Book design and publishing
Your book on Amazon, built to publishing-house standards. Every bit of control stays with you.
A cover designed from scratch, a professionally typeset interior, turnkey publishing on Amazon. Rights, royalties, and source files stay in your name.
A 2-minute questionnaire, then pick a day and time on the calendar: a free 15-minute call with me.
Message me on WhatsApp
The problem
A mediocre book with your name on it is worse than no book at all
Someone in your field has already published. Since then they get the conference invitations, clients arrive already convinced, and they negotiate price from a different position.
They may well know less than you.
The two roads you'll find out there:
Road 1
vanity publishers with five-figure quotes and bestseller-list promises.
Road 2
or doing it yourself, with a cover that looks like it came out of a copy shop.
The third road is right below: three real books, out of this studio.
The packages
Three packages: each added format costs less than the one before
The base is identical across all three: what changes is how many formats you put on sale.
On your end: one call and three written approvals (cover, page design, print-ready file), all in one shared folder. From the final manuscript, the book ships in 2 to 3 weeks.
Package 1
One format
Launch price
$1,250
Standard rate: $1,600
- Kindle or paperback, your choice
- Cover from scratch: front, spine, back
- Professionally typeset interior
- 2 revision rounds on the cover, 2 on the interior
- Amazon KDP set up together, account in your name
- Or files ready for your printer
- Fix typos yourself, with no revision fees
- Source files, rights, and royalties in your name
Package 2
Two formats
Launch price
$1,600
Standard rate: $2,050
- Kindle and paperback: the reader picks the version
- Cover from scratch: front, spine, back
- Professionally typeset interior
- 2 revision rounds on the cover, 2 on the interior
- Amazon KDP set up together, account in your name
- Or files ready for your printer
- Fix typos yourself, with no revision fees
- Source files, rights, and royalties in your name
The paperback costs $350 here; after delivery, $1,050.
Direction guarantee includedPackage 3
Three formats
Launch price
$1,850
Standard rate: $2,400
- Kindle, paperback, and hardcover
- Cover from scratch: front, spine, back
- Professionally typeset interior
- 2 revision rounds on the cover, 2 on the interior
- Amazon KDP set up together, account in your name
- Or files ready for your printer
- Fix typos yourself, with no revision fees
- Source files, rights, and royalties in your name
The hardcover costs $250 here; after delivery, $700.
Direction guarantee includedNot included in the packages: text editing, launch marketing, printing costs (you pay the printer directly). If you need one of these, you get the exact figure in writing before we start.
Even the most complete package is a fraction of what a vanity publisher charges.
I work on a few books at a time: between now and the end of August I'm taking on 3. The launch price holds for those 3, no later than August 31; from the fourth project, the standard rate applies.
A 2-minute questionnaire, then pick a day and time on the calendar: a free 15-minute call with me.
Is your book already written?
You've seen the prices. The right next step depends on one answer.
Door A
Yes, or almost.
The packages you've just seen start from the manuscript you have in hand and take it to market. Before you commit to the full project, there's a 15-minute call with me: free, and you'll know whether the book stands up.
Book your 15 minutes with meDoor B
No. I stalled.
You started writing and ran aground around chapter three. The file is still there, on your desktop, months later. It's almost always a structure problem before it's a time problem: you don't know what order to put what you know in. The packages start from a finished text. Send me a couple of lines on WhatsApp: tell me where you stopped, and I'll tell you the step that gets you to the last page.
Message me on WhatsAppOne call with me, and you fix every typo yourself, inside the typeset book
The usual workflow goes like this: you find a typo on page 147, write to the designer, wait for the PDF, then find another one. From the second revision round on, many designers charge for every pass.
Here the workflow is different:
- You get direct access to your book's text with a tool built for writers: if you work in Word, you're already halfway there.
- One call with me and you're self-sufficient: the training is part of the package.
- You correct every word inside the final layout: the design doesn't shift.
You make text changes yourself, right in the typeset book, as many times as you want, with no revision fees.
You activate the tool's license yourself: a few dollars a month, for the length of the project.
Portfolio
Books that have people asking for a second edition five years on
“2,500 copies of the book sold, and even five years later people still come up to me: ‘Ah, you're the one who wrote…’. Now I have to work on a second edition.”
Fabio Cagnetti
Manifesto del Vino Contemporaneo
“Making a direct marketing book pleasant and engaging is not always easy. In this case, the result is highly professional.”
Andrea Dallan
CEO Dallan S.p.a., La Rivoluzione dell'Efficienza
150 copies sold in the first month. One of those copies brought a new €2.5 million client to her firm.
The book was designed for exactly that: to carry the right reader to the last page, where she's easy to contact.
When Assunta handed me her manuscript, I was the third designer she had tried.
Assunta Incarnato, chartered accountant
Quello che i commercialisti non dicono
A publisher trusted me with an entire series
A publisher only hands a whole series to someone who can hold the line: different titles, years of work, and every cover has to signal the same house. For Istituto Liberale I designed the entire series, and the consistency is right below.
Istituto Liberale series · design of the entire series
Thirteen years of design, nine in design that has to sell
My name is Davide Filippini. I've been a graphic designer for thirteen years: nine in direct response design, including three as Chief Design Officer at one of Italy's largest direct marketing companies. That's where I learned something about books: in the right hands, they're the tool that convinces before the negotiation starts.
I was the first to bring Direct Response Design to Italy: I wrote my thesis on it and founded designarispostadiretta.it, the Italian home of the discipline. It's the lens I design books through as well: a book can be engineered to generate measurable inquiries, with the same logic as sales materials.
Two ways out, in writing
Before the full layout, you see the direction: the cover and a sample of typeset pages.
Direction guarantee
You get two revision rounds on the direction. If after the second round you're still not convinced, the project stops and I refund the creative-phase fee.
The design stays with Keryx: the refund and the files don't travel together.
Clean exit
You can stop at the end of any phase, with no penalties and no explanations owed. You keep all the work from the phases you've paid for, with a full license to use it.
Neither one covers sales: those depend on your subject and your audience.
What you risk is clear and limited. Not convinced by the direction? You walk away with your money.
Settle the question before it goes to print
You have the manuscript. And the question: as it stands, will it survive print and the market? Before you invest real money, we talk it through: a free 15-minute call with me.
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Fill out the questionnaire: 2 minutes.
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Book the call from the calendar: a free 15-minute call with me. I arrive having already read your answers: you ask your questions, I tell you whether the project holds up and what that depends on. You don't need the manuscript for the call.
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Decide with the numbers in front of you. If the project holds up, you receive an exact quote in writing.
The answer might be a no. If the book as it stands won't bring you clients, I'll tell you on the call, along with the reason.
I work on a few books at a time: between now and the end of August I'm taking on 3, and I hold 3 calls a week.
When you do send me the manuscript, it stays confidential: I use it only for your project. A draft is a draft: it's supposed to be imperfect, and nobody here judges it.
FAQ
The questions people ask before we talk
“I turned to Keryx Design for my book and it went really well. We created a one-of-a-kind cover, starting from some statuettes I had at home: a simple but original idea that gave the project character right away.”
Nicola Torre · Anubismo
The first step costs 15 minutes: one call with me, and you know whether your book holds up. The rest you decide with the numbers in front of you.