of studio time at one of our partner studios. If your manuscript exceeds the word count or runtime, or you prefer to record at a studio outside our network, we’ll provide a custom quote for the overage before we begin recording.

When at the studio, we pay for the time booked, not the time on the mic. You are welcome to show up 15 minutes early, take short breaks as needed, and have an hour for a meal. If you need additional time, we can arrange it with the studio and you will be billed for the time.

AI Content: Scribe is a human-led team. People lead the creative and editorial work on your book and approve what goes into it, and we will not use AI to generate the substantive text, editorial development, or visual content of your manuscript, cover, or interior artwork. Like an accountant who uses QuickBooks or an artist who uses Adobe Illustrator, we also use modern software tools, some of which include artificial intelligence, where they add value and efficiency. These include tools for transcription, meeting summaries, grammar and spelling checks, and research support, and you may ask for a summary of our AI tool usage at any time.

If you are uncomfortable with any of the ways we use these tools, let's talk about it. Please understand that the line around what counts as AI is blurry, since it is now built into everyday tools like spell check, Google Docs, Google Meet, and Photoshop. If you prefer that we not use certain tools on your project, we will gladly discuss it, but working without them takes more human hours and may change the price. For example, if you prefer that our editors not use the spelling and grammar checking built into tools like Google Docs and Microsoft Word, every line of your manuscript must be checked by hand, which adds significant time. We will quote any change in price for your written approval before the work begins.

Scribe will never knowingly submit your work, including your manuscript, drafts, call recordings and transcripts, designs, logos, and other creative materials you own, to be used to train any AI model, and will not sell or license it for that purpose. We use every opt-out from model training that our tools offer, and if we learn that a tool is training on your work, we will opt out or stop using it for your project. We rely on outside providers such as email, cloud storage, meeting, and transcription services, do not control how they handle data, and are not responsible if they use data in ways we have not agreed to or are not aware of. Please also understand that publishing means making your work public. Your book, along with the descriptions, author bio, cover, and other materials we create for Amazon, retailer listings, websites, and promotion, will be publicly available, and AI companies routinely collect public online content to train their models. Once your work is public, Scribe cannot control or prevent that.

Distributors like KDP require disclosure of AI-generated content, so you must tell us about any AI-generated text, images, or translations in your book, including cover and interior artwork. AI-generated means content created by an AI tool, even if you edited it substantially afterward. AI-assisted means content you created yourself and then edited, improved, or brainstormed with AI tools. You do not need to tell us about AI-assisted content.

Post-Publishing Support: We are so happy to see your book go live in the world and would love the opportunity to continue to support you and your book as needed after publishing.

Within three months from your book's launch date, we will fix one round of typos in your manuscript for free. Gather a list of any typos you find, including the page or eBook location number, and send them to alumni@scribemedia.com in one list within 90 days of your launch date. This only covers true typos or grammatical errors, no additional changes to layout, design, or formatting.

Beyond this, please feel free to reach out to alumni@scribemedia.com for post-publishing support and we will provide a custom quote to cover the the support services you need.

References, Citations, and Fact-Checking: A fundamental part of the Scribe process is that the author brings the ideas, knowledge, and content; we just help them turn it into a book.

One of the things we love most about our process is that the books we do are entirely the thoughts, ideas, and voice of the author (that's you). Everything in your book comes out of your mouth and your ideas. It's what makes our process so unique and so powerful.

Many authors want us to add citations, references, and other forms of research to their book. This is great; it makes your book better. There are two ways to accomplish this:

You can collect all the citations, references, and other forms of research that you would like to reference in your book, and then we can put them into the book with proper formatting (we use Chicago Style). We will build, format, and proofread up to 250 citations free of charge. If your manuscript requires more than 250 citations, we will provide a custom quote for the work needed.

If you would like us to go out and find appropriate citations, references, and other forms of research for you, we can do that, but it costs more money (because it takes a lot of time). We call all of these activities "research," and it can be added onto your publishing package.

If you want that "research" service, here is how it works:

Your Scribe and you will determine the research you need during the Roadmap phase, and mark those places in the outline.

You will finish the manuscript in our normal process, and once it is done, a researcher will read the whole manuscript and make recommendations for specific avenues of research, along with an estimate of time required. You will approve the research and time, and the researcher will then do the work.

The Scribe will then take that work, incorporate and polish it within the context of the full manuscript, and then finalize it with you.

This agreement includes 20 hours of research. If you need more, any additional time is $250 per hour, as needed. We find that research for most books can be accomplished in 10 hours or less. Of course, we would never charge you for any research hours without you approving it ahead of time.

Important Legal Nonsense

Do the Right Thing: This is not really a formal legal clause, but we like to put in here because we think it sets the right tone:

We always try to do the right thing, regardless of what's in this agreement. Agreements can't cover everything. And even if they are those 1000 page contracts that seem to mention every eventuality, they're still only as good as the people who stand behind them.

We are not in this business to haggle over terms. If things get to the point where people are quoting contracts, things have gotten very bad.

That being said, we still need to know the rules of our relationship, and this section is all about laying out the most important legal terms and expectations so we can both do the right thing by each other.

Call Recordings: Plain English phrasing: Part of providing you with a seamless experience is being able to accurately recap and share key decisions with you as you move forward. Recording our calls together will help us do just that.

More legal phrasing: Our video and audio calls together will be recorded and may be monitored, and your consent for us to do so is a requisite to work with us. By signing this agreement, you consent to this recording and monitoring.

You may also have members of your team or other third parties speak with us. By signing this agreement, you also confirm that you will be responsible for obtaining consent for such recording from your staff or other third parties who may participate in calls with us, and you can provide such consent upon request.

Third-Party Distribution Services: We use third-party distribution services to share your book with the world. We’ll handle the initial upload to these platforms and the ongoing management as we launch your book, but we aren’t responsible if a platform causes a disruption that is beyond our control.

Intellectual Property: You retain full ownership of any intellectual property you bring into this engagement, including but not limited to a completed manuscript or other original content. Scribe (Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC) will not publish or distribute your manuscript until full payment for the agreed-upon services has been received.

Should the author decide to terminate the agreement or if the project is abandoned before full payment is made, the author shall retain ownership of the content paid for up to that point. For example, if the project is 40% complete and the author has correspondingly paid for that portion of the work, the author is entitled to receive and own the completed 40% of the manuscript or other content. No further intellectual property rights will be transferred until and unless additional payments are made to cover the completion of the remaining work.

Confidentiality: Plain English phrasing: Your private working material stays private. Your published book does not. Once it's out in the world, we'll promote it everywhere we can, because that's our job.

More legal phrasing: Scribe will treat the Author's unpublished materials as confidential. This includes drafts, notes, interview and call recordings and transcripts, and any proprietary methods or business information the Author shares that do not appear in the published book. Scribe will use these materials only to perform the services in this agreement. Every Scribe employee and contractor is bound by confidentiality obligations under their engagement agreement with Scribe, and those obligations continue after their engagement ends. When the engagement ends, Scribe will return or delete these materials on the Author's written request, except for copies Scribe must keep for legal, accounting, or record-keeping purposes.

This section does not apply to anything that is or becomes public, including the published book and its contents, or to information Scribe is required by law to disclose. Nothing in this agreement limits Scribe's right to promote the Author and the book, including listing them on Scribe's website, featuring them in Scribe's marketing, advertising, and social media, and using the Author's name, likeness, bio, book title, cover, and excerpts from the published book.

Royalties and Profits: Plain English phrasing: You also get all the profit from your work. We get nothing.

More legal phrasing: Neither Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, nor any other third party involved in any stage of the book creation process, is entitled to any share or claim on any part of any profit from the book, or associated with the book, since only the Author has the ownership rights and rights to the proceeds from the book. However, if the Author fails to pay Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, for work done on the book, then the Author does not have the right to use the book that contains the work of Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, and if the Author does so anyway, Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, shall have a lien against the book proceeds, up to the amount owed to Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, under this Agreement.

All book and distribution accounts are yours (the Author's), not ours (including Amazon, iBooks, etc.). We place those accounts in your name and you have full control.

Liability; Indemnification: Plain English phrasing: This is pretty obvious, but we have to say it-because this is entirely your book, you are entirely responsible for all the content. These are your ideas, your words, and your book (not ours), and you have full approval over everything that goes out in your name, so you are responsible for anything bad that might happen to you because of what you say.

For example, "something bad" could be someone suing you over the content, a copyright infringement, a trademark infringement, or pretty much anything else bad that could happen as a result of what is in your work.

More legal phrasing: You (the author) are solely responsible for the content of your book, including, but not limited to any third party citations and references. You represent and warrant that the content of your book does not, and shall not, infringe the rights of any third party (including any such intellectual property rights). In the event there is any liability associated with your book (such as a claim of a breach of another’s intellectual property right, or any other liability), you are solely responsible for such liability. In the event that any legal action is ever taken against Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, and/or any damage or other liability incurred, as a result of your book and/or our engagement with you, you agree to fully indemnify us for any liability or damage, our costs to defend ourselves, and any other reasonable expenditures we incur as a result thereof.

Image and IP Licensing: Plain English phrasing: If you provide us with images for your book, it is up to you to make sure that you have the right to use them. If we create or source any images for you for your product, we will make sure you have the right to use them.

More legal phrasing: Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC, agrees to obtain all appropriate licenses and rights to any content we put into your book that you did not otherwise provide to us (such as third party images that may require a license fee, but we won't be putting much of anything into your book that you don't give us). In such instances, we agree to provide you with evidence that proper licenses were obtained. If for some reason there is an issue with any media used in your book that we put in there and that did not come directly from you, then we accept full liability and will indemnify you from any damage arising because we didn't get the proper license(s) from a third party. Similarly, you agree to obtain all appropriate licenses and rights to any content that you provide to us for inclusion in your book. If, for some reason, there is an issue with any media sourced by you (and not by us) used in your book, then you accept full liability and will indemnify us from any damage arising because you didn’t get the proper license(s) from a third party.

Cancellation: If, at any point in your project, one or both of us decide that it would be best to part ways, we will discuss the appropriate next steps. The first invoice you pay is non-refundable, as it reserves your place in our production schedule. Any payments after that are refundable only if you’ve paid more than the value of the work we’ve completed. Once a deliverable is finished and approved by you, that portion of your investment is considered earned and non-refundable. We’ll always be upfront about what’s been done and are happy to walk you through it if a refund ever comes up.

By signing this agreement you understand that Bond Financial Technologies Holdings, LLC (nor any parent, affiliate, or subsidiary thereof) will ever be liable to you for any amount of this agreement (unless expressly stated otherwise in this agreement), for any reason - now or in the future.

No Hidden Costs: We hate it when someone quotes us one price, then tries to charge more later on. We won't do this to you. As we said before, there are all kinds of additional work you might want to add, but we will NEVER do any additional work that would cost you money without first getting your explicit approval, both to do the work and for the amount.

Outside Work: We hope you love working with everyone you meet at Scribe, and you get excited every time you work with them. But we have to insist that you don’t work with them outside of working with us, unless we give both you and them explicit approval. This means you don’t ask them to do any sort of writing, editing, or other creative work that is identical to what we do, or very close. You also agree that if you do this, that we have the right to seek damages and lost revenue. We don’t want to do that, and know you wouldn’t do that to us, but this is just here for that one person in a thousand who would try something underhanded like this.

Your Investment

Your investment is paid over 15 months at $9,000.00/month. A $1,000 deposit is due at signing and will be deducted from your first monthly payment. Remaining payments will be set up via ACH. There is a 3% processing fee for all credit card payments. If your book has not launched by month 18, payments continue at $1,500/month. If a delay is demonstrably caused by Scribe or our affiliated contractors, we will not charge the retainer for the length of that delay. This determination is at the sole discretion of Scribe Media. Unpaid invoices past 14 days will pause work on your project. Full payment is required before publishing.

Scribe Elite Ghostwriting Services (includes audiobook)	$135,000
Total	$135,000