Everything people ask before they decide — answered plainly.

Sometimes it is not — and we would rather tell you that early. The Authority Quotient is a thirty-minute evaluation that measures your authority two ways, how you rate yourself and what a stranger can verify, and ends with one specific recommendation. If a book is the right next step, it says so and says which kind. If something should come first, it says that instead. There is no cost.

You do not need a topic to start. Two things come first: your goal as an author, and who you want to reach. Once those are clear, topics emerge and one of them will be obviously right. The planning stage exists for this, and a senior publishing advisor works through it with you using Book as a Strategy.

This is settled before the topic, not after. A book written for everyone is read by no one. We identify the reader first — the specific person whose situation your book changes — and build the book for them. It is the second most important question in the whole project, after what you want the book to do for you.

You will not be writing it alone, and most of our authors do not write it at all in the usual sense. Our experts interview you, research around you, and bring every resource your book needs — so that it is presented at an international level, matching your seniority. What you bring is what you know and how you came to know it. The rest is ours.

Good. Neither do we, and our name is on it too. A mediocre book does more harm than no book, which is why every manuscript goes through several rounds of editing, formatting and proofreading before you approve it, and why the cover is designed to sit beside the best in its category. Nothing is printed until you would be proud to hand it to the most senior person you know.

Nothing dramatic. But a book only starts working from the day it is published, and every year it does not exist is a year of speaking invitations, introductions and trust it did not earn for you. The people who wish they had written one earlier are far more common than the people who wish they had waited.

Nobody does. That is why the Stardom Method is built around recorded interviews rather than a keyboard. You speak; our writers ask, listen, research and draft. Most authors spend around thirty hours over the whole project — in conversations, reviews and approvals. Twelve to fourteen weeks from planning to publication is typical.

Yes. Every chapter is drafted from your recorded interviews, your perspective and your experience. You approve each chapter as it is written, so nothing reaches the manuscript that you would not have said yourself.

No, and we do not accept ghostwriting assignments. Ghostwriting hands a topic to a writer who invents a book for someone else to sign. We interview you and write from your words, with you involved at every stage — which is why our authors are glad to call the book their own.

No. Your manuscript is written by people, from recorded conversations with you. We use technology for the ordinary things — transcription, scheduling, production — not for writing your book. AI help is used for research and plagiarism checks.

Usually no. We work with authors from the idea stage, where our experience is worth the most. Publishing a completed manuscript is a printing service, and that is not what we are. If you are open to our editorial review and recommendations, we can be your publishing partner: schedule a call to discuss it first.

Five things, roughly. Talk with your publishing advisor at the planning stage. Sit for the interviews. Read and approve each chapter. Approve the final manuscript and the cover. Approve the listing and the launch date. Everything between those moments is our work.

By Stardom Books, in paperback, hardcover, digital and audiobook editions, with an international ISBN, a Library of Congress number and US copyright registration in your name. It is listed with our worldwide distribution network from launch and printed on demand close to wherever it is ordered — print facilities in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, the UAE and India, with partner printers in Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Korea and Spain.

Yes — Amazon in every market, with an A+ listing, and the other online stores: Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Waterstones, Booktopia, Kinokuniya, Flipkart, Google Books, Apple Books, Kobo and the rest. Online stores carry every Stardom title from launch.

Yes and no, because the book trade is an odd business. Yes: every Stardom title is entered in the publishing databases that bookstores and retailers in most countries order from, so any store can order and sell your book. No: we do not place books on shelves. Bookstores carry very few titles and keep that space for established names or, in some countries, for publishers who pay for it; a book generally needs to sell around 25,000 copies before a chain takes an interest. The good news is that shelf presence matters far less than it used to. A book on a shelf rarely sells itself, and most people who browse a bookstore also buy on Amazon, so being absent from the shelf costs very few sales. For most authors, being in a bookstore is about the feeling, not the return.

If you still want it, the trade sets the terms: a retailer margin of at least 55 percent, and returnable stock. The store pays after four to six months for what it has sold, returns the rest to be pulped, and the author is charged for the printing, packaging and handling of the returns. Because margins cannot differ between retailers, the 55 percent then applies to every online store as well, and royalties are eroded even when only a small share comes back. We can set those terms if you ask, with lower royalties and slower settlement, and even then no retailer can be made to display the book.

The practical alternative: approach a local bookstore yourself, offer the 55 percent margin and ten copies on sale-or-return, and let them pay you as they sell. We have arrangements like this with a few stores, and our sales team pursues them once the book is published.

You do. Copyright is registered in your name, and you retain full ownership of the content and the intellectual property. Stardom Books is the publisher, not the owner.

Royalties are what remains of the selling price after the cost of printing or production and the distributor’s or retailer’s margin. Stardom pays 75 percent of that amount to the author, in every format and every market, for as long as the book sells. You also receive author copies at launch.

A worked example, in round figures: a paperback listed at $20. The distributor or retailer keeps its margin, say 40 percent, or $8. Printing that copy costs about $4. That leaves $8 in royalties, of which $6 goes to you and $2 to Stardom. E-books and audiobooks have no printing cost, so the royalty on those is higher. The figures vary by format, market and retailer; the split does not.

No, and it would not be honest to suggest otherwise. What you invest in the project goes directly into producing the book — the advisors, writers, editors, designers, proofreaders and publishing team, plus the hard costs of registrations, printing and distribution. Royalties come afterwards, and many authors do recover their investment through sales, speaking and the business the book brings; but the book has to exist first. Commercials are set out in your proposal, in writing, before you commit to anything.

You could self-publish, and some people should. What you would be taking on is finding and managing an editor, a proofreader, a cover designer, a formatter, the registrations, the platform accounts and the distribution, and doing it to a standard that does not embarrass you — while running whatever you already run. The comparison on the Publishing page sets out the differences without spin.

Three ways. We publish nonfiction by leaders and experts only, so everyone on your book has done this before for someone like you. The book is written from your words, with you, and never ghostwritten or generated. And we treat the book as a strategy rather than a project — what it is for, and how it will be put to work, are settled before a word is written.

A traditional publisher acquires a manuscript, pays an advance, and takes most of the royalties and all of the decisions. A self-publishing platform gives you tools and leaves you to it. A hybrid house works between the two: the author invests in producing the book; the house does the work of a real publisher — writing with you, editing, design, registration, distribution — and shares royalties with the author, who keeps the copyright. Stardom Books is a hybrid publishing house.

No. We love nonfiction and that is our focus — business, leadership, how-to, brand stories, personal journeys, memoirs, best practices, patient handbooks, personal branding, investor relations, niche expertise. Other houses do fiction, children’s books and textbooks better than we would.

Yes. A brand story is researched around the company — founder, team, archive, customers — and written from interviews, then published in the name of the founder, the leadership team or the company with a named author. Tell My Brand Story explains the six kinds we publish and has its own proposal form.

Every engagement is handled with strict discretion and professional confidentiality, from the first conversation to launch. Some of our authors tell nobody until the book is on sale.

Two houses, one standard: Stardom Books, LLC in Coppell (Dallas), Texas, and Stardom Books, LLP in Bengaluru, India. Authors work with whichever is closer; the book is available everywhere either way. Details are on the Contact page.

Yes, and we welcome it. Nominations from published authors, Forum members and readers are one of the ways the catalogue grows. Use Nominate a leader and tell us who and why; we will take it from there, discreetly.