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The conversation
A consultant calls, listens to what you are trying to say and to whom, and recommends a route. Nothing is signed and nothing is charged at this stage.
A Christian imprint of Stamford Publishers, serving authors since 2014
For over a decade we have helped pastors, teachers and lay writers across the United States carry a faith manuscript from a private notebook to a finished book. Editing, design, printing and distribution, handled by people who read Scripture the way you do.
Fifteen minutes, at no cost. Tell us where the manuscript stands and we will tell you plainly what it needs next, even if that turns out to be nothing from us.
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.Psalm 45:1, American Standard Version
Everything a Christian book needs, under one roof
Take the whole list or take one line of it. Authors come to us with finished manuscripts, with half a draft, and occasionally with a shoebox of handwritten pages. All three are welcome.
Why authors stay with us
Plenty of firms will format a Christian book. Fewer will notice that you have quoted the King James in one chapter and the New International in the next, or that your chapter on grace is doing two jobs at once. That noticing is the work.
Before editing begins we ask about your tradition, your translation preference and the doctrinal ground you will not move on. Editors then work inside those lines. We sharpen how clearly you say a thing, never whether you should say it.
The copyright stays in your name. Royalties are paid to you in full. No clause anywhere signs away film rights, foreign rights or the right to walk away with your files and publish elsewhere.
You are given a name and a direct line on day one, and that same person is still on the call at launch. No handovers, no repeating your book's premise to a stranger in month three.
Every stage has a delivery date agreed at kickoff and printed in your production schedule. If a date is going to move you hear it from us first, with the reason and the new date attached.
Genres we publish most often
How a book gets made here
A consultant calls, listens to what you are trying to say and to whom, and recommends a route. Nothing is signed and nothing is charged at this stage.
An editor reads what you have and writes back a plain assessment: what is working, what is thin, what will need building. That assessment becomes your production plan.
Editing, proofreading, interior layout and cover design run in sequence under one project manager, with your notes folded in at each handoff.
You receive the full proof, print and digital, and you read it at your own pace. Nothing goes to press until you have signed it off in writing.
The title goes live across retail and Christian channels, and the marketing work begins: listings, reviews, launch outreach and the tools you need to keep selling after week one.
In their own words
I had eleven years of Sunday notes and no idea how to turn them into a book. My editor found the through line in about a fortnight. She saw the argument I had been circling the whole time.
What I feared was an editor quietly softening the parts of my testimony that make people uncomfortable. That never happened once. They pushed me to say it more clearly instead.
Our women's ministry now runs the study in four states. The interior layout is a large part of why. Someone thought carefully about how a group actually uses a book in a room together.
Where authors usually start
These are the routes most authors take. None of them is fixed. After we read your manuscript we will tell you which parts you actually need and which you can skip.
For a finished manuscript that mainly needs to be made ready and put on sale.
Most authors choose this
The complete build, for authors who want the book properly edited and properly launched.
For ministries and established authors who want the whole thing carried for them.
Not sure which one fits? Speak to a consultant first. It costs nothing and it usually saves money.
Before you call
Yes, entirely. The copyright is registered in your name, the ISBN is registered to you, and every royalty dollar from every channel is paid to you. We are a service provider, not a rights holder. If you decide to take your files and publish elsewhere next year, you can.
No. At kickoff we record your tradition, your preferred translation and any positions that are not open for discussion. Editors work inside those boundaries. Where a passage seems likely to be misread, an editor will flag it as a query for you to answer rather than rewriting it.
A clean, complete manuscript usually reaches print ready in eight to ten weeks. Books needing developmental work or ghostwriting run longer, generally four to seven months depending on length and how quickly drafts come back to us. You get a dated schedule before any work starts.
We list your title through Ingram, which is the catalogue Christian retailers order from, and we submit to the major online stores. Physical shelf placement is always a retailer's decision, so we will never promise it. What we can promise is that any store wanting to stock you is able to.
Not at all, and it is more common than you would think. We transcribe handwritten pages, work with partial drafts, and in some cases build the book from recorded interviews when writing is not how you think best. Tell the consultant what actually exists and we will plan from there.
Mostly because of what is counted as editing. A cheap package often means a spellcheck pass and a stock cover. Our quotes state exactly which editing stages are included, how many cover concepts you will see, and which distribution channels you will appear in, so you can compare quotes line by line rather than by headline price.
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Bring whatever you have, even if it is three chapters and a title you are not sure about yet.