You've written your book. Now what?
In the past, this was the point at which you would make copies of your manuscript and start sending it off to literary agents in the hopes of finding one willing to represent you. Or maybe you'd try your luck and send your precious pages directly to a publisher willing to accept manuscripts "over the transom." And then you'd wait for weeks or months for a response.
At Story Scribe Books, we offer another way. Or two, to be exact.
Option 1: Traditional Publishing with Story Scribe Books
As a small indie publisher in Kansas City, Missouri, we don't have the large pool of editors that a Penguin or Random House does, nor do we have the distribution channels that spit out the latest Stephen King or James Patterson novel into every bookstore and airport shop across the US. But we do have a lot of heart—and we know when we see a manuscript we love. We have the chops to edit and design your manuscript into a professional and polished book, and we work with KDP and IngramSpark to make sure it's available to the readers who will love it as much as we do. In short, we promise to take as good of care of your book as if it were our own.
Option 2: Hybrid Publishing with Story Scribe Books
As a small indie publisher in Kansas City, Missouri, we do have a small, talented, and experienced group of editors and designers who can take your manuscript and turn it into a book you can be proud of. Visit our sister company, The Story Scribe, to learn more about our hybrid publishing services.
Publish Your Book
Ready to start your publishing journey? Send us an email or give us a call.
Traditional vs. Hybrid Publishing: What's the Difference?
The biggest difference between our two models revolves around costs and royalties.
- With traditional publishing, the author pays no upfront costs and earns a small share of royalties produced by sales of the book.
- With hybrid publishing, the author is responsible for the upfront costs—for editing, design, and uploading to printers, to name a few—and then earns 100% of the royalties.
Traditional publishing, a caveat:
As the big publishing houses consolidate, it becomes more and more difficult to find a traditional publisher willing to take a risk on a first-time author or a book that doesn't fit neatly into their catalogue. Many authors spend years sending dozens or even hundreds of query letters only to have their book rejected again and again.
Hybrid publishing, a caveat:
There's never a guarantee that a hybrid published book will earn back the author's initial investment. To be frank, many do not. But if you choose to work with us, we'll have a discussion about marketing strategies and the number of books you'd need to sell to recoup your investment. If it seems unlikely that you'll reach this break-even point, it's up to you to decide if earning royalties is your primary goal—or if getting your story into the world is.
Ready to figure out which option is best for you? Click on the buttons below.
The backstory on Story Scribe Books and hybrid publishing
Back in the late '90s and through the aughts, I wrote book reviews for several newspapers, primarily the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. My amazing editor at the Post-Dispatch, Jane Henderson, worked from a desk surrouded by piles of books that reached from floor to ceiling. These review copies, or ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) were mailed to her by publishing houses, big and small. I was mostly free to pick and choose which titles I wanted to take home, read, and review. There was only one caveat: no reviews of self-published books.
Fast forward a few years, and I was no longer reviewing books, but writing them. More specifically, I had started a writing services company, The Story Scribe, to ghostwrite memoirs and life story books for clients who wanted to share their memories and experiences with their family. At first, every one of these books was privately produced. Then, as time whent by and print-on-demand (POD) services improved, some of my clients expressed an interest in sharing their books with a wider public. Others contacted me with their own manuscripts, wanting to know how they could get their books onto Amazon and other retail platforms.
It was then I realized it was time to let go of my own long-held prejudice against "self-published" books. Don't get me wrong: there were (and still are) plenty of unedited, poorly designed, print-on-demand books popping up on Amazon, the kind of books that had prompted my former editor at the Post-Dispatch to ban them from our review pages. But those authors weren't the ones now contacting me. Instead, I was hearing from writers who wanted the same kind of editing and design services provided by the big publishing houses, but without the gatekeeping.
And that's when I decided to start my own publishing imprint, Story Scribe Books.
Publish Your Book
Ready to start your publishing journey? Send us an email or give us a call.