by Giovanni Casali, editorial coordinator
People looking for help writing a book usually already have the hardest part: the story.
It always starts with a free, no-obligation consultation, by phone or video call: you tell us about the project and we tell you frankly whether and how it can be done. The rest depends on how far you have got with your book.
If you only need a direction, there is the consultation: €150 an hour.
If you need a method, you will find it on the page "How to write a book".
Then we write the book, and it stays yours. It is called ghostwriting: you tell, we write.
1. The free consultation and the quote.
2. The contract, which sets out what we deliver, when and at what price. The confidentiality agreement is signed together with the contract.
3. The working interviews, recorded only with your consent. You decide what goes into the book.
4. The writing, chapter by chapter, in your voice. You receive the chapters as they are ready and approve them one by one. One round of changes is included for each chapter; if more are needed, we talk it over together.
5. The delivery: the manuscript ready to submit to a publisher or, with the publishing package, the finished book on sale.
The book is entirely yours: name, rights and proceeds. Our name appears nowhere. What you entrust to us (photos, documents, diaries) stays confidential and comes back to you when the work is done.
Nothing gets thrown away: we do editing or rewriting. After the free consultation, the first job is the assessment of the material you already have, with a written report and an outline. It costs €300, deducted if the work continues with us. The price of the editing or rewriting is set after the assessment, because it depends on how much text there already is.
For those who have already finished their book and want to publish it there is a separate page: "I have written a book: what now?".
| First consultation | free |
| Consultation | €150 an hour |
| Assessment of the material, with written report and outline | €300, deducted if the work continues |
| Editing or rewriting of a text already started | quoted after the assessment |
| Short story or short project | from €2,500 |
| Biography or memoir, short format (under 100 pages) | from €3,500 |
| Biography or memoir, full format | from €6,000 |
| Manual, essay or business book | from €7,000 |
| Novel | from €9,000 |
| Publishing package (cover, layout, EPUB, stores), always separate | from €1,500 |
You pay in stages as the work progresses, never everything in advance: you always know what you are paying for and what you receive. The quote comes after the consultation or, if you already have some pages, after the assessment. To understand what the price depends on, read the page "How much does it cost to have a book written?".
No: we bring the right questions.
No: everything is done by phone or video call, wherever you are.
We go over it together: one round of changes is included for each chapter.
Yes, and you choose the route. If you publish the book on Amazon, you can order the copies you need by paying the printing cost and shipping, but the book stays on sale to everyone. If instead you want it only for the family, we prepare an exact quote and you have the copies printed at a print shop. The cost depends on pages, paper, colour and number of copies; if you don't put the book on sale, you don't even need an ISBN.
Usually 3 to 6 months.
Write us a few lines about your project: Giovanni Casali, editorial coordinator, will reply.
He handles the first consultation, the choice of the right writer and the direction of the project, from the quote to delivery.
info@dualpenbooks.com
Giovanni Casali, editorial coordinator, will reply.
Want to get a sense of how we write first? Read a few excerpts.