Six stages, in the order they usually happen. Most projects do not need all of it. The point of the first conversation is working out which parts yours actually needs.
Scope is agreed in writing before any work starts, so you always know what is included before you commit to anything.
Prepare
Getting the words themselves ready to become pages.
Manuscript preparation
Before a book can be designed, the text has to be in a consistent, workable state. This is the unglamorous stage that makes every stage after it go smoothly.
This can include
Consolidating drafts, files and versions into one manuscript
Consistent chapter and section structure
Cleaning up formatting carried over from word processors
Standardizing quotation marks, dashes, spacing and headings
Flagging gaps, duplicates, and obvious problems before layout begins
Assembling handwritten or scattered material into a single document
Editing and proofreading
Different books need different depths of reading, and they are genuinely different jobs. We will tell you which one we think your manuscript needs, and you decide how far to go.
This can include
Structural notes: what is working, what is repeated, what is missing
Line editing for clarity, rhythm and consistency of voice
Copy editing for grammar, punctuation and usage
Proofreading as a final pass for typos and errors
A clear record of what was changed, so nothing happens to your text invisibly
Design
Turning the manuscript into an object.
Interior book design
The inside of a book is designed, not merely typed. Typeface, size, spacing and margins decide whether a reader stays in the book for two hundred pages or puts it down without knowing why. This is a craft, and we treat it as one.
This can include
Typeface selection and sizing appropriate to the book and its trim size
Page margins, line spacing and text block proportions
Chapter openings and section breaks
Running heads and page numbering
Front matter: title page, copyright page, dedication, contents
Back matter: acknowledgements, notes, about the author
Image, photograph and illustration placement
Print-ready interior files built to the printer’s specification
Cover design
A cover is three surfaces that have to work as one: front, spine and back. It also has to be built to exact physical dimensions, which depend on your page count and paper stock, or the printer will reject it.
This can include
Front cover design and typography
Spine, sized to the page count and paper of your specific book
Back cover layout, description text and barcode space
Full wraparound artwork for print
Bleed and safety margins set correctly for the printer
Separate ebook cover where the format requires one
Print-ready files in the format your platform expects
Publish
Getting the finished files onto a real publishing platform.
Publishing setup
Publishing platforms are not difficult so much as unforgiving: a wrong setting produces a book that prints badly, or a listing nobody can find. We prepare the files and the listing details, and can walk the upload through with you.
This can include
Preparing interior and cover files to platform specification
Trim size, paper and binding configuration
Title, subtitle, author and imprint details
Book description and category selection
Keyword and metadata preparation
Print and ebook configuration
Listing your book in marketplaces worldwide, not only your own country
Reviewing the digital proof before anything is made public
ISBNs and publishing details
The administrative side of publishing: identifiers, imprints, copyright pages, distribution settings. Small decisions, some of which are difficult to change later, so they are worth understanding before you make them.
This can include
What an ISBN is, when you need one, and when you do not
The difference between a free platform ISBN and one you own
Imprint and publisher-of-record options for your book
Copyright page preparation
Distribution, territory and regional marketplace settings
List price guidance for each format and region
Print specifications recorded for future reprints
Print
Boxes of your own book, in your hands.
Author copies and bulk orders
A published book does not have to reach its reader through a website. Print-on-demand platforms let an author buy copies of their own book at printing cost rather than retail, and we will place that order and have the box shipped to you. Thirty copies, fifty, a hundred: whatever the occasion actually calls for.
This can include
Ordering author copies of your book on your behalf
Boxes of 30, 50, 100 or any quantity you need
Copies for selling in person, at readings, markets and events
Stock for a local bookshop, gift shop or community space
Copies for family, friends, contributors and reviewers
Shipping arranged and quoted to your address before you commit
Reorders once you know what actually sells
Present
Somewhere to send people once the book is real.
Author and book pages
When someone hears about your book, they look it up. A page of your own means what they find is presented the way you want it, rather than only a retailer listing.
This can include
An author page with your biography and portrait
A page for the book itself
Links out to wherever it can be bought
Material you can use when promoting the book
A permanent address for the book that you can print inside it
Poetry: PoemsPoetry
Poetry collections and poet profiles are presented on our sister site, PoemsPoetry, which is built specifically for that kind of work. The publishing work behind it is the same. The presentation is designed for poems rather than chapters.
This can include
A poet profile on PoemsPoetry
Presentation designed for collections rather than prose
A permanent author URL that can be printed inside the book
Optional paid advertising, run properly, with nothing taken off the top.
Advertising campaigns
Once a book is listed, the question becomes whether anyone ever sees it. Paid advertising is one honest answer to that, and it is a craft of its own. We build and run campaigns as an optional add-on, in tiers sized to whatever budget you decide to set aside.
This can include
Campaign strategy built around your book’s genre and readership
Demographic, interest and genre targeting rather than broad spray
Static and dynamic bidding, managed rather than set and forgotten
Cost-per-click structures matched to the budget you have set
Keyword, category and comparable-author research
Ad copy and creative written for the book
Monitoring through the campaign, with bids and targeting adjusted as real data arrives
Plain-language reporting on what the money actually did
Advertising
Paid campaigns, run by someone who has run a lot of them.
Advertising is genuinely optional. Plenty of books we work on never run a campaign, and that is a perfectly reasonable decision. But if you want one, it should be built properly rather than boosted at random, and you should understand exactly what you are buying.
What this is built on
Custom ad campaigns have been part of this work for around a decade: structuring them, targeting them, bidding on them, and watching what actually moves. That covers static and dynamic bidding strategies, cost-per-click management, and the slow business of finding the demographics, genres and comparable authors that a particular book actually resonates with.
That experience is the thing being offered. It is not a promise about your results, and anyone who turns experience into a promise of sales is selling you something other than advertising.
Tiers, not a flat rate
Campaign packages come in tiers, because the work of running a campaign scales with what is being run. A modest campaign on a single title is a different job from a sustained, multi-market push across formats. We will talk through what the tiers involve and which one makes sense for your budget, and none of it is compulsory.
It depends on your budget, and we will say so
This is the part that gets glossed over elsewhere. How much a campaign can do is governed largely by how much money is behind it. A small budget buys a small, tightly targeted test, and that can be a sensible way to learn what works before spending more. It does not buy visibility at scale, and we will not pretend otherwise. You decide the number. We tell you honestly what that number can and cannot do.
What we are not
We are not a marketing house. Advertising is an add-on to publishing work, not the main business.
We do not offer author representation contracts, and we do not market books in exchange for a share of the sales.
We do not take a percentage of your royalties. After the campaign spend and our rate, everything the book earns is yours.
We cannot promise sales, rankings, reviews or a return on ad spend. Nobody can, whatever they tell you.
Your advertising budget is paid to the advertising platform, not to us. Our fee covers building and running the campaign.
Priced per project, because books are not interchangeable.
A short poetry collection that arrives clean and a four-hundred-page memoir assembled from handwritten notebooks are not the same job, and pricing them the same way would mean overcharging one of them.
What a project costs depends on:
How long the manuscript is
What condition it arrives in
How much editing it needs, if any
How complex the interior design is
What the cover requires
Whether there are images, photographs or illustrations
Which formats and regions you are publishing in
How many author copies you want, and where they ship
Whether you want an advertising campaign, and at what budget
Send us a description of your project and we will come back with a quote and a scope in writing. There is no charge for asking, and no obligation after.
