Sample cover — replace with client asset
The Harbour Line
From$6.99
Author Branding
A consistent visual and verbal identity across everything with your name on it — because readers follow authors, not just books.
- Price From $890 starting from
- Typical timeline 4–6 weeks
Readers who like your book look for you, not your title. What they find should feel like it belongs to the same person.
Author branding builds that consistency. It starts with positioning: what you write, who for, and what someone gets from reading you that they do not get elsewhere. Most authors have never written this down, and the exercise of doing so is worth the fee on its own — it makes every subsequent decision easier.
From there we build the verbal identity: three biographies at different lengths (fifty words for a retailer page, a hundred and fifty for a website, three hundred for a press kit), a one-line description you can say out loud without wincing, and a set of talking points for interviews and events.
Then the visual identity: a typographic treatment of your name, a colour palette that works with your covers rather than fighting them, social profile and header templates, and a photography brief you can hand to any photographer.
You get a brand kit — the files, the templates and a short guide explaining how to use them. It is designed so that book two, three and four all feel like they came from the same author, without you having to redesign anything each time.
What you receive
Deliverables
Exactly what lands in your inbox, listed the same way it appears in your written scope.
- Positioning statement and audience definition
- Author biographies at 50, 150 and 300 words
- One-line description and interview talking points
- Typographic treatment of your author name
- Colour palette coordinated with your book covers
- Social profile, header and post templates
- Author photography brief
- Brand guide with usage notes
What we need from you
Requirements
Having these ready before we start is what keeps the timeline honest.
- Your published or forthcoming covers, for visual coordination
- An hour for the discovery session
- Any existing biography, photographs or materials you already use
Production timelines are estimates. Actual schedules vary with manuscript length, revision rounds, author response time and third-party retailer processing.
How it works
Author Branding, stage by stage
-
1
Discovery session
A structured conversation about your work, your readers and what you want to be known for.
-
2
Positioning
We draft and refine the positioning statement with you until it sounds like you rather than like marketing.
-
3
Verbal identity
Biographies and talking points written, then edited with you until you would happily read them aloud.
-
4
Visual identity
Name treatment, palette and templates designed against your existing covers.
-
5
Brand kit handover
All files, templates and the usage guide delivered together.
Examples
Browse the bookstore
Books this service has shaped
Sample catalog titles. Replace with a real portfolio of work you have permission to show before launch.
Sample cover — replace with client asset
The Second Tide
From$6.99
Sample cover — replace with client asset
The Evidence Gap
From$9.99
Sample cover — replace with client asset
Decision Debt
From$11.99
Cheaper as part of a package
Packages that commonly include author branding
If you need several services, a package is usually less than buying them individually.
Signature
Full production with a supported launch
Authors treating the book as a serious project — a developmental edit before the copyedit, a designed launch, and marketing activity in the weeks around publication.
From
$6,900
Placeholder price. $1,500 reserves your slot; balance invoiced against milestones.
- Developmental edit with a written structural report
- Editorial consultation call to discuss the report
- Cover design phase with unlimited concept exploration
- Category and comparable-title research pack
- Paperback, Hardcover with dust jacket, Reflowable eBook (EPUB) for major reading apps, Large-print paperback edition set up on request
- Up to four ISBNs assigned across editions
- Global print-on-demand across our full fulfilment network
- Timeline: 24–34 weeks from manuscript handover, depending on your revision time
Laureate
Our most complete publishing program
Authors publishing at the highest production standard — illustrated or complex books, audiobook and translation-ready assets, an author website, and a full year of marketing support.
From
$12,500
Placeholder price. $2,500 reserves your slot; balance invoiced against milestones.
- Manuscript assessment before any work is scoped
- Developmental edit with a written report and two consultation calls
- Cover design phase with unlimited exploration and photography direction
- Bespoke interior design for complex, illustrated or colour layouts
- Paperback and hardcover, Colour or premium-stock print run quoted separately, Reflowable eBook and fixed-layout eBook where the design requires it, Audiobook produced with a professional narrator, Print-ready assets prepared for translation licensing
- ISBNs assigned across every edition and format
- Global print-on-demand plus offset print coordination where suitable
- Timeline: 9–15 months from manuscript handover, scoped precisely after review
If you intend to write more, yes — the work is reusable and gets cheaper per book over time. If this is genuinely a single book, the biography set and photography brief are the parts that earn their keep, and we can scope down to those.
Most authors do not. A typographic treatment of your name is usually stronger and ages better than a symbol. We will tell you if your case is one of the exceptions.
We do not shoot photography ourselves. We write you a brief covering framing, lighting, wardrobe and mood, which you take to a local photographer. That gets a better result than a distant studio and usually costs less.
Often bought together
All services
Related services
Websites
Author Website Development
A fast, accessible website you own outright — with the mailing list that is the only audience nobody can take away.
Marketing
Social Media Marketing
A sustainable content plan and designed assets for the platforms where your readers actually are — not all of them.
Marketing
Book Marketing
A defined 90-day campaign of listing optimization, reader outreach and launch assets, reported on activity delivered.
Talk it through
Not sure whether you need author branding?
Send us the manuscript. If this is not the service that would help your book most, we will tell you which one is.
Your manuscript stays confidential. We claim no rights in your work at any stage.