About

Who makes this site, and how it decides.

Best Book Publishing is a free resource made by Scribe Media, a book writing and publishing company in Austin, Texas that has published more than 3,000 books, including 23 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers.

Why it exists

People who want to publish a nonfiction book are pitched constantly, by agents' rejection letters, platforms, hybrid publishers, vanity presses and companies like ours. Most of what they read is written to sell one path. This site compares all of them on the same terms and says plainly when the free or cheap path is the better one.

What Scribe Media sells, and what it does not

How the chooser scores your answers

The chooser asks ten questions. Each answer adds or takes away points for each of six paths. The rules are the same for every visitor, and they are all printed below.

1. Every path starts at zero points.
2. Each answer adds the points in the tables below. A positive number means the answer makes that path a better fit; a negative number, a worse one.
3. Each path's fit score is 50 + 0.35 × its total points, rounded and kept between 1 and 99.
4. Paths are ranked by fit score. Labels: 75 and above is a strong fit, 60 to 74 a good fit, 45 to 59 possible with trade-offs, below 45 a poor fit right now.
5. Next to every score, the result lists the answers that moved it most, in the form "You said X, which matters because Y," with the source for Y.

When the result says "not yet"

Instead of naming a best fit, the result says "not yet" when any of these is true, and explains which one:

• You are not sure what the book is for.
• The book is still an idea, you would rather talk than write, and your budget is under $15,000, which is below what having a book written costs.
• No path reaches a fit score of 60.

It still shows the full ranking, so you can see what would change it.

Why the points are what they are

The biggest numbers sit where the evidence is strongest. Budget carries the largest penalties, because a paid path you cannot afford is not an option at all: Reedsy's freelancer data puts professional help at $2,940 to $5,660, Jane Friedman's chart gives $25,000 as a rule of thumb for a hybrid with a print run, and full-service ghostwriting at Scribe starts at $56,000. Platform and timing weigh heavily on traditional publishing, because for nonfiction publishers want the author to bring the audience, and contracts usually give the publisher 12 to 18 months after accepting the manuscript. Bookstore placement weighs heavily for traditional publishing and against self-publishing, because only large publishers routinely sell books onto shelves. The judgment calls are ours, and we have tried to make them against our own interest where in doubt: full service loses points for authors who enjoy writing, who already have a draft, who want royalties to pay back the cost or who need the book within a year.