The partnership model
For Authors.
We don't sell you services. We don't take your rights. We build your author business as our investment, further out the more your book earns — then we split what it makes.
The pitch, in three sentences
You write the book. We build the business around it.
Traditional publishers take world rights, pay a small advance, and hand you an 8% royalty. Vanity presses charge you five figures for the same production work you could have done yourself. We do neither. We treat every author as a partner: no advances, no upfront fees, no rights grab. What we bring is the back end of being a published author — the ISBNs, the registrations, the listings, the distribution, the reporting — and as a book starts selling, we build further out from there: the production, the launch, the website, the ongoing marketing. In return, we split the print & eBook English royalties, and only those. Everything else stays with you.
The Backend Partnership
One door. Two earned graduations.
Every author starts at Foundation. Launch and Federation are not packages you select — they are build-outs a title earns once it has proven it sells, and we fund them out of what the book is already making. We would rather invest in a book with readers than guess which manuscript will find them. All three keep the same rights carve-out and the same core terms.
You have a platform. We handle distribution. Every author starts here.
What we provide
- ISBN assignment (from our Bowker pool)
- Amazon KDP paperback + Kindle listing setup
- IngramSpark listing setup (bookstore & library distribution)
- Bowker registration
- Ongoing catalog administration
- Quarterly tax & royalty reporting
- Your chapter outline and Author Questionnaire — our own instrument, built from a real read of your manuscript
What you provide
- Edited, print-ready manuscript
- Cover design (front, back, spine)
- Your existing website, email, and audience
Print & eBook English royalty split
75% Author
Your book is selling. We produce and relaunch it properly.
What we provide
- Everything in Foundation
- Professional interior formatting and re-upload (paperback + Kindle)
- Your own domain, registered for you
- Business email on your own domain
- Hosting, first year
- Optional: a series or second-edition cover treatment — only if you ask for one. We will not redesign a cover your readers already recognize.
How it’s earned
- 350 copies sold in the trailing twelve months, on a title already published with us at Foundation
- At that rate the build pays for itself inside a year — which is why we can fund it instead of charging you for it
- We offer it. You accept in writing. The new split goes on the amendment.
Print & eBook English royalty split
60% Author
Your book has readers. We build the whole author business around it.
What we provide
- Everything in Launch
- A custom author website — designed, built and hosted by us
How it’s earned
- 500 copies sold in the trailing twelve months, on a title already at Launch
- By this point the book has moved roughly 850 copies with us. We are amplifying something that works, not funding a hope.
- We offer it. You accept in writing. The new split goes on the amendment.
Print & eBook English royalty split
50% Author
Splits are the starting point. Exact percentages can move ±5 – 10% based on scope and services delivered. Every partnership is a negotiated conversation, not a form. A graduation is always offered, never required — a title can stay at Foundation for as long as the author wants it there.
If you don’t want to wait
You can buy the build instead of earning it.
Some authors would rather have the cover, the formatting or the website on day one than wait for the sales that fund it. That work is available — from Nathan James Productions, the studio side of the same house, at ordinary market rates on its own contract.
Available to buy, at any tier
- Cover design — full paperback wrap, or a Kindle front
- Interior formatting — paperback and Kindle
- A custom author website — designed, built and hosted
- Domain, business email and hosting
Read this part carefully
- You never have to buy anything to be published here. Not one line of it. Buying from Productions has no bearing on whether we take you on, what tier you sign, what your split is, or how your book is handled. If it ever did, it would be a fee — and §7 of our agreement forbids us charging you a fee of any name at any time.
- Same owner, separate company, separate paper. Nathan James Productions and Nathan James Publishing are both ours, and we are telling you that up front rather than letting you find out. A Productions invoice is a normal commercial transaction between you and a studio. It is not part of your publishing agreement.
- You are free to hire anybody. Any cover designer, any formatter, any web developer. We will work with whatever you bring, and we will tell you honestly if it will not pass print spec.
The rules under every tier
What’s true regardless of which tier you sign.
The tier defines the build. These terms define the partnership itself.
Fixed across all tiers
- You keep every right we’re not using. Audio, film, TV, foreign, translation, merchandise, direct sales, speaking, and adaptation rights all stay 100% with you. We take print & eBook English distribution rights only.
- You keep your copyright. Copyright registration is in the author’s name. We are a distribution and services partner, not an owner of your work.
- No advances. We’re not that publisher. Our investment is the infrastructure we build for you, not a check. This lets us take partners without gatekeeping by cash.
- No upfront fees. We don’t charge you to publish. If we take you on, we pay for what we build. If we don’t take you on, you owe us nothing for the conversation.
- 90-day termination, either side. Either party can end the partnership on 90 days written notice. You walk with your manuscript, your rights, and your author identity. Assets we built are negotiated at fair cost or transferred outright.
- Quarterly royalty payments. Direct deposit, on a public schedule. Statements include unit sales by channel, gross revenue, our cut, your cut — itemized.
- The rate card is public. Every service in every tier has an imputed retail value posted on the model page. You see exactly what you’re getting.
- The contract is public. Every term above — and every one that isn’t on this page — is written into the model author agreement. Read it before you query.
- Your numbers are yours. Your sales, your royalty payments, and any figure tied to your title are never published — not on this site, not in aggregate, not anywhere. You see them in your quarterly statement and nobody else does. Author financial data belongs to the author, always. The imprint’s own finances are private in exactly the same way; what we do publish is the catalog record — what we have put out, where it reaches, and whether we have room.
Current capacity
Are we taking partners right now?
We’re small on purpose. When our roster is full, we say so — we don’t stack a slush pile.
How to query
Send us what you have.
No form. No portal. No agent required. Send an email — a real one, written by you — to the publisher's mailbox. Read the model & agreement first so we can skip the small talk.
What to include in your query
- Who you are. Two paragraphs. Real ones. Not a bio, a conversation.
- What the book is. The one-sentence version. Then the one-paragraph version. Then, only if we ask, more.
- Where it is. Manuscript status: drafting, finished, edited, publication-ready.
- Where your manuscript actually is. Everyone starts at Foundation, so there is no tier to choose — but tell us plainly whether it is edited, and whether you have a cover. We would rather know now.
- What you’ve already built. Website, audience, prior work, social presence — whatever exists.
Want to see the actual contract first?
Every term above — and every one that isn't — is written into our public model author agreement. Read it before you query.
The Model & Agreement →