Book publishing services.
It’s not just a book. It’s your legacy.
Scribe Publishing
The Scribe Publishing Program is the premier professional book publishing service for people who have a completed manuscript.
You’ll receive the best publishing services available, to ensure your book has the reach and impact it deserves.
This service is designed for entrepreneurs, consultants, executives, and other professionals who want to publish a high-level professional book, but need to make sure it is absolutely the best possible book.
What’s Included in Scribe Publishing?
Our Publishing Package is everything you need to get from a finished manuscript to a professionally published book.
Full Manuscript Evaluation
The evaluation includes a full read by an editor, who then writes you an overview of the manuscript’s strengths and areas of concern. You’ll know what steps to take to ready your manuscript for publishing.
Quality Assurance
We execute a full copyedit and a final proofread on your manuscript to ensure that spelling and grammar mistakes are caught and removed.
Book Cover Design
Our designers are quite literally some of the best in the world. Our design team boasts massive bestsellers such as Can’t Hurt Me; Zero to One; I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell; Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea; Choose Yourself; and hundreds more in their portfolios.
Interior Layout
At Scribe Publishing, we take our interiors seriously. Your manuscript isn’t just a drag and drop template—it’s a chance to create a cohesive visual experience for your reader, from the cover to the final page.
Distribution and Royalty Setup
Scribe Publishing will set up all your distributor and retailer accounts in your name on all major platforms, including Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com. This means you will own all your own content and royalties.
eBook Creation and Distribution
Your eBook/Kindle will be available on all major eBook retailers (Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com) in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, India, Japan, Mexico, and Australia. eBooks include all relevant copy tailored to each retailer, including samples, screenshots, and keywords.
Paperback Distribution
Scribe will ensure your book will be available in paperback print-on-demand format, distributed through both Amazon’s KDP platform and IngramSpark’s wider distribution channels, which assures that your book is available for purchase by physical retailers (Barnes & Noble) and libraries worldwide.
Optional Hardcover Printing & Management
You have the option, at no additional charge, to have a hardcover as well. We will design and lay out the hardcover, and manage all printing and distribution. We can also help you set up fulfillment services with Amazon, if necessary.
Copyrighting and Cataloging
Once complete, your manuscript will be registered with the United States copyright office. Your book will also be registered in Bowker’s Books In Print database and will be assigned all ISBN, bar, and BISAC codes necessary for retail distribution.
Publishing Imprint
Your book will be eligible to be published under our imprint, Houndstooth Press, or it can be published under a custom imprint with a name of your choosing.
Author Photo
A great author photo is a powerful tool. We can recommend a professional photographer to take your headshot. If you already have excellent professional photos, we will happily use them instead.
Author Marketing Materials
Our copywriting pros will craft an engaging author bio and book description to ensure your book is interesting and appealing to your ideal readers.
Graphic Inclusion
We can include up to 25 graphics in your manuscript, which you provide us. Additional graphics can be added for an extra cost.
50 Free Copies
You will receive 50 free copies of your book to use as you like—for keepsakes, gifts, or promotional purposes.
Marketing Strategy
Your Author Strategist will get on the phone with you to review our Launch Promotions plan for your book and review your marketing options. To further assist you with strategy, we’ll also provide you with free access to the Scribe Book Launch Blueprint Course, as well as a group monthly Marketing Mastermind where you can ask any questions you have.
Launch and Promotion
- First week promotion to become an Amazon Best Seller
- Complete strategy and templates to secure early Amazon reviews
- A full set of social media posts and graphics for launch week
- Exclusive access to the Scribe podcast masterclass and deliverables in a podcast starter kit
- Strategy and templates for you to leverage your network
- Consultation with our Author Marketing team to develop a custom plan for your launch and beyond
- Access to our Book Marketing Course
Audiobook
Scribe can facilitate the creation, production, and distribution of an audiobook version of your book. The audiobook will be recorded by a voice actor at a professional studio and available for purchase on Audible.com, Amazon.com, iTunes, and Spotify.
Optional Add-Ons
Additional Editing — Custom Quote
Our editing team, who’ve spent decades in book publishing, edited thousands of books, and written several of their own, can offer additional editing services.
In addition to evaluating the structure, the editor reads and carefully edits the manuscript with an eye on the completeness, flow, and construction of ideas and stories, working paragraph by paragraph, and chapter by chapter.
For all of our editing, we say that “we will hurt your feelings before we let you publish a bad book.” You will get a fair but honest evaluation of your work and how it can improve so that you can have the best possible book.
AUTHOR IMPACT — $18,000
We can work with you to create an end-to-end marketing campaign for your book, that will include publishing content, generating media attention, booking you on podcasts, managing ads, and organizing all the details to ensure your book reaches your target audience and positions you as the authority in your field. Full details upon request.
See What Authors Have to Say About Our Services
Cameron Herold
Meetings Suck, Vivid Vision, and Free PR
Brita Long
The Happier Attorney, and Soon She Will Be Dead
I have said it before and I will say it again. Going through this entire process has been amazing and has changed my life.
Brita Long
The Happier Attorney, and Soon She Will Be Dead
I have said it before and I will say it again. Going through this entire process has been amazing and has changed my life. I don’t know that I have ever had such an amazing team who TOTALLY has my back, in my entire life. I absolutely can’t imagine trying to write a book without this support, knowledge, and love.
Robin Farmanfarmaian
The Patient as CEO, & The Thought Leader Formula
Mary Hagerman
The Black Belt Investor
My scribe jumped into my socks and made my story and my teaching points come to life through every chapter. I never would have finished my book without Scribe. Everyone from my scribe to my publishing manager was always so upbeat and encouraging.
Mary Hagerman
The Black Belt Investor
My scribe jumped into my socks and made my story and my teaching points come to life through every chapter. I never would have finished my book without Scribe. Everyone from my scribe to my publishing manager was always so upbeat and encouraging.
There is a real need for women speakers, especially in the financial world. I still can’t believe it when people come up to me and say I’m a role model for women everywhere. I just want young girls and families everywhere to have the opportunities I never did.
Will Leach
Marketing to Mindstates
Quan Huynh
Sparrow in the Razorwire
Thanks to the #scribetribe for your support, love, and acceptance. I never could have got this far without you all.
Quan Huynh
Sparrow in the Razorwire
Thanks to the #scribetribe for your support, love, and acceptance. I never could have got this far without you all. Tucker, thanks for telling me to shut up and to get out to Austin (for the workshop) when I was doubting that I even had a story. Everyone else, this is so possible!
Shannon Miles
The Third Option
Josh Mantz
The Beauty of a Darker Soul
First, please let me say that the entire process has been absolutely phenomenal. After going through this process, it is blatantly obvious that I never would have been able to produce this product on my own.
Josh Mantz
The Beauty of a Darker Soul
First, please let me say that the entire process has been absolutely phenomenal. After going through this process, it is blatantly obvious that I never would have been able to produce this product on my own. Never! Your team has been a pleasure to work with at every step and are highly professional and experienced. It’s turned into what’s arguably the most therapeutic thing I’ve ever done, and I’m excited to leverage this effort to drive change within the behavioral health community.
Melissa Gonzalez
The Pop-Up Paradigm
Douglas Brackmann
Driven
Welcome Call With Your Publishing Manager
You will meet your Publishing Manager, who will be your main point of contact throughout all aspects of our process. They will guide you through editing and publishing and answer any questions you have.
Manuscript Evaluation
Your manuscript will get a complete overview with global structure and overall manuscript evaluation notes. Your editor will write a global memo detailing all problems or areas of concern, and give expert recommendations for how to make the manuscript the best it can be. Once you review the recommendations of our Editing team, you’ll work with your Publishing Manager to decide what, if any, next editing steps you want to complete before moving into publication.
Begin Publishing
Your Publishing Manager will make sure you have all the elements of a locked manuscript necessary to begin publishing:
- Final locked title and subtitle
- Final locked manuscript (including foreword, dedication, and acknowledgments if desired)
- Any graphics, illustrations, or photos
- Draft book description
- Draft author biography
- Author photo
Cover Design
Everyone says that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but that’s not realistic. As an author, you should absolutely judge your book by its cover, because your audience will.
Cover design starts with a call with one of our designers, specifically to discuss your book cover. They will help you refine your thinking and get clear on a few ideas for your cover.
The designers will then develop a series of cover designs. These will be initial concepts so that we can understand your direction more clearly.
We will schedule a phone call with you to review the designs and understand what you do and do not like about them. Based on your feedback, we’ll iterate on the design until we land on the perfect cover for your book.
Once you love the front cover design, your publishing team will create the spine and back cover, which includes your book description, author biography, and author photo, if you like.
Copywriting & Proofreading
Back covers and book descriptions matter! A good book description and author bio are powerful tools. Our copywriting team will revise yours to maximize their marketing impact.
We will also proofread your manuscript to ensure there are no spelling or grammar errors.
Interior Layout Design
Please do not underestimate the importance of a great interior design. At Scribe we’ve seen many books with great manuscripts and amazing covers that suffered from a horrible interior. Your interior defines the reading experience for your audience.
As with the cover design process, we welcome your feedback on the interior you envision. Your book’s design can be modeled on any other book’s font choices or graphic styling—even the margins, page numbers, and sidebars, which will be blended by your designer with your book’s cover styling to create a cohesive reading experience from start to finish.
Publishing and Distribution of Your Book
Your publishing team will work with you to determine your distribution goals and retail channels—whether you want to be exclusively on Amazon or available on as many international platforms as possible, they will provide the best options for you, handle all account and file creation, and upload your book in preparation for your launch.
We’ll send your 100 free copies directly to you. You’ll also get all of the electronic source files for your book.
Who Should Use Scribe Publishing?
Who Should
- People with a finished manuscript
- People writing non-fiction books (or possibly business parables)
- People who want a high-quality book
- People who are willing to invest the time and money necessary into quality
Who Should Not
- People publishing a novel or fictional book
- People publishing a cookbook
- People publishing a children’s book
- People who don’t care about the quality of their book and want a quick, easy and cheap option
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. You own the copyright and all print and reproduction rights. You can do anything you want with your book.
Yes. We take absolutely no money from the sale of your book, and all accounts are set up in your name and under your ownership.
We have two publishing imprints at Scribe: Lioncrest Publishing and Houndstooth Press. Both are wholly owned imprints of Scribe Media.
You don’t have to use either as your publisher. We can essentially create a new publishing company for you with any name you like. It’s completely up to you who the named publisher of the book is.
You own 100% of the royalties for your book.
Although Scribe doesn’t take any share of the book’s profits, there are some costs that don’t go directly in your pocket—namely, Amazon’s fees and printing costs.
For eBooks, Amazon takes 30% of your royalties and you take the other 70%. For paperbacks, Amazon takes 40% of the royalties, the printer gets approximately $3 to print the book, and the rest is yours. If you do hardcover, we’ll explain it all before you make any decisions.
No, it actually does the opposite. The best strategy to get a great book for you is to use the service-based model, where we are paid a fee and you own all rights and all royalties.
This is because under a service-based model we get paid for ensuring that your book serves your goals (such as getting speaking gigs or finding clients or creating influence), as opposed to a royalty-based model, where we are incentivized to focus only on selling copies (regardless of whether it serves your goals).
Yes, but possibly not in the sense that you are thinking about. This is a long explanation because the book publishing business is so weird.
When people ask, “Is this self-publishing?” what they tend to mean is, “Will this be unprofessional?” To that, the answer is obviously: “No, it’s professional.” You’re hiring us for that exact reason—to ensure that your book not only gets done, but is done professionally.
Furthermore, your book is published by an established publishing company. So the answer to the self-publishing question is: “No, it’s not self-publishing.”
But in fairness, this question used to be more relevant. Before self-publishing existed in its current form, there were only two options: traditional publishing, or what were called “vanity presses.” With these options, having a “traditionally published” book—which meant a New York publisher gave you an advance—was a signal that you were serious and credible, whereas being published by other means (a vanity press) was a signal that you weren’t credible.
This is just no longer the case. Today, most books are published outside of the traditional publishing system. Vanity presses have for the most part disappeared, and they have been replaced with a number of what are called “hybrid” publishing companies. These vary widely in the quality of the books they produce, but many are absolutely credible and professional.
Yes and no. This is a complicated answer, again because the publishing business is so weird.
Yes, we make your book available for order and sale in bookstores and retail outlets. All our books are put into the Ingram database, and can be ordered in every bookstore in the country.
No, we do not automatically put your book in bookstores. This is because bookstores carry very few books, reserving their limited space for established authors or books from publishers who are paying for shelf space.
You generally need to sell at least 25,000 copies before bookstores become interested in carrying your book. That’s the bad news. The good news is that being in bookstores doesn’t really matter anymore. A book sitting on a shelf doesn’t sell in most cases. In terms of buyer behavior, most people who shop at Barnes & Noble also shop on Amazon, so if they don’t see a book at Barnes & Noble, they’ll just go to Amazon. In other words, lack of bookstore distribution in and of itself doesn’t necessarily lose you very many sales.
The reality is, for almost all authors, being in a bookstore is purely about ego, and not about actual ROI. We don’t deny that going into a bookstore and seeing your book on the shelf is nice, but having a book in a bookstore does almost nothing in terms of sales or awareness. It is only a status object.
We don’t charge you anything for copies. You get to buy copies at the print cost. For print on demand paperback, Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark not only prints books for approximately $4 a copy when they’re ordered through Amazon, but they’ll sell the author these books at the same cost. At any time after the book is published, you can order copies in any quantities you’d like at this discounted price, direct from the printer (we don’t make money on copies).
If you are looking for a larger quantity of books (1,000 or more), we set you up with a commercial offset printer to handle this request. They can provide better prices at large quantities. We take no markup.
Your book cover and manuscript interior layout will be designed by world class designers, but you have full creative control.
Our Creative Director has done dozens of New York Times Best Sellers, as well as the other book cover designers we’ve worked with. Combined, they have worked on over 100 best sellers that have sold millions of copies. You are getting the very best in design, because having a great book cover is a key to establishing your book as credible and professional.
Before we start the design process, you’ll have a long conversation with the Creative Director to understand your vision for the cover (if you have any). We organize this information into a design brief and use it to create a series of initial cover designs, which you will review and give feedback on. Just like all parts of our process, you will have full, 100% approval of your cover.
We will manage the logistics to run an Amazon Bestseller Campaign that focuses on maximizing early sales, reviews, and rankings, all to build the foundation of early credibility for your book’s long term success.
We will also support you in promoting the book to your connections by creating social media graphics for the book, crafting a book announcement email, gifting free copies to your friends and family, and creating a strategy for you to get the support of influencers who you know.
By the end of the first week of your book release, your book should have Amazon bestseller status, a burst of early sales, a baseline of reviews, awareness among your network, and you should have a plan for how to continue to leverage it going forward.
We do offer other add-on marketing packages as well.
It’s time to publish your book.
We can help.
If you’re serious about writing and publishing your book this year, let’s talk.
We’ll discuss your book idea, see if it makes sense, and help you understand the best next steps.
Other Scribe Media Services
Scribe Guided Author
We guide you though the writing process, then we do the publishing.
$44,000
Paid over 15 months
Learn MoreScribe Professional
We interview you for the content, we do the writing, editing and publishing.
$56,000
Paid over 12 months
Learn MoreElite Ghostwriting
You get a bestselling Scribe and a customized process to fit your needs.
Custom Custom Payment Plan
$135k Minimum Investment
Learn MoreWe help you take your success to the next level.
Get a free copy of our book,
The Scribe Method.
We've worked with over 2,000 authors in 8 years.