We Help Modern Authors
Never Write Alone.
HOW OUR AWARD-WINNING
Modern Author Accelerator ™ Works
DESIGNED FOR
Our expertise lies in working one-on-one with you to develop, write, and launch a nonfiction book, novel, or memoir. We build a team of positioning coaches, editors, revision experts, and marketing specialists that help turn your insights and stories into a book that produces life-long ROI.
We help our writers design a book that elevates their profile and drives value to their business by helping you set up a system to create book content and activate your audience.
Let's Write a Category Defining Book Together
Category Defining Book rejects a current premise, conventional wisdom.
Professor Eric Koester is the only two-time entrepreneurship professor of the year at Georgetown University and was named 2020 National Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year for his innovative approach to authorship and book launches. He designed this experience to give authors a dedicated team of book professionals, and a book development system that has produced 279+ national book award winners since 2020.
Here's Your Dedicated Book Team
BOOK POSITIONING
Working with your Book Positioning Specialist. The #1 mistake we see with authors is trying to write “what’s in your head.” Two keys to positioning your book? 1) Unconventional Insight 2) Emotional Triggers. Exceptional books make people think and feel. This is what makes a book recommendable and makes it possible for you to define and own a category through your book.
MANUSCRIPT CREATION
Working with your Developmental Editor. Once you understand the architecture of the book, the creation process changes dramatically as a professional team of editors and specialists works with you to create content that fits into the structures of the book. We help you develop a process to capture, organize, structure, and write — a system of writing rituals that last well beyond the book.
AUDIENCE ACTIVATION
Working with your Launch Specialist.The biggest risk in a book? Missing the word-of-mouth flywheel. Great books are recommendable but to create the flywheel you’ll need to design a system to get the book into category and topic influencers. Our “audience activation” process leverages a powerful approach to involve fans, friends, and connection in the book development process turning them into word of mouth accelerants.
LAUNCH YOUR BOOK TOUR
Working with your Tour Team. Once your book is published and launched it’s time to plan your Book Tour. Our expert and experienced team will provide the training, support, and resources needed to execute a multi-city community-powered tour. This will be how we elevate your book into your personal brand. Your tour will lead to continued speaking engagements, networking, workshops, and much more.
Our Authors Have Been Profiled On
Stories of Our Authors
Nicole Bianchi’s bestselling book helped her become the top keynote speaker on bravery
Learn how Bloomberg television anchor Alisa Parenti developed her award-winning novel featuring Ethel Rosenberg
Hear how Nate Androsky’s book has landed his startup 7-figure clients
Morgan Wider Grown business, coaching, podcast & speaking through her book, A Worthy Wardrobe.
Articles
FAQs
It begins with an initial call to our team, then an in-depth positioning evaluation and consultation. We are searching for writers with unconventional ideas. We want to create opportunities for those who have different ideas. This does not mean writers who are not accepted do not have promising ideas. They are simply not a fit for our approach to develop a book and launch a tour.
If accepted into the Modern Author Accelerator program, writers work with a Book Positioning Specialist to develop the category and audience, as well as explore unconventional insights, emotional arcs, and overall book structure. These elements direct the book, and so it is critical to develop a healthy foundation to help architect a book capable of supporting a tour.
After the positioning phase, writers work for four months with a Developmental Editor. Many are intimidated by impostor syndrome, or are unsure if they can write enough content. Our process is unique in that we do not write the manuscript for the writer; we build the manuscript with the writer, and then turn that manuscript into a book.
Then we design a book tour launch to help sell hundreds of tickets in key audience regions. Most in the program will be able to launch a presale of their book within seven to eight months, and then launch a book tour six months later.
The experience usually lasts 11-14 months and authors typically debut in the top 1-2% of book sales in the first year.
Historically we have accepted 14% of writers who submitted to our launch program.
We look for writers with unconventional insight. If an idea is not ready initially, we help develop the concept, working with writers to make sure their book, their topic, and their audience are aligned. If we believe we cannot launch a book capable of supporting a tour, we will not accept the writer into the program.
No. That is part of the onboarding process. Writers in the program work with a team of specialists to define the book’s potential, beyond sales, including targeted audience and sharing insights. Positioning Specialists help craft the six elements of the architecture of the manuscript to make the process of creating books fun and efficient. Even if choosing not to proceed with the program, the topic call and positioning discussion will be transformative.
Yes, absolutely. This is our specialty. If you have started a book, whether brainstorming ideas or already have a nearly complete manuscript, we can help. We identify book potential, work with writers to consistently improve their writing, and design a structure for existing and new content. Most “stuck” writers have something decent on the page already, but it takes the right approach to extract, reframe, and build a system of healthy writing and editing practices.
We have experience working with fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, as well as fiction and poetry collections, among other types of books.
No. We are an author community that offers world-class support, including Book Positioning Specialists, Instructors, Coaches, Developmental Editors, Revisions Editors, Structural Editors, Copy Editors, and more.
We evaluate, instruct, develop, revise, and provide everything required to keep writers on track to publish unique books and launch successful tours.
This is a direct writing, publishing, and book-launching experience. We work with today’s top modern authors to create books in their own voice and to build their own audiences.
We have had hundreds approach us after failed ghostwriting experiences. Our writers are given the opportunity to craft insights, turn manuscripts into books, and activate audiences with the help of our editors.
Every author experience is unique. Our goal is to help create high quality books for the foreseeable future.
We build a team of professionals to help each unique writer with their book, offering support from book positioning specialists, editors of all kinds, marketing specialists, cover designers, layout artists, videographers, and various other services.
Some authors in the program may choose to involve members of their internal team, or hire additional talent to help with specializations, but nearly all our authors are able to leverage the resources available to develop, write, and launch a category-defining book in less than a year.
The author retains all rights. They can do anything they want with their book.
Along with retaining all rights, the author retains 100% of all royalties.
We utilize a service-based model wherein we are paid for providing the services necessary to help writers develop, complete, and launch category-defining books.
Results vary, but our author typically fall in the top 1-2% of sales in their category for the first year. Book sales are a valuable metric, but this program is designed for professionals who envision their book as a marketing tool rather than a profit center. The best way to make money on a book is to treat it as an investment that leads to other profitable opportunities. For coaches and consultants, this may be new clients. For entrepreneurs and executives, this may be more customers, investors, or partnerships. Part of the initial positioning exercise is to determine the most effective means of creating profitable opportunities.
Manuscripts, along with our imprint Manuscripts Press, is a publishing-services company.
Manuscripts helps writers develop, publish, and market their books. Founded by Eric Koester, a Georgetown professor and 2020 National Entrepreneurship Professor of the Year, Manuscripts has worked on thousands of books, including more than eighty National Book Award winners and finalists since 2021.
We are a certified B-corporation as of 2022, providing community-driven writing and publishing education through writing programs.
Not everyone is ready, but if a book is a goal, strategy, outcome, or in any other way on the radar, speak with us. We can at least provide the next steps to become “author ready.” If the program is not a good fit, we will say so.
