Written by Leanpub’s Founder

Your Book in 3 to 5 Weeks, for 2 to 8 Hours of Your Time.

A shipped book, not just a manuscript — written from the material you already have and one recorded conversation, by Peter Armstrong, the founder of Leanpub, with Claude Code running the GhostAI skills built at Leanpub for exactly this kind of book. Published under your name on Leanpub and Amazon, in print and on Kindle, launched on Leanpub’s homepage, and followed by a course, three translations and an audiobook. It starts with a half-hour call.

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Leanpub

Everything I Know About Pricing

by You

The service

For people whose book already exists, in pieces

You have given the talks. The articles ran. The decks, the proposals, the case studies and the website copy all say the same things, in your words, to one room at a time. The book is already written; it is just not a book yet.

The Authority Book is for exactly that case. We take everything that exists, one recorded conversation with you so the book sounds like you, and a line back from your team whenever a chapter needs a fact only you know — and we deliver a finished, published book: edited, designed, typeset, in print and on Kindle, under your name. Nothing is left for you to arrange afterward.

It is the fastest rung of our ghostwriting ladder, and the one that asks the least of you: about two hours, or up to eight if you want more conversations. Peter Armstrong, the founder of Leanpub, writes it — one book at a time.

The definitive book on what you do is still unwritten. Everything it needs is already in your decks and your articles. Give us those, and one conversation.

How it works

You send what exists. We write. You react once. It ships.

Send us what exists. Drafts, notes, articles, decks, proposals, case studies, website copy, anything you have written or said on the record, and any recording of you speaking — ideally all of it, in advance, so we can read it and prepare the questions. Your assistant can do this part; most of it happens once, at the start.
One recorded conversation. 60 to 90 minutes with Peter Armstrong. It is there so the book sounds like you; everything else comes from your material and from your team. If you want to discuss the book in more depth, add up to three more calls of up to 90 minutes each, booked around your travel, at no extra cost. Your choice, not a requirement.
We write the whole book. Peter writes and edits every chapter — typing, dictating, and running Claude Code with the GhostAI writing skills built at Leanpub for exactly this kind of book, on Markdown files on one computer — with Len Epp as development editor and Peter’s assistant as copy editor. The first version arrives within 3 weeks of the interview: not a chapter or two, but as much of the book as we can complete, very likely the entire first draft.
You react once. We finish. You sign off. One set of comments on the first version; the final revisions come back within a week. The cover, the interior and the print files are produced in parallel with the writing, so one sign-off covers the manuscript, the print layout and the cover. The book is live on Leanpub within a day of that sign-off, and on Amazon within three.

You choose whether to ship with a colophon — “How this book was made” — disclosing the method: your material and your recorded words, written and edited by a named writer with Claude Code and the GhostAI skills, approved by you. Ghostwriting has always been confidential by default; disclosure is entirely your call.

What we never do is ship words you haven’t approved. Nothing publishes until you sign off.

The schedule

Five weeks to the book, counted from the interview

Here is an example, counted in days from booking. Two of the clocks run on your side — your comments on the first draft, and your sign-off — and everything else is ours to keep.

When	What happens
Day 0	Booking: the first payment holds the start date, and your team sends us the material.
Day 3	The recorded conversation. This starts the three-week clock.
By day 24	The first draft is delivered: very likely the entire book, with the cover and the print layout underway in parallel.
Day 31	You accept the first draft and send one set of comments. This starts the one-week clock, and the second payment is due now.
By day 38	The finished book is submitted for your final sign-off: manuscript, print layout and cover, in one approval.
Sign-off + 1 day	Live on Leanpub.
Sign-off + 3 days	Live on Amazon. Amazon can take up to three days to approve a submission; it is usually about a day.
Sign-off + 3 weeks	The audiobook, the course, and the French, German and Spanish editions, all completed for your approval — with any course interviews inside that window. The final payment is due on delivery.

If your feedback on the first draft arrives within a week, the finished book is in front of you for sign-off inside five weeks. If you want the course interviews but don’t have the time for them in that window, we delay the course rather than skip them.

What's included

One Price. Everything Included.

One edition, with everything in it: the book, its launch, the course, the translations and the audiobook. Paid in three parts — half at booking, a quarter when you accept the first draft, and the rest when everything else is delivered.

Written by Leanpub’s founder

The Authority Book

A shipped book, not just a manuscript — written and edited by Peter Armstrong from your material and one recorded conversation, published under your name on Leanpub and Amazon, launched on Leanpub’s homepage with a podcast episode and a launch video, and followed by an online course, French, German and Spanish editions, and an audiobook. Nothing is left for you to arrange afterward.

$36,000USD all-in

$18,000 at booking, before the interview, which holds the start date; $9,000 when you accept the first draft; $9,000 on delivery of the course, the translations and the audiobook.

Book a half-hour call

A shipped book: edited, designed, typeset and published — nothing left for you to arrange
Written and edited chapter by chapter by Peter Armstrong, with Len Epp as development editor, Peter’s assistant as copy editor, and Claude Code running the GhostAI skills
The English edition on Leanpub and on amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de and every other Amazon regional site KDP supports — as a Kindle edition, a paperback and a hardcover where Amazon supports it
Published under your name; you own the completed book and keep the copyright
100 paperbacks and 10 hardcovers printed and sent to you; more author copies at any time at Amazon’s author-copy cost
The first version within 3 weeks of the interview; final revisions within 1 week of your feedback
A Shelf Spot on Leanpub’s homepage for a month at launch, with the book promoted in one weekly newsletter (sent to about 90,000 people) and one monthly newsletter (sent to about 130,000 people)
An episode of the Leanpub Podcast, hosted by Len Epp, and a Leanpub Launch video for your book’s landing page
The book converted into an online course on Leanpub, with course interviews if you want them
French, German and Spanish editions, each a Kindle and print edition with its own cover in that language, for sale on Leanpub and Amazon
An English audiobook in our AI narration, built on the ElevenLabs platform, on Leanpub
The course, the translations and the audiobook all completed for your approval within 3 weeks of the final sign-off on the English edition — each optional; skip any of them
About 2 hours of your time, up to 8 if you want more conversations — zero writing

Invoiced in US dollars by Ruboss Technology Corporation, the company that owns and operates Leanpub — payable by bank transfer or card, and a purchase order is fine. Prices exclude VAT and sales tax; the FAQ below covers the UK reverse charge.

Peter takes on one Authority Book at a time, so the schedule above is the schedule. Ask on the call when the next slot starts.

For calibration: a human ghostwriter asks for thirty to fifty hours of your time and the better part of a year, and most hand you a manuscript with the editing, design and publishing still to arrange. The Authority Book asks for about two hours, and ends with the book shipped.

These are Leanpub books — the same store that has been publishing developer books for 15 years. We decline books we don’t believe in; everything we accept goes on the shelf next to them.

Amazon and royalties

Your name, your copyright, your royalties

You keep the copyright. The book is published under your name, on Leanpub and on Amazon.
You choose who publishes on Amazon. We can publish it for you through our Amazon KDP account, as a concierge service, or you can publish it yourself through your own account; we provide the print-ready files either way. We have no preference.
If we publish it on Amazon for you, we pay you 80% of what Amazon pays us. If you publish it yourself, Amazon pays you directly and we are not involved.
On Leanpub, you earn 80% royalties on sales of $7.99 and up, and 80% minus 50 cents on sales below $7.99, the same as every Leanpub author.
Audiobooks on Amazon are sold through a separate service, Audible, which does not take outside audio. Amazon offers its own Virtual Voice narration on some Kindle books; we cannot promise Amazon will offer it for yours, but if it does and you want it, we enable it at no extra cost. It is Amazon’s narration, labelled as such.

Your time

About two hours. Up to eight, if you want them.

One recorded conversation is enough: it is there so the book sounds like you. Everything else comes from your material and from your team. Here is the entire budget:

What	Your time
The half-hour call that starts it	30 minutes
The recorded conversation with Peter — so the book sounds like you	60–90 minutes
Up to three more calls, if you want to discuss the book in more depth — optional, booked around your travel, at no extra cost	Up to 90 minutes each
Reviewing and reacting to the first version	30–90 minutes
Signing off the final version	30 minutes
Total	About 2 hours; up to 8 with the extra calls

Our promise:
“You get a shipped book, under your name, in print and on Kindle, in 3 to 5 weeks — for about two hours of your time, and zero writing.”

The extra calls are your choice, not a requirement, and they won’t change the schedule as long as they happen within the first two weeks.

Your team’s part

Smaller than any ghostwriter would ask of you

Send us what exists. Drafts, notes, articles, decks, proposals, case studies, website copy, anything the author has written or said on the record, and any recording of the author speaking. Most of it once, at the start.
Book the interview. One recorded conversation of 60 to 90 minutes, plus up to three optional calls if the author wants them.
Two rounds of comments, on the first version and on the revised one, each as one set. If a chapter needs a fact only the author knows, we send you one question, and a line back is enough.
Everything else is on our side. When the book ships, it is finished; if the author ever wants a change, send it to us and we publish the new version.

Who does the work

One writer. One book at a time.

Peter Armstrong is the lead writer. Peter wrote Flexible Rails (initially self-published, before being picked up by Manning) and then Hello! Flex 4 for Manning, and founded Leanpub, where we have published books for over 16 years.
Len Epp, Leanpub’s co-founder, is the development editor. Len has a DPhil in English from Oxford, was an investment banker before Leanpub, and hosts the Leanpub Podcast. Len also conducts the podcast and launch-video interviews — and already knows the book by then.
Peter’s assistant is the copy editor.
The process is both manual writing (typing, or dictating with Wispr Flow) and AI tooling: Claude Code, running the GhostAI writing skills built at Leanpub for exactly this kind of book, on Markdown files on one computer, to produce the first draft. Every chapter is then edited by Peter, Len and the copy editor before you see it.

Frequently asked questions

FAQs

Can my assistant run this for me?

Yes — it is designed for that. Everything apart from the recorded conversation and your two reactions (one to the first version, one to sign off) can come from your assistant or your team: the material, the booking, the comments, and the one-line answers when a chapter needs a fact only you know. It is smaller than anything a ghostwriter would normally ask of your office, and most of it happens once, at the start.

Do I approve everything?

Yes. The first draft arrives within three weeks of the interview — very likely the entire book, not a chapter or two — and you send one set of comments. The final revisions come back within a week for one sign-off that covers the manuscript, the print layout and the cover, because they are produced in parallel. The course, the translations and the audiobook then come to you for approval too. Nothing publishes until you’ve signed off.

Who owns it?

You do. Copyright and royalties. The book publishes under your name — on the Leanpub store and on Amazon.

How do I pay?

In three parts. $18,000 at booking, before the interview, which holds the start date. $9,000 when you accept the first draft — before the course, the translations and the audiobook are made. $9,000 on delivery of those. The invoices come from Ruboss Technology Corporation, the company that owns and operates Leanpub, in US dollars, payable by bank transfer or card; a purchase order is fine, and the bank details are on the invoice.

What about VAT?

Prices exclude VAT and sales tax. Leanpub is established in Canada, so for a VAT-registered business in the UK or the EU this service comes under the reverse charge: we don’t add VAT to the invoice, and your company accounts for it on its own return — which nets to zero for a fully taxable business, so the amount you pay is the amount quoted. The invoice carries the reverse-charge note and your VAT number, so we’ll need your company’s VAT registration number before invoicing. (We are registered for VAT in the UK and the EU for our online store, and those numbers may appear on the invoice; that doesn’t change the above.) Elsewhere, or if your business isn’t VAT-registered, we’ll tell you on the call how the invoice is taxed.

Can my company pay for it?

Of course — company-sponsored books are welcome. We support card, invoice, PO, and wire, and we’ll work with your procurement process.

Isn’t this AI slop?

No — this is ghostwriting, with the founder of Leanpub as the writer. Business books have been ghostwritten for as long as there have been business books: Lee Iacocca’s autobiography — the defining CEO bestseller — was written with William Novak, and David Goggins wrote Can’t Hurt Me with Adam Skolnick. We do it proudly — and honestly: the great literary memoirs take hundreds of interview hours and years of writing, and we’re not claiming that. We’re claiming a sharp, polished, professional book in your voice, in 3 to 5 weeks. Slop is undisclosed, unaccountable generation. This is the opposite: written from your own material and your own recorded words, by a named writer who edits every chapter — typing, dictating, and running Claude Code with the GhostAI skills built at Leanpub for exactly this — then a development editor and a copy editor, then you, before anything publishes.

What if I want to change something after it ships?

When the book ships, it is finished. If you ever want a change, send it to us and we publish the new version — on Leanpub and on Amazon.

How is it different from the other rungs?

The Expert Book ($24,000) is the productized rung: a professional Leanpub editor runs it from one deep interview, and it publishes in 60 days. The Founder Book ($27,000) is that book scheduled around a startup’s date, on startup terms. The Executive Book ($72,000) is the deep partnership: three to five interviews with a Leanpub founder on a bigger book, published in 90 days. The Authority Book is for when the material already exists: Peter Armstrong writes it from your articles, decks and talks and one conversation, in 3 to 5 weeks, for about two hours of your time — and it ships with the launch, a course, three translations and an audiobook included.

It starts with a half-hour call

Thirty minutes with Peter Armstrong, the founder of Leanpub. We talk through what already exists — the articles, the decks, the talks — and what the book could be. If we don’t believe there’s a book in it, we will say so right on the call. Peter takes on one Authority Book at a time, so ask when the next slot starts.

Ask on the call and we’ll send a short demo book, laid out the way yours will be: a PDF at the print size and an EPUB for Kindle or Apple Books, made with Leanpub’s own tools. Like any printed book, each chapter starts on a right-hand page, so the PDF has the occasional blank page on purpose.