For authors
Publish with Eighty20.
We publish a few business books a year for leaders who have something worth saying and a company that proves it. You keep the rights, the royalties, and your name on the spine. We bring the standard, the bench, and the engine.
Who it is for
You run something.
A company, a division, a P&L. You have a method that produced results you can show — margin, growth, a turnaround, a sale. You want a book that carries your authority into rooms you are not in: with investors, boards, customers, recruits, the next company. You do not want to learn publishing, and you do not want a vanity press with your logo on it.
Our authors look like the people we coach: CEOs and owners of middle-market companies, private-equity operating partners, and the functional leaders — sales, operations, finance — whose method is the reason the company works.
The model
Author-owned. Selective.
Eighty20 is author-owned publishing. You fund the production and the launch. You own the book and every dollar it earns — we take no royalty and no percentage. What you get is the house: a standard the trade will not hold to, a bench that has built the shelf you see here, and a launch engine that is already running when your book ships.
We put the imprint's name on a handful of books a year. We say no more often than yes, and we say it within two weeks.
What we bring to market
Everything between the idea and the reader. In order.
Editorial
Developmental edit, line edit, proof. Structure a CEO can read on a plane and act on at the office. If the manuscript is not written yet, a writing collaborator who has built books with operators before.
The house standard
6 × 9 trim. A black interior set for reading, in Palatino. An index — every book. Figures listed at the back. Front matter in agreement with the rest of the shelf. The cover built as a system, so the second book fits beside the first.
The Field Guide
A companion workbook with every instrument from the book: letter-size, fillable, with a facilitator's guide for running it with a team. The book teaches; the guide does. It ships the same day, with its own listing and its own ISBN.
Production and distribution
ISBNs from the imprint's block. Library of Congress control number and copyright registration before publication. Paperback, hardcover, ebook and audio through Amazon KDP and IngramSpark — print-on-demand worldwide, never out of stock. Author Central, A+ content, categories and keywords set.
The launch engine
An advance-reader list four weeks ahead. Amazon advertising built to a playbook with a cost ceiling you set. A ten-episode podcast season around the book. A webinar. Six LinkedIn posts, three emails, the bulk-order path for boards and portfolio companies. Campaigns loaded before launch day, not after.
What comes after
A book is the front door to something. A keynote, a workshop, a course, an advisory practice, a next act. We build the book's page and the path from the last chapter to the first conversation — the offer, the email capture, the program it feeds.
How it works
Eight steps. No surprises.
The schedule is written down before we start. Nothing ships until it passes the gate.
Inquire
Five lines: the book, the reader, the results behind it, the business it feeds, where the manuscript stands.
The call
An hour with Bill. The book, the reader, the method, the numbers. What the book is for and what it is not.
Yes or no, in two weeks
We publish few titles. If it is a no, we will tell you why and, where we can, where to go instead.
The plan and the terms
Scope, schedule, cost, the launch budget, who does what. In writing. You own the book throughout.
The manuscript
Yours, or written with our bench. Developmental edit, line edit, the author's revision. The Field Guide is built alongside, from the instruments in the book.
The build
Interior, cover system, Field Guide, registrations, the print and ebook files, a physical proof in your hands.
The gate
Text approved. ISBNs, Library of Congress, copyright. Amazon page built. Reviewers reading. Season recorded. Ads loaded and paused. Bulk path live. Then — and only then — it ships.
Launch, then the long tail
Reviews, the season, the webinar, the ads. Then the years after, when a CEO who has never heard of you searches for the problem you solved and finds the book.
What we look for
A method, and the numbers behind it.
- Business nonfiction — leadership, operations, strategy, sales, finance, the private-equity operating world. A fable qualifies if it carries a method.
- A practitioner author — you ran it, you did not study it. Operator authority is the whole premise of the house.
- Results you can show — the company, the number, the before and after. We will ask.
- A reader who will use it — an owner, a CEO, an operator, a board. Not "everyone."
- A business the book feeds — a practice, a program, a keynote, a next act. A book with nowhere to send the reader is a brochure.
What we do not publish
The honest list.
- Memoir without a method.
- Fiction, other than a business fable that teaches.
- Claims we cannot verify, and results we cannot see.
- Books the author does not intend to stand behind in public.
- Anything we would not put on our own shelf.
Questions
Asked before. Answered here.
Do I need a finished manuscript?
No. You need a method that worked, the results behind it, and the willingness to put both on the page. Some authors arrive with a finished draft; most arrive with an outline, a stack of talks, and a company. Either works. What does not work is an idea with no evidence behind it.
Who owns the book?
You do. Rights, royalties, the manuscript, the files. Eighty20 is author-owned publishing: you fund the production and the launch, and every dollar the book earns is yours. The imprint's name goes on the spine because we would put the book on our own shelf — and we only do that for books we would.
What does it cost?
Expect what a serious business book costs to produce well — editorial, design, production, registrations — plus a launch budget you set with our playbook. We quote after the call, in writing, with nothing hidden in the back half. We do not take a percentage of your sales.
How long does it take?
From a working manuscript to a book in hand: months, not years, and the schedule is written down before we start. From an outline, longer, and the writing sets the pace. Nothing ships until it clears the promotion-ready gate — text approved, registrations done, the Amazon page built, the reviewers reading, the engine loaded.
Can I sell direct and in bulk?
Yes, and you should. The bulk path — boards, portfolio companies, leadership teams, one for every manager — is built into every launch, with tiers on the book's page and author copies priced for the orders you hand-deliver. Trade sales go through Amazon and IngramSpark, so any bookseller or library can order.
What about audio?
An audiobook edition is part of the plan for every title. Narrated by the author where the author can carry it; produced and distributed to the audio retailers on the same ISBN block as the print and ebook editions.
Do you publish fiction, memoir, or general nonfiction?
No. Business nonfiction by practitioners — leadership, operations, strategy, sales, finance, the private-equity operating world. A business fable qualifies if it carries a method; ours does.
Inquire
Tell us in five lines.
What it is, who it is for, and the results behind it. We answer within two weeks.
Prefer email? bill@the8020institute.com