How we publish
Two lanes. No blurred lines.
A great many authors have been hurt by publishers who let them believe they had been chosen when in fact they had been sold to. We run both models on purpose — and we put in writing which one you are in before any money or manuscript moves.
Lane one
Selective / traditional
The prestige lane, and a small one. We acquire very few titles a year because the imprint's name is only worth what the weakest book on the list is worth.
- We pay every production cost — editing, cover, interior, ISBN, distribution.
- We license the rights for a defined term, with a reversion clause, so the book comes back to you if we stop doing our job.
- Royalties are paid on a stated schedule with statements you can audit.
- Two to four titles a year, maximum.
If we say yes to your book in this lane, you pay us nothing. Ever. That is what the word means.
Lane two
Author services
For authors who want their book made properly and want to keep control of it. You commission the work; the book stays yours.
- You keep your rights. Copyright stays in your name.
- You keep your royalties from the retail channels.
- Substantive and line editing by working editors — not a spell-check pass.
- Cover design, typeset interior, ISBN, and distribution setup across Amazon KDP, IngramSpark and Draft2Digital.
- Promotion on the network: on-air interview slots, app features and newsletter placement.
Packages are quoted in writing, itemised, before you commit — see below.
What's included
The deliverables, item by item.
Whichever lane your book is in, this is the work a title gets before it carries the imprint's name.
Making the book
- Substantive and line editing by working editors
- A professional proofread — a separate pass, separate eyes
- Cover and full jacket design
- Interior typesetting to trade-book standards, print and ebook
- Print-ready files and retail-ready ebook files
Getting it into the world
- ISBNs registered per format, imprint as publisher of record
- Retail metadata, categories and keywords set up properly
- Amazon print and Kindle editions
- IngramSpark distribution — orderable by tens of thousands of bookstores and libraries
- Wide ebook retailers via Draft2Digital, plus OBN direct sales
- Network promotion: on-air interview opportunities, app features, newsletter placement
The process
How a book moves through the house.
This is the same pipeline our own first title is being produced with — documented step by step, because it is both the proof and the standard every later book is held to.
- The read
We read the manuscript against two things: whether it is well made, and whether it sits inside OBN's Statement of Faith and Creator Guidelines. You get an honest answer — and in the services lane, a written itemised quote.
- Editing
Substantive and line editing with you in the loop — you see and approve what changes. If the manuscript needs more work first, we say so before money moves.
- Design
Cover and jacket, then the interior: typesetting, chapter openers, running heads, front and back matter — the craft that makes a book feel published.
- Proofs
A physical proof in your hands and a final proofread. Nothing goes to press that you have not held.
- Registration and setup
ISBNs, retail metadata, pricing agreed with you, and distribution accounts configured across print and ebook.
- Release — with the network behind it
The launch is scheduled on the network, the book appears on this site and in the OBN apps, and the announcement goes out through the newsletter. Then the book stays available everywhere, permanently.
What it costs
Every package is quoted in writing, itemised, with nothing implied.
We publish what is in each tier here rather than a price list, for one honest reason: a real quote depends on the state of your manuscript. A finished, well-edited book and a promising first draft need very different work, and pretending otherwise is how authors end up paying for a package that did not fit them.
Ask for a quote and you will get a written breakdown — line by line, what is included, what is not, and what it costs — before you are asked for anything.
What we will never do
- Promise you sales, a bestseller list, or a number of copies.
- Take rights you did not intend to give us.
- Publish a manuscript that is not ready, because you offered to pay for it.
- Quote you a price that later grows fees you were not told about.
We hold ourselves to the Independent Book Publishers Association's criteria for hybrid publishers. If we ever fall short of them, we would rather you told us than told everyone else.
What we look for
The manuscript has to be good. It also has to belong here.
OBN Publishing is the imprint of a Christian broadcast network, and a book we publish carries the network's name into places we cannot follow it. So every manuscript is read against two things at once: whether it is well made, and whether it sits inside OBN's Statement of Faith and Creator Guidelines.
That is not a narrow filter on subject matter. We are interested in books on faith, leadership, family, business, recovery, history and craft. It is a filter on what the book is finally saying, and on whether we can stand behind it in front of an audience that trusts us.
A no from us is not a verdict on your book. It is often a verdict on our own list, our capacity that year, or the fit. We try to say so plainly rather than hide behind silence.