“What the Hell Happened to Scribe in the Summer of 2023?”
Scribe had a chaotic summer of 2023.
There were layoffs, lawsuits, losses, and many wild rumors.
You deserve clarity.
There are reasons, legal and otherwise, why it hasn’t been possible to communicate much before now. There were many unknowns (there are still a few). Now, we can share more of what happened, and what we suspect happened.
I am Eric Jorgenson, now CEO of the “New Scribe.” Prior to becoming CEO, I published two books with Scribe. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant has sold over 1,500,000 copies and been translated into 30+ languages, and I’ve given away over 4,000,000 digital copies for free (perks of controlling my own IP!).
Writing and publishing this book completely changed my life. I’m grateful to Tucker Max and Zach Obront for starting Scribe and supporting me through publishing in 2019. I loved everyone I worked with, evangelized Scribe, and believed what they did was critical to the future of the publishing industry.
That experience is why I accepted this opportunity to become CEO of New Scribe after the tragic bankruptcy in summer of 2023. I had my second book in progress with Scribe during this disaster, and took a large personal financial loss just like everyone else. Seeing that unfold, I felt called to do what I could to build a New Scribe.
I say New Scribe because that’s exactly what it is. The “Old Scribe” (Scribe Media, LLC) that existed before June 2023 is bankrupt. They laid off the entire team, and their lending bank foreclosed on them and shut down the company. (You’ll see how that happened below.)
New owners started a fresh company, hired veterans from the Scribe team, bought the logo and website, and hired me. It’s a completely new company. We will carry forward the best ideas from Scribe and eliminate the issues that caused trouble from 2022-2023
As someone who has never worked at Old Scribe, I have no official standing to communicate on their behalf. If you want the full, painful, fascinating dive into Scribe’s fall, co-founder Tucker Max wrote the full story about Scribe Media’s Collapse and Recovery on his blog. It tells the truth like only Tucker can – with full understanding of every ego, emotion, and consequence.
Here is the bottom line, in four sentences:
Scribe Media, LLC (Old Scribe, which JeVon McCormick and his investors owned) went bankrupt.
Today, the Scribe logo and brand are part of a new company, owned by new people, with new leadership.
This new company has some of the most experienced members of the team from Old Scribe and offers you their decades of experience. A team of all-stars are back to basics from the founding days of Scribe, being an excellent publisher and service provider.
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I’m here to explain how this tragic bankruptcy happened, why, and where we go next.
First with a timeline, then Q&A:
Timeline of Events
Here is a timeline of relevant events from Scribe’s summer of 2023. I did not begin working with the new company until August of 2023, so this has been compiled from many sources and conversations with trusted people. This is the best timeline I can create of events directly related to the bankruptcy and the new business. Some details remain unknown, but here’s my best current understanding:
- Scribe is founded in 2014 by Tucker Max and Zach Obront. (Originally Book in a Box.) The company grows steadily.[1]
- JeVon (JT) McCormick is hired as CEO. This happened in 2016 according to JeVon’s Linkedin.[2]
- Late 2021/Early 2022, Tucker Max and Zach Obront step back, and sell their shares in Scribe to pursue very different paths. (Tucker is raising sheep[3] and Zach is working in Crypto[4].)
- JeVon (JT) McCormick becomes the controlling owner/operator and brings his own investors to Scribe.[5]
- After years of steady profitability since its founding in 2014, Scribe starts spending more than it earns and begins to lose money in early 2022.[5]
- They hire more people and build out a very large office. Losses accelerate to hundreds of thousands per month.[5]
- In October 2022, December 2022, and January 2023 JeVon (JT) McCormick brings on additional investors to cover Scribe’s losses.[5]
- In April 2023, JeVon (JT) McCormick induces additional investments (allegedly with falsified financial records) from individuals to make payroll, promising to pay them back personally if Scribe is unable to.[5]
- By May 2023, sixteen months after JeVon McCormick took ownership of Scribe, the company is quickly running out of cash.[5]
These bullets are straight from Tucker’s post about this time:
- April 12, Scribe couldn’t make payroll, and JeVon talked Jawad into loaning the company $775k to make payroll.
- May 15, Scribe was unable to make payroll again, and JeVon induced John Kim to invest more money into Scribe, to help him make payroll.
- A former Scribe employee told me, and another confirmed, “On one of these late payrolls JeVon claimed that an investor had reneged a payment, and that JeVon was covering our pay personally from his own accounts. And we fucking thanked him for it.”
- I have also learned that during this period (not sure on exact date), JeVon took a $250k loan from an EMPLOYEE of Scribe to make payroll. Multiple previous Scribe employees have told me this is accurate.
- May 18, Jawad confronted JeVon about his lies. JeVon resigned as President and CEO of Scribe.
- On May 24 2023, Scribe was forced to initiate a large layoff, which revealed Scribe’s true financial position to the public. Rumors start to swirl online.
- On May 26, current Scribe author Eric Jorgenson hears the rumors, and starts contacting firms that could stabilize Scribe or buy and manage the company.
- In early June 2023, the bank that loaned Scribe money (ABC Bank) foreclosed on Scribe Media, LLC (Old Scribe), claiming Scribe’s assets and taking operating control of the company, as was their right as senior creditor.
- Sieva Kozinsky and Xavier Helgesen, founders of a firm called Enduring Ventures (a long-term private holding company that previously made acquisitions of companies in distress), fly to Austin to meet with the team and the bank to assess the situation.
- Around here, JeVon McCormick stops responding to employee messages.
- Mid-June 2023, they started a new company called Bond Financial and hired the majority of remaining Scribe team members, keeping them paid to support authors, continue to publish books, and prevent the situation from worsening.
- Sieva Kozinsky steps in as interim operating CEO to navigate the crisis and communicate with authors.
- On July 7th, Sieva broke the hard news to authors that their past payments to Scribe had been squandered by JeVon, and they would not be getting the work they had paid for. In order to continue working on their books, the team at this new company would need some additional payment to cover the costs. Authors were pissed.
- In July 2023, JeVon’s investors file a lawsuit against him in Travis County district court.
- In early August, Bond Financial finalizes the purchase of certain assets of Old Scribe (namely, the Scribe logo and website) from the bank and assumes the bank’s loan liability from Old Scribe.
- In late August, Bond Financial hires Eric Jorgenson (a previous and current Scribe Author) as CEO.
- As of November 2023, the bankruptcy proceedings of Scribe Media, LLC (the prior company owned by JeVon and the investors he brought on) are in progress.
- (None of us at New Scribe are able to affect these proceedings or comment on them, which stinks because it is confusing for everyone to navigate.)
- December 29, 2023, according to the public court documents, JeVon (JT) McCormick does not appear for his deposition.[7]
- Under new ownership and leadership—since the transition in August 2023 to this writing in October 2024—Scribe has published 95 new books, has 150+ more in progress, has hired or rehired 7 additional staff.
Those of us at the New Scribe can’t fix every problem caused by this bankruptcy. But we (Eric, Enduring Ventures, and the team here at the new Scribe) believe it is best to solve the solvable problems—to continue to serve authors and revive Scribe to build the future of the publishing industry.
New Scribe has a full production team, a solid business model, and the financial infrastructure and backing of experienced operators in a $100m long-term holding company.
The rebuild of Scribe is going well, now over one year in. The team is full of dedicated, hardworking people forged together by a shared painful experience. Key Scribe team members are being welcomed back. We have had 100+ authors sign (some very high-profile!) and exciting plans for the years ahead.
We have a tough journey ahead of us. But from that forest fire, we have cultivated rich soil, and with your help, Scribe can grow into something valuable for the world yet again.
Common Questions & Answers
I’ve had many conversations with authors and employees over the past few months. These are the questions I get the most often, and the answers I give privately.
“Why did Old Scribe go bankrupt?”
The simple explanation is that their CEO, JeVon McCormick, chose to spend more money than the company earned, for far too long.
It seems he chose not to be honest with his investors and employees. He chose not to hire a CFO.
It seems he waited until the last possible minute to reveal the financial condition of the company to the team. Employees were ordered to conduct a layoff in a matter of hours with no resources, leaving people laid off without severance or benefits.
It seems he chose to mismanage company finances and go bankrupt in such a manner that authors who pre-paid for their services were left without any refunds or recourse. Freelancers who completed work in many cases went unpaid.
(This seems to fit the pattern of what happened in JeVon’s previous CEO role at Headspring.)
Many specifics are still unclear. There are some public sources of information about this:
- Scribe’s co-founder Tucker Max wrote an exceptional post about his time working with JeVon, and other employees reports of this period.
- The lawsuit filed against JeVon McCormick in Travis County District Court is particularly jarring to read. There are some damning accusations in there. (Bear in mind, these are only accusations. It will be for the courts and juries to tell us who was responsible for what, exactly.)
- This thread on Reddit from employees who were laid off because of his actions also contains some brutal claims.
“What actually happened, legally, to Old Scribe?”
An oversimplified, not fully technical explanation:
Scribe Media, LLC (which was owned by JeVon and his investors) had taken a loan from ABC Bank.
When Scribe was running low on cash, they laid off dozens of people and the bank became concerned Scribe would not be able to repay its loan.
The bank exercised its right to foreclose. This means they claimed ownership of the business including all of their assets, liabilities, contracts, and operating control.
The bank is now taking Scribe Media, LLC through bankruptcy.
“It’s upsetting to see Scribe appear to be doing business as usual after what happened.”
I acknowledge it may feel weird.
Seeing a post from Scribe on social media might feel like seeing a person who backed into your car and then scampered away having fun at a party, pretending like nothing happened.
But logos are logos, companies are companies, and people are people.
Logos are just shapes; companies are just paperwork…the people are what matter. Keep your eye on the people.
The person who made the decisions that led to those losses has disappeared. Gone. No longer affiliated with Scribe in any way whatsoever. Our wins don’t help them, and our losses don’t hurt them.
The veteran production team and publishing managers who did the front-line work with books and authors for years have joined New Scribe. These are the people who worked tirelessly through uncertainty, ambiguity, and personal attacks to help their authors, freelancers, and peers survive this tragedy as best they could.
If a hospital goes bankrupt, you don’t get angry at the nurses and doctors who were doing their best to care for patients. They weren’t responsible for what happened in the boardroom.
The new owners of Scribe (Sieva, Xavier, and Eric) have put their money at risk to pay this hardworking team for their efforts to rebuild. Everyone here today is taking on the burden of problems caused by others’ mistakes.
The logo may be the same. But keep your eye on the people.
Give this group of people some time. If we do our jobs well, maybe you will feel good about the logo again.
“Why were things such a mess last summer?”
In June ‘23, after JeVon McCormick disappeared and before the Enduring Ventures-backed transaction, there was a huge amount of uncertainty and confusion.
There were a few temporary leaders in quick succession which created mixed messages, mistakes, and miscommunications. Some claims were made by some of them that were irresponsible or downright impossible. While these efforts may all have been in good faith, they only added to the confusion.
Today, I can only apologize for the confusion authors have experienced in the past. Those leaders are no longer affiliated with Scribe. We are committed to better communication going forward.
“It’s not technically a contract with you, but why can’t New Scribe pay me?”
The amount owed by Old Scribe is immense and insurmountable. Committing to this would mean instant bankruptcy. It’s a non-starter. If that were a requirement for moving forward there would be no forward. It’s a financial impossibility.
That money belonged to a company that no longer exists (Old Scribe), and that money was spent by the CEO of that company, JeVon McCormick.
If we attempted to repay everything to everyone, there would be no more Scribe of any type, at all. Then, of course, even more authors, employees, and freelancers would have been left in an even worse situation.
“What are you doing to support affected authors?”
Though there is no requirement for us to do this, we are completing work for all authors who were impacted by the bankruptcy of old Scribe at-cost.
We cannot possibly work for free, but we will complete your book at the lowest possible cost to you. It is gut-wrenching how many stories I’ve heard about authors being derailed, demoralized or in despair about their book because of JeVon’s actions.
We can’t fix everything. But we are doing everything we can.
We’ve got more than 100 of those former Scribe authors in progress right now, and by my rough math, will deliver a few million dollars in value back to them as a group.
There are no perfect solutions, and we acknowledge this isn’t one. But this whole team is proud to step up and do what we can.
A group of Scribe veterans to work at-cost to finish your book is the best solution, given the situation.
“You could make me whole; you just choose not to.”
As Tucker said, “JeVon created a shitty situation where there are no perfect solutions. Unless he comes out of his own pocket, no one will be truly made whole.”
I truly wish I could solve it all, for everyone. But New Scribe started over with less than zero.
We had to purchase the logo and website from the bank. New Scribe still has Old Scribe’s bank debt to pay off. Sieva, Xavier and I personally financed the company through many months of losses.
Some people think that there is some “pot of gold” somewhere that someone is choosing not to share with them.
This is not true.
This is a new business with different stakeholders than Old Scribe, rebuilding with the remnants of a disaster caused by someone else. The only things that carried over were the brand name, the intellectual property, and some of the team members—none of whom had anything to do with the mismanagement of Old Scribe.
“But I read somewhere that Scribe shut down!”
I am not surprised. Many websites are “reporting” on this situation who are trying to sell knock-off Scribe services or self-publishing scams. They pose as neutral reviewers or news sources, but they are not. They smear competitors for their own SEO. They are not motivated to tell the truth–that Scribe is open for business.
Many of them took advantage of the negative press for their own gain. They have not updated their posts to reflect that Scribe is not shut down and is a new, different business today—despite our polite requests over the last year to do so. It’s unethical, unprofessional, and borderline illegal.
“Scribe should die. You shouldn’t be doing this.”
Some people have told me they believe we shouldn’t try to rebuild Scribe.
I understand. People experienced pain and loss. I’m one of those people. I had a large personal loss, like many others. It’s a natural reaction to want to punch back—to want the Scribe brand to die because they had a loss during the bankruptcy.
I have compassion for the feeling, but I don’t agree.
Just because it’s not possible to fix every problem does not mean we shouldn’t try to solve the ones we can—to serve every author and save as many jobs as possible. We now work on 150+ books from authors who worked with Old Scribe. Even for books we don’t publish, our effort means we could get authors their book files, connect them with other solutions, or just answer their questions.
This was a tragedy, and many people were affected financially and emotionally. It was and is deeply unfortunate, for everyone involved. But as with a forest fire, what remains is fertile soil to grow something amazing. It is no insult to the injured to make the best of what remains.
We owe it to the past, present, and future to carry forward the best of Scribe and create something enduring with the strong foundation we have.
“Why don’t you rebrand?”
Scribe was founded in 2014 and had many years of delivering excellent service prior to 2023. Over a thousand authors have had an incredible experience—many multiples more than had a bad experience. Hundreds of thousands of people heard of Scribe and were unaffected by this tragedy. Despite the bruises, there is still value in the Scribe name and logo, and the goodwill it has created. Why would I throw that away?
In the long arc of decades, brands survive many highs and lows. With a long-term view, this is a bump in an otherwise exceptional record, which we intend to build on. In the fullness of time, this rough year will be a single dark chapter in a long book of Scribe’s story.
It is common in the world of business for companies to go bankrupt and brands to continue on. General Motors, Marvel Entertainment, and Brooks Brothers all went bankrupt. It happens all the time.
Finally and most practically, rebranding would create a ton of expense and overhead that adds no value to the authors we serve. I hate to incur expenses that do not directly improve the product or service customers receive. This would be one of those, so I’m not doing it.
“I understand the bankruptcy, but I had a bad experience working with Scribe before that, in 2022/2023. What happened? Why should I trust that the service will be good again?”
While JeVon was making disasterous financial decisions, he was leaving Meghan McCracken (then Chief Experience Officer) to make dubious decisions about the team, service, and experience.
Many of the comments on this reddit thread point to a strained culture and team as a result of her leadership. The foundational building blocks that Zach and Tucker had put in place to create great author experiences were moved, swapped out, or thrown away.
At New Scribe, we are going back to the basics. Focusing on the fundamentals. Just a few changes we made quickly during the Scribe revival:
- Back to one point of contact (seems obvious, but they had changed this in favor of ‘Book Teams’ which did not work).
- We moved back to a simple, functional project management tool rather than a complex, slow one.
- We focus on making our process fit the author, not forcing the author to fit the process.
- Keeping a small, tight knit, nimble team. We got rid of a whole layer of management that were not involved in making the author’s experience great or publishing books.
- They have the financial measures on a per-project basis to ensure costs are under control.
- A CFO, weekly cash reconciliation, monthly board meetings, and honest accounting.
There are more changes and improvements to our services underway constantly, and we believe in a culture of relentless improvement.
“Who is actually involved with Scribe now?”
Beside me, Eric Jorgenson (who I already introduced) we have:
Sieva Kozinsky and Xavier Helgesen, the partners of Enduring Ventures – which is now the majority owner of Scribe. Xavier Helgesen has decades of experience in the publishing industry, having co-founded Better World Books in 2002 and spent six years on the board of the nonprofit Books for Africa. Sieva Kozinsky co-founded multiple companies in the education space. Together they manage Enduring Ventures, a long-term holding company.
Scribe’s co-founders, Tucker Max and Zach Obront, do not currently have an official role with Scribe. However, both have been publicly supportive of both Enduring Ventures and me. Privately, we are in touch frequently and I am grateful for their wise advise.
https://x.com/TuckerMax/status/1704159845128003591?s=20
Erica Hoffman—VP Operations who worked her way up from Publishing Manager at Scribe, starting in 2019, working with Authors to publish over 50 books, then leading the Manuscript Department, and eventually running company and service operations through the acquisition.
Rikki Jump—Head of Sales and Strategic Partnerships, who has been with Scribe since 2018 and helped over 1,000 authors find the right path forward with their books.
Mark Chait—Our Executive Editor at Scribe and one of the company’s first full-time members, Mark is the former executive editor at HarperCollins. He published books by a wide range of personalities and celebrities, including Jerry Rice, Bob Saget, the rapper Scarface, Brittney Griner, and many others. As a senior editor at Penguin, he published numerous New York Times bestsellers, managed a successful line of military nonfiction, and contributed heavily to a thriving Latino imprint. He worked on books with famous athletes (Sean Payton, Victor Cruz), beloved broadcasters (Soledad O’Brien), government figures and politicians (Sen. Robert Menendez, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe), and more.
Gail Fay—Book Coach, who started as a freelancer in 2017 and joined Scribe full time in 2023. Gail oversees the Guided Author service, mentors new freelance Scribes, and has written over 20 books using the Scribe method.
Ian Claudius—Book Production Director, who has been with Scribe since the beginning, having designed our very first book and hundreds more since. Short of setting metal type by hand, he is well-versed in every aspect of book design and production. If it involves code, words, pages, or screens, he can make it shine. When not obsessing over typographic minutiae or communing with an elder machine god, he can often be found eating nice food quickly, lifting heavy things slowly, or speaking Japanese poorly.
Ellie Cole—Head of Author Experience, who has been with Scribe since 2017, starting as a Publishing Apprentice, and now leading the Author Experience department having helped over 100 authors publish their books.
Emily Ellis—Head of Production, who has been with Scribe since 2020. Emily started in the QA department and now oversees the production of all of Scribe’s books.
Emily Sisto—Author Experience Operations Manager, who has been with Scribe since 2019, starting as a Publishing Manager, and now managing both projects and operations for the Author Experience team.
Travis Stoliker—Vice President of Marketing who joined Scribe to lead our revenue growth initiatives. Travis is a serial entrepreneur with exits in the Web Hosting and Hospitality industry.
Emmy Koziak—Publishing Manager, who has been with Scribe since 2023, guides authors through the publishing process.
Rachael Williams—Publishing Manager, who has been with Scribe since 2023 and guides authors through the publishing process. Rachael has over 5 years of publishing experience.
Lex Statzer—Book Launch manager, who has been with Scribe since 2022 in various roles including Publishing Coordinator and Publishing Specialist. Supporting the upload and distribution phase on all projects, Lex has successfully helped launch hundreds of Scribe titles.
Mar Caraccia—Publishing Operations Assistant, who has been with Scribe since 2023, works alongside the team to help authors publish their books when ready, ensuring their work has the reach and impact it deserves. Mar sets up authors’ accounts on major platforms, oversees book uploads and launches, and keeps author information up-to-date.
Andrew Lovell—Senior Operations Manager, who joined Scribe in 2016 as a freelance scribe. Became full-time in 2018 and, over the last six years as an essential member of Scribe’s Operations team, enhanced operational efficiency by implementing hundreds of workflow automations, leading major system upgrades, and significantly reducing tech-related expenses.
Caroline Hough—Production Editor, who joined as a freelance QA Editor in early 2021. Caroline became a full time employee in 2022, and works on every book that passes through QA.
Scribe works closely with dozens of talented and professional freelancers. We are extremely grateful to those who have been understanding and worked well with the team at Scribe to get through 2023 together. They suffered just as much pain and uncertainty as the team, and we’re grateful to the gracious for doing are hard thing well.
Many of those talented key freelancers work with New Scribe. That is a testament to the mutual trust of these relationships, and the value they see in Scribe’s future.
Many of our most successful and prolific authors, like Cameron Herold and Michael Mogill, have been supporters of our revival. I am grateful to them.
You, I hope, will be a part of this story. I hope you’ll give us the courtesy of not being condemned for the mistakes of others. All we need is an opportunity to show what we can do.
We are fortunate to have gotten stories on Scribe Media’s recovery in USA Today and Forbes.
“What is the plan for Scribe going forward?”
The first order of business is to get back to the basics. Scribe has provided excellent service to over 1,000 authors and successfully published over 2,000 books in the past decade.
I have heard from authors who had experiences that fell short of our standards during the chaos of the past 18 months. Excellence in quality is our immediate focus.
We are providing our existing services to authors as perfectly as possible to show you we are a New Scribe worthy of your trust and business.
As we are delivering on the promises of our core services (professional publishing, author coaching, full-service writing, and our top-of-the-line service) we will broaden our services available to authors. We often receive requests from authors for additional support in marketing their books, and this is an area we’re actively growing.
In the long term, our vision is that Scribe continues to lead the Professional Publishing market—and grow the market significantly. We believe more and more authors will want to fully own their work creatively and financially.
Incredible opportunities unlock when we give authors the freedom to be entrepreneurial and retain the maximum flexibility to use their books to achieve their goals.
I have personally seen incredible good come from Scribe. Over a thousand authors have been served, and over 2,000 books have been published.
Lives have been changed, careers have been changed, industries have been changed, legacies have been cemented.
Tens of thousands of others have benefited from our blog, book, and webinars through years of free resources for authors we have shared.
I will not let this strong foundation wither because of this one short tragedy, caused by individuals who were not part of the founding of Scribe and won’t be part of the future.
Scribe has an incredibly bright future ahead. This team has come through a tough time together, emerging with scars and loss, but also with new friends, new opportunities, and a path to move forward together.
Everyone working under the Scribe banner is making great personal sacrifices to create something of value for authors and publishing community.
“What happens next?”
I (Eric, the new CEO) am hosting conversations with small groups to answer questions. As you may have gathered, I have no perfect resolution you might be hoping for, but I do want to connect with each of you to hear your thoughts, share our vision, and talk about potential paths forward. Reach out to me anytime.
Thank you for reading,
Eric Jorgenson
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This post attempts to clarify the events surrounding Scribe’s bankruptcy and asset sale in 2023. In places, we have simplified legal steps or jargon that might have unintentionally altered the meaning. It is not a formal or legal document, and may unintentionally contain errors.
Drafts of this note were read by Tucker Max, Zach Obront, Sieva Kozinsky, Xavier Helgesen, Erica Hoffman, Rikki Jump, Gail Fay, Jordan Grenadier, Ian Claudius, Maggie Rains, Emily Ellis, Rachael Brandenburg, Jeff Guillot, Andrew Lovell, Mark Chait, Ellie Cole, Caroline Hough, Nick Keene, Monika Finn, and Emily Sisto.
Links and Citations:
[1] –https://scribemedia.com/our-origin/
[2]-https://www.linkedin.com/in/jevonmccormick/
[3]-https://www.tuckermax.com/the-scribe-resignation/
[4]-https://obront.substack.com/p/the-next-chapter
[5]-https://documents-legal.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/PLAINTIFFS++ORIGINAL+PETITION+(2).pdf
[6]-https://www.tuckermax.com/the-scribe-media-collapse-and-recovery/
