Crossroads Publishing Group
§ Engagements · How we work
Crossroads is organized around four engagement tiers. Each has a defined scope, a transparent price, and a clear relationship to the others. Most writers begin with Tier I or Tier II. Some come straight to Tier III with a manuscript ready to go. The Studio Retainer (Tier IV) is for continuing relationships and for authors whose engagement has rolled past its window.
Unlike most hybrid presses, editorial work is included in our publishing tier. Most hybrid models charge separately for editing on top of a production fee. At Crossroads, polish-level editing is included in Tier III. You pay one transparent price for the engagement, not a base fee plus editorial extras.
And after publication, you keep 80% of net royalties. Crossroads collects sales revenue from every channel through the imprint's accounts and pays 80% of net royalties to the author, accounted quarterly. No tier upcharges, no per-format adjustments, no opaque deductions.
All pricing below reflects founding-author rates locked through August 31, 2026. New pricing applies to engagements signed September 1 and after.
We read up to fifty pages of your writing (or your Substack archive), spend sixty minutes with you on video, and deliver a two-page written Reader's Report within five business days. The Report names what you've written, what it's becoming, what's working, what's missing, and the single highest-leverage next move. About four to five hours of editorial time total, delivered over roughly two weeks.
Credited in full toward any larger engagement signed within 60 days.
An eight-page editorial diagnostic. Names what the book is, what it wants to be, what it comps to, what is missing, what is keeping it from becoming itself, and what the next concrete move is. The deliverable is the document; the function is the decision-making instrument for the larger engagement.
Credited in full toward a Compile to Publish engagement signed within 60 days.
For manuscripts that are functionally finished and need polish, layout, design from one of three Crossroads house cover families, ISBN, metadata, and distribution through IngramSpark and Amazon. Six-month engagement. No structural revision included.
Includes everything required to publish under the Crossroads imprint as a real book — real ISBN we own, real distribution, real press release at publication, submission to trade reviewers and eligible awards, placement in our catalog.
A continuing relationship for authors who need ongoing editorial presence. Defined scope per month: five hours of editorial work (manuscript review, line editing, sample chapter feedback, query letter or synopsis polish, jacket-copy iteration) plus one 60-minute coaching and strategy call. Three-month minimum; month-to-month thereafter. Pause-able with two weeks' notice.
Use cases: post-engagement continuation, pre-engagement development for manuscripts that need work before a Compile to Publish engagement can begin, bridge for authors whose six-month engagement window has passed but the manuscript isn't yet delivered.
Crossroads coordinates a network of vetted partner specialists for clients who want a launch campaign that goes beyond the included infrastructure. Each partner service is transparently priced. Crossroads keeps a referral margin disclosed in the engagement contract; the rest goes to the partner. None of the services below are required.
Partner relationships are disclosed transparently in every engagement contract. We never promise sales results — the promise is the campaign infrastructure and the partner's process, not the outcome.
Some publishing services authors expect from a full-service press are not part of the current Crossroads offering. We say so plainly because over-promising is the disease of the hybrid publishing category.
What we add to this list shrinks as the press grows. For now: print, ebook, audiobook (partner-coordinated), and the editorial work that makes the book worth publishing.
Most authors begin with a free 20-minute discovery call. We talk about your book, what stage it's at, and which engagement (if any) is the right next move. There is no pressure to commit on the call.