In this form of Publishing, Publishers screen content, select manuscripts submitted from authors directly or from literary agents, pay advances (occasionally), publish the book (edit, proof, design, paginate & print), market and distribute the book, and pay the author royalties after they receive revenue from the sales of the book.

In this type of publishing, the process remains the same as traditional publishing, except that when some traditionally published authors are confident of the success of their work, they pitch in, reducing the publisher’s investment. They also might work on some parts to bargain for a better royalty or get quicker turnaround time. In most cases, they take care of the marketing, in part or entirely. Or, they will take care of the pre-press stages or media relationships.

Sometimes they have the ability to sell a large number of books themselves, so they buy many in advance, invest together with the publisher, and share revenues instead of a meager royalty. This essentially reduces the publisher’s risk on the project or helps in taking the marketing beyond what the publisher would generally do. It also enables them sometimes to offer the book at a very aggressive price in the market.

In this type of publishing, the author publishes her/his own work using services from a publishing firm for services she/he deems required. Most work done by a traditional publisher is available in supported self-publishing as paid services. The author here dons the role of an artist-entrepreneur, with complete control on how the process gets delivered, when the book should be released, how the book needs to look, what the pricing strategy should be, which markets to target, in what formats to present the work to the audience, etc. Since the author is investing and it is her/his work, they get the majority of returns.

This kind of publishing is for authors who want complete control of the publishing process and the rights and are willing to invest time and resources on their own work. They are commercially inclined to maximum returns on their investment.

In this form of publishing, the author publishes her/his own work using the publishing platforms provided by a publishing firm or themselves. Here the author is in control of the entire work of the publishing process – from the editing, proofing, pagination, and cover design, to marketing the book. DIY is further classified into limited and expanded.

This form of publishing is where the author uses the Publisher’s platform to publish her/ his own book. The same works in three stages, i.e. Publishing, Incubation & Acceleration.

In terms of books, there is a genre-no-bar. In addition to books, one can use the Pencil writing platform to publish shorts in the form of short stories, poetry, blogs, or articles. This gets published on the Pencil Reader App. For more details, you can check our community guidelines.

While signing the agreement is the last step of the publishing process, in case you are looking to read the author-publisher agreement beforehand to understand the various clauses, click here.

In the case of eBook, your book will be available on 400+ platforms including Amazon Kindle, iBooks, Google Play Books, Kobo, and the Pencil reader app to name a few.

In the case of Paperback format, your book will be available on all major retail platforms online like Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Flipkart.

You will get transparent monthly sales reports from all the major platforms. However, in the case of many retailer platforms, it might take up to 50 days for the sales to reflect in the royalty report, especially for paperback sales.

Note: You will have access to real-time analytics only via the Pencil reader app.

Real-time analytics is like the pulse of your book. This includes access to data that will help you understand how a reader consumes your book. In addition to knowing the basic demographics of your reader, you can also check the readability index of every page, how many people started to read the book, and where they left it among other things. This can help you understand and improve your book.

For example, if you understand from the data that a lot of people are dropping out at a certain page, you will now be able to change your book accordingly and republish the new version worldwide.

While the publishing process on Pencil takes up to an hour in case you have a ready manuscript and cover design, once you digitally sign the author-publisher agreement, the submitted book has to undergo a quality check process to be published further.

Once verified, the book is available on the Pencil Reader App within 24-48 hours. In the case of eBook distribution to other retailers, it takes up to 10-14 days and in the case of paperback distribution to Indian and international retailers, it takes up to 6-8 weeks. These timelines are subject to various factors in the quality assurance process including but not limited to, plagiarism errors, copyright errors, file errors, and other platform-mandated guidelines.

The copyrights are always owned by the author. With our agreement, we become your publishers. The same allows us to distribute your work (book) to multiple retailers worldwide. The agreement is also valid till any of the parties do any breach of trust, i.e. don’t honor their parts of the commitment to the contract.

When you want to change the book significantly, you will need to stop the distribution of the book first by clicking on ‘Request new version’ under the ‘Insights’ section of your book. Once you pick ‘Yes’ for confirmation and move ahead with your request, you are asked to list the reason for which you wish to create a new version. This request is then reviewed by the Pencil team. To learn more about this process, check our blog here .

Also, please be aware that, if the previous version has been purchased by a few people. The eBook retailer will have to keep that file on their systems, including the Pencil reader, i.e. the customer of that version can download the prior version even if she/ he has deleted the same from her/ his device. The new version gets available with a mention of the term ‘Version 2’ added to the edition. Once the next version is published, the prior version stops selling. However, a lot of times there are issues of both versions being available at the same time at a few retailers.

At every stage on the writing platform, you will have an option to request a service depending on the stage of publishing you are at. For example, when you are writing your book, on the same screen you will have an option to request any editing service. Similarly, when you are designing your cover, you will have an option to request any designing service on the same screen. Services can also be accessed from the home screen tab.

Once you click on the same, you will have to fill a form to brief our team about your requirements. Once you submit the same, our team will allot a project manager who will then get in touch with you and initiate the project as per your requirement.

For every copy that a reader buys on the Pencil reader app, you will receive 70% of the net receipts (amount received from the customer) as royalty. For every other platform, your royalty would be 50% of the net receipts.

Once you write a book on Pencil, the submitted book has to undergo a quality check process to be published further. Once verified, the book is available on the Pencil Reader App within 24-48 hours. In the case of eBook distribution to other retailers, it takes up to 10-14 days, the same differs for every ebook retailer, i.e. some retailers will have the ebook live sooner than the others and in the case of paperback distribution it may take from 6-8 weeks, the book shall get available in different countries at different points in time, all within 8 weeks. These timelines are subject to various factors in the quality assurance process including but not limited to, plagiarism errors, copyright errors, file errors, and other platform-mandated guidelines.

You can create an account on Pencil for free using your Facebook account, Gmail account, or any other email account. Once you complete signing up, you can use the same credentials to log in to our writing platform and reader app.

All the personal details that you share while publishing your book will remain strictly confidential and encrypted. For more details on this, kindly check our Privacy Policy .

Once you create your account and log in on our writing platform, you will be directed to our main dashboard. At this stage, you can either select the option to ‘Start Writing’ to write using our editor or add the manuscript or short to the editor.

Once you log on to the writing platform, you can add your manuscript from the source file into the Pencil editor chapter by chapter in the relevant section as per the editor outline.

For now, while we do accept color books for eBooks, the same is not available in Paperback format.

Majority of the premium services are available for all geographies. If any particular service is not available, those are mentioned in the relevant places.

Once you have initiated your publishing process, if need be, you can avail of editing or designing services. In this case, a dedicated project manager will then get in touch with you. This person is responsible for managing your project until all the services you have purchased are delivered. As soon as the service is activated, they will set up all the key tasks and associated milestones of the project.

Should you not be happy with the services, you are free to report that to our support team. We will take all necessary actions after understanding the issue.

There is no manuscript evaluation necessary before going ahead with the publishing process. However, if you wish to evaluate your manuscript, you can purchase it as an editing service.

Yes, we do so for most of the popular genres. In case we don’t have an editor for a particular language or genre, the project manager shall discuss the same with you.

Yes, we can. Please get in touch with our support team.

In the case of eBook distribution, your book’s character count should be more than 15000 characters. However, in the case of Paperback distribution, please note that your book’s page count should be at least 50 pages. For paperback distribution, we would recommend avoiding image-heavy or color-heavy text since we use a standard 5X8, Black & White Print-on-demand model for distribution.

No, Pencil does not offer any marketing or promotional services under our paid premium services. We only offer editing and designing services.

Pencil does offer a few fixed tools that help you with promoting your book like pre-ordering, discounting your title, or running promotion codes, among other things. However, this changes from time to time. Drop us a line on connect@thepencilapp.com for our publishing advisor to guide you with the same

In addition to this, Pencil regularly hosts an exclusive marketing webinar under Pencil Masterclass Series on How to Sell and Market your Book Worldwide. Please note that this is complimentary for authors published with Pencil

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It is a 13-digit number that’s used internationally as a unique identifier for books. We need the ISBN to identify each book that is published, and each edition of the same book. ISBN also identifies the publisher of the book. It is the standard ID number used to identify books by booksellers, libraries, book wholesalers, and distributors. If you plan to sell your book in bookstores, libraries, or through online retailers like Amazon, you will need an ISBN. ISBNs are issued to publishers, who then assign them to individual books. ISBN is mandatory if you wish to list and sell it via retailers; if you wish to have the book only for private circulation, then ISBN is not necessary.

An ISBN for your work is registered under us as publishers for your book. The ISBN will be inserted on the copyright page and on the back cover of the book with the barcode. The barcode is a digital image that sellers can scan to identify the ISBN. Separate ISBNs are assigned for paperback, hardback, and eBook versions of a book. We will assign ISBN(s) and create the required barcode(s) for your book.

Yes, you may. Please get in touch with our support team.

Yes, it’s a unique identification for your book, so different ISBNs have to be used.

The ISBN assigned by us is registered under our name. If you wish to have an ISBN registered under your name, you could apply for the same with Raja Ram Mohun Roy Agency, which is the authorized agency to assign ISBNs in India. The ISBN website has relevant agencies in other geographies.

Barcode for your book is generated from the unique ISBN assigned to your book. It is not registered separately.

As per the ISBN authorities, the eBook and paperback versions should have different ISBNs. A few retailers carry the same ISBN, while most prefer not to. We strongly recommend separate ISBNs.

When you reach the price-setting page on the writing platform, depending on the page count, you will get a system-generated Minimum price. Keeping in mind the suggestion, you can set the selling price accordingly and check the royalty calculator to understand your earnings on each copy sold.

You will receive a monthly sales report at your registered e-mail address. Please note that in case your eBook was sold on Pencil’s Reader App, the sales will reflect in the next month. In the case of sales of your book in eBook and Paperback format across Third-party Domestic and International retailers, the sales will reflect within 30-60 days from the month of sale.

In the case of eBook sales on Pencil Reader App, the royalty will be credited within 30 days from the month of sale. In the case of sales of your book in eBook and Paperback format across Third-party Domestic and International retailers, the royalty received from these platforms will be credited within 90 days from the month of sale.

Royalty is the amount paid to an author for each copy of a book sold. For every copy that a reader buys on the Pencil reader app, you will receive 70% of the sales price i.e. the amount the customer paid the retailer. For every other platform, your royalty would be 50% of the net receipts.

Your sales and royalty report is available on your main dashboard on the Pencil Publishing Platform.

Net Receipt is the amount we receive from retailers and / or distributors for the sales of your book.

If you are from India, please fill out the details in ‘Bank Details’.

If you are from another country, please provide your Payoneer ID and name associated with that account.

Once your royalty crosses USD 100, the royalty will be sent to you monthly.

Shorts refer to short format content pieces. This includes short stories, poems, blogs, and opinion pieces.

As per our current model, we don’t charge readers to consume your shorts. Hence, there is no royalty involved.

In case you are not writing directly on the Pencil writing platform, you can copy your short from the source file to the Pencil editor.

Currently, you can use the reader app to post updates in image or text format. However, in case you want to write a book or a short, you will have to use the web platform www.thepencilapp.com

We have a universal user account, the same works for the writers and the readers as well. Only when you are publishing a book with us, the ‘author-publisher’ agreement comes into place. In case you have signed up on our writing platform, you can use the same login credentials on the Reader App. In case you haven’t, you can sign up on our App using Facebook, Gmail, or any other email account that you use.

You can check our discover page for discovering new books, or in case you have a specific book in mind, check the search page to find the same. Once you click on the book, you can click on the ‘Buy’ option and make the payment to purchase the book.

You can find the books published on Pencil in paperback format on major e-commerce retailer platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, and many more unless the author has requested otherwise.

Once you write a book on Pencil, the submitted book has to undergo a quality check process to be published further. Once verified, the book is available on the Pencil Reader App within 24-48 hours. In rare cases of error, kindly write to our support team.

While such instances are rare, request resending the verification email. In case you still don’t receive it, please check your spam folder.

While there are no age criteria for registering on Pencil, but in case of account holders below the age of 16, parental guidance is advised. In case you are a minor publishing a book, we might need a legal guardian to sign the agreement.

A book summary includes a theme-wise layout of key-insights from a book. Best suited for non-fiction, book summary helps retain action points from the book in a faster and effective manner.

While a book review is mostly a critical, opinion piece, a book summary remains objective and unbiased. Both these forms of writing serve different purposes.

You can choose to write or copy the book summaries from the source file as a short in a format suitable to you using our writing platform. However, the Book Summaries section in the Reader App includes professional curated summaries put together as Pencil Select for our readers.

Once you have read a book on our App, you can write a review for it. In addition to this, you can also review a book of your choice as a post update on your profile in the Reader App.

You can read one free Book Summary every day. This is valid for 24 hours (12:00am - 11:59pm). In case you have read half of it during this timeframe, to finish reading, you will have to make a payment. You can optionally buy our Annual Subscription to read unlimited summaries at a nominal cost.

The Book Summaries’ Subscription is billed annually or paid monthly. You can read unlimited book summaries from the Pencil reader app, within your subscription period.

Pencil offers authors the unique chance to edit their book using dynamic editing tools, selling newer versions worldwide. However, the author has to submit a request for this to the Pencil team with a valid reason. You can do so by clicking on ‘Request new version’ under the Insights section of your book. Once you pick ‘Yes’ for confirmation and move ahead with your request, you are asked to list the reason for which you wish to create a new version. This request is then reviewed by the Pencil team. To learn more about this process, check our blog here Our team reviews the same to then approve/disapprove the request.

We highly recommend against this. While publishing, please ensure that you publish a polished, edited, final version of your manuscript. Although we provide options to stop distribution, logistically, this can take up to 10 weeks to successfully de-list the book from major retailers. Please ensure you utilize this chance for absolutely valid reasons only. Read our blog here to learn more on how to use the dynamic editing tool offered by Pencil.

In case your book is in the draft stage, you can directly delete it from your dashboard. Once you publish your book, the following are the two possible scenarios for deleting your book:

To delete previously published shorts, you can go to your author dashboard and directly delete them from your list of published titles to delete them from the platform.

Once you submit the synopsis of your story, it will be added to our online marketplace as an Unrated Story. All the producers and filmmakers who have signed up for Pencil will be able to access your story and reach out for any further discussions. To get your story ‘Rated’ and featured on our marketplace, you can opt for the Pencil Score.

Yes, you can. However, these stories will be classified as unrated. Unrated stories have low discovery and traction on the producer’s dashboard.

No, critics or producers cannot copy your story. Pencil takes the issue of plagiarism very seriously. Hence, there is a panoply of measures implemented to ensure every piece of content written on Pencil is protected against plagiarism. Also, we encourage our writers to get a SWA authentication on their concept/ script before putting it up on the platform.

The writer owns the copyright of the story that is pitched to studios and producers.

Once a story is selected by a studio, the rights of the story are transferred from the writer to the studio/ producer in a phase-wise manner. The process usually begins with Optioning, where the rights of the story are initially leased to the studio for a period of time. During this time, the studio develops the story and examines the viability of producing the content. If everything goes well, the studio may acquire complete rights to the story. The studio/ producer pays the writer for optioning as well as acquiring the rights to the concept/ story.

The amount paid by a studio for a story is highly subjective and depends on various factors such as the budget of the project, platform, language, probable cast, etc. An optioning fee is first paid which is usually 10-15% of the agreed story cost to lease the rights of the story for a certain period of time. The remaining amount is paid if the development seems viable to the studio. Generally, as per industry norms the concept / story cost is a percentage of the production cost of the film/ webseries.

You will be reached out by our representative over email and/or phone as soon as a studio expresses interest in your story.

Only the studios will have access to all the stories submitted to Pencil’s Pitch to Studios.

Yes, you can, as long as you own the secondary / screen adaptation rights to your book. Submit a synopsis of your book via Pencil’s pitch to the studio feature in the prescribed format. Incase your publisher has the secondary/ screen adaptations rights to your book, then you may ask your publisher to get in touch with us on connect@thepencilapp.com to register as a Publisher and upload your book’s information in the prescribed format.

Yes, you can submit your story concept on the marketplace using ‘Pitch to Studios’ and filling the information required in the prescribed format.

Once you’ve submitted a synopsis of your story through Pencil’s Pitch to Studios, the story is available for studios to look at on Pencil’s exclusive closed online marketplace. The story may be listed as rated or unrated. You need a Pencil Score for the story to be listed as rated content.

Yes, you can, as long as there are no active interests from studios in your story. You may do so by writing to connect@thepencilapp.com

No, you will not get any refund once you have purchased the plan.

Yes, you can pitch your story to studios on Pencil.

Storybot is an AI research tool that crawls the internet to scout for articles related to true events across the world. You can simply set the genre, sentiment, protagonist, etc., and browse through a vast collection of articles based on true events to serve as inspiration for your next bestseller.

No, you cannot. Storybot is designed to only serve as a reference and research tool in order to provide inspiration for your story. No part of the articles available on Storybot must be copied as it may result in your story being marked as plagiarised.

Yes. Any part of articles copied from Storybot will be treated as plagiarised content.

No, the production format of the content is at the sole discretion of the studio/ producer.

The story has to be broken down into its constitutional elements such as a short introduction, characters, character plots, story arc, etc. The exact format can be referred to under the Pitch to Studios section on Pencil’s writer dashboard.

No, the story has to be pitched in a prescribed format and fields found under ‘Pitch to Studios’ on Pencil’s writer dashboard.

No, once a story is posted on Pencil, all the studios have access to the content.

Pencil Score is a combination of -

i) An AI-generated score that performs a relative comparison of your story to 30 million+ data points to weigh your story based on its uniqueness, virality, relevance, and sustenance.

ii) Expert feedback from a panel of industry stalwart critics.

Each story is reviewed by up to 10 critics from different tiers. The tiers are hierarchical with Expert, Specialist, and Professional levels.

Writers will have access to this feedback verbatim from the critics to utilize it and further hone their content. A writer can thereby decide whether or not they wish to present the story to our online marketplace.

You need to take the Premium paid package and once you submit your story under the Pitch to Studios section on Pencil, it will be published as a rated story on the studio / producer marketplace along with the Pencil Score.

No, Pencil Score doesn’t guarantee the selection of your story. However, opting for the Pencil Score helps you get creative and analytical feedback from industry experts, specialists, and professionals that you can incorporate to improve the content, thereby increasing its chances of selection by studios/ producers.