Scribe Publishing

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.

Timeline

The minimum time-to-publish for this experience is 6 months from your kickoff call. That's as fast as we can move. It's completely normal for authors to take closer to 8 or 9 months, so that's what we recommend you budget.

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.

North Star Creation: Your Publishing Manager will guide you through our proprietary “North Star” process. The North Star clearly articulates what your book is about, who it’s for, and why it matters. This ensures your book is positioned well and your goals are clearly understood by you and everyone who works on your book, so all decisions you make in your publishing journey are aligned.

Manuscript Evaluation: This involves a full read of your manuscript, with global structure and manuscript assessment notes.

What this means is that one of our world-class developmental editors will read the manuscript through once, assessing structure, flow, completeness, and overall quality. The editor will make notes of all problems or areas of concern, and then will write up a manuscript evaluation memo and present it to you.

Following your manuscript evaluation, you'll have a call with the editor who completes your evaluation. This call gives you the opportunity to ask questions, dig deeper into the feedback, etc..

Once you've received your evaluation, you can choose to edit the manuscript yourself or you can hire one of our editors for an additional cost. We will provide a custom quote for this based on your manuscript's specific needs.

Proofreading & Copyediting: 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 revisions to lock in your cover design. 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. 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 us to create custom graphics for you, they will incur an additional cost. We will provide a quote for any work in advance for your approval.

If your book will contain more than 25 images we will provide a custom quote for insertion.

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 may publish under your own imprint. You can provide an imprint logo, or one of our designers can create one for you for an added cost.

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

Author Copies: We will provide you with 50 paperback copies or 25 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 audio version of your book. You have the option to narrate your own audiobook, or your audiobook can be recorded by a professional voice actor. You'll have the option to make your audiobook available on a wide range of platforms, including Amazon, Audible, Apple Books, Scribd, Google Play, Audiobooks.com, libraries, and more. You'll discuss your distribution options with our audiobook experts.

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 Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Nobles, and more!

2. Your print books will be made available on Amazon's main publishing 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, Amazon.ie, and Amazon.com.be.

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. Depending on our location, we may also utilize BookBaby for eBook distribution in countries that are not supported by IngramSpark's service.

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.

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
• Goodreads eBook giveaway (open to users in the US only) to introduce your book to new readers and encourage additional reviews
• A+ Content to enhance your book's Amazon listing
• Added media opportunities to post and share your book to our network

What's Included in Your Package

• Dedicated Publishing Manager (project management)
• North Star Alignment
• Full Manuscript Evaluation, including a 30-minute call with our Executive Editor
• Title Support and feedback
• Back Cover Copy (author bio, book description, excerpts, etc.)
• Front cover designs, at least 3 options
• Up to 5 rounds of revisions for front cover
• Full Cover Comps
• Up to 3 rounds of revisions for full cover
• Manuscript formatting
• 1 round of copyediting
• 1 round of proofreading
• Citation formatting
• Proofreading of all creative assets
• Full interior layout and design
• Final formatting and upload of final files for distribution
• Launch Promotions
• Audiobook Narration and Production
• 50 paperback or 25 hardcover copies of your book
• Optional international rights representation

FAQs

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. We will always get written approval from you in advance of beginning any work. Some examples of those requests include:

• Structural/developmental editing
• Additional cover comps or cover revisions
• Custom graphics work (photo editing, design work, etc.)
• Research and sourcing of supportive material
• Custom layout elements
• Translating your manuscript into other languages
• Book Marketing

What happens if my project lasts more than 10 months?

• No problem at all! The vast majority of projects are finished within 10 months. Your agreement includes a 2-month grace period.
• If your project is not launched by month 12, 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.

Important Other Things

Total Length Clause: Our standard price covers books that will be no more than 50k words. That translates to roughly 200-300 pages.

If your book is longer than 50k words, 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 50k words when you submit for your manuscript evaluation, we will charge you an additional $100 per 1000 words, rounded down to the nearest thousand. If the manuscript is below 50k words at the time of evaluation, but exceeds 50k words when it is locked to begin quality assurance, we will charge you an additional $100 per 1000 words, rounded down to the nearest thousand.

For clarity, the longer the manuscript, the longer it will take to publish your book. Our standard timeline is based on a 50k-word manuscript. We’ll keep you updated on timeline expectations as we get a better idea of your manuscript length during the editing stages.

Unlock Fees: If, at any point, you decide you need to change 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, 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 a quote 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.

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 70,000 words with a final runtime of up to 7.78 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 separate 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 55,000 words and a final runtime of up to 6.11 hours. This will also include your 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 before we begin recording.

If you need additional time, we can arrange it with the studio and you will be billed for the time.

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 support@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 support@scribemedia.com for post-publishing support and we will provide a custom quote to cover the the support services you need.

Your Investment

Your investment is paid over 6 months at $4,833.33/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 we're still working on your book beyond 12 months, 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 Publishing	$21,000
Audiobook	$8,000
Total	$29,000