Publishing

Overview

Take a final manuscript into readers' hands. This skill fills the publishing metadata in story.md, writes the copyright page, builds and checks the ebook and print interior, walks the author through distribution, pricing, and launch, and keeps an inventory of the rights the author holds. Planning files live under publishing/ in the story project. The author makes every account, upload, purchase, payment, and signature; this skill prepares, checks, and records.

Prerequisites

A story project whose manuscript is final or nearly so. Verify story.md exists and read title, status, author or authors, genre, series, book-number, cover, and any publishing fields already set. If status is not complete, say that metadata and launch planning can start now but the files must be rebuilt after the last revision.

When to Use

Filling retailer metadata: ISBN, publisher, date, description, keywords, BISAC subjects, language, cover alt text, AI disclosure
Writing the copyright page or checking epigraph and lyric permissions
Building and checking the EPUB or the print interior; choosing trim size
Choosing retailers and exclusivity, setting prices, planning a launch
Recording rights, reviewing a contract offer, drafting a rights one-sheet
NOT for query letters, agent submission, synopsis, or blurb drafting (use submission; this skill reuses its blurb)
NOT for audiobook scripts, screenplays, translations, or other formats (use adaptation)
NOT for revising the manuscript (use revision-continuity)

Hard Rules

Never invent an ISBN, publisher or imprint name, publication date, price, review, endorsement, sales figure, award, or bestseller claim. Ask, or leave a [TODO: author to supply] placeholder.
Never assert current retailer specs, royalty rates, or fees as fact. They change. Give the working figure as a starting point and tell the author to check the retailer's current spec before relying on it.
Legal, tax, and contract matters are not legal or tax advice. Flag issues, explain why they matter, and recommend an agent, a publishing lawyer, an accountant, or an author organization's contract-vetting service.
Never create accounts, upload, buy, sign, or send. The author does.
ai-disclosure must say what actually happened. Ask the author how AI tools were used; never minimise it.

Workflow

1. Readiness

story validate .
story links .
story continuity .
story prose .
story wordcount . --write
story build . --format metadata

The metadata sheet lists every missing field in its readiness checklist. Report it with the validate findings. validate warns about permission: pending only once the story status is complete, and about a research note with a risk but no reviewed-by only when a final or complete chapter uses it, so also search the files directly before publication:

grep -l "permission: pending" matter/*.md
grep -l "^risk:" research/*.md

Report every pending permission, and every risky note without reviewed-by, whatever the chapter status. If story passes . shows unfinished revision passes, say so before production starts.

2. Metadata

Fill the story.md fields with references/metadata-checklist.md: isbn, publisher, publication-date, language, description, keywords, subjects, copyright, cover-alt, ai-disclosure, and authors for co-written books. Take the description from submission/blurb.md when it exists (the submission skill drafts it). Rebuild the sheet and repeat until the checklist is clean:

story validate .
story build . --format metadata

3. ISBNs and copyright page

Explain the ISBN choices in references/metadata-checklist.md: one ISBN per format and edition, who issues them in the author's country, and the trade-offs of a free retailer ISBN. Record the ebook or print ISBN the author supplies in isbn.
Create the copyright page and fill it from references/copyright-page.md:
```
story add matter "Copyright" --order 0
```
Use an order lower than every other front page so it sits first (behind the title page); story add matter otherwise takes the next free number. Set heading: false. Without this page, every build except Shunn generates a minimal one from copyright; write it by hand when the book needs credits, permissions, or a Library of Congress line.
For each epigraph, lyric, or quoted page in matter/, set permission (not-needed, pending, granted, public-domain), rights-holder, and credit. Quoting song lyrics almost always needs permission.

4. Ebook

story build . --format epub

The EPUB carries accessibility metadata, language, semantic chapter and matter markup, a landmarks nav, the cover with cover-alt, and the metadata fields. If the author has EPUBCheck or Ace by DAISY installed, run them on the file in dist/ (java -jar epubcheck.jar <file>.epub, ace <file>.epub) and fix errors before upload. Ask the author to open it in at least one reading app and in the retailer's previewer.

5. Print interior

Follow references/print-interior.md:

Choose the trim size with the author (5x8, 5.25x8, 5.5x8.5, 6x9, a5), then build:
```
story build . --format print --trim 6x9
```
Render the HTML to PDF with a paged-media engine the author has (pagedjs-cli, WeasyPrint, or Prince). The CLI bundles none.
Check the rendered PDF against the printer's file requirements; use its actual page count for the cover.
Tell the author to get the spine width and full cover wrap template from the printer's cover calculator, and to order a printed proof before release.

6. Distribution and pricing

Lay out the options in references/launch-plan.md: KDP, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital or another aggregator, and direct sales, plus the trade-off between exclusivity (KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited) and going wide. The author decides; record the choices in publishing/launch-plan.md. Discuss pricing with the considerations in the same reference, not a formula.

7. Retailer page copy

Draft into publishing/retailer-copy.md: a short description (the first two lines, which show before "read more"), the long description (checked against the metadata sheet's character count), series-page copy when series is set, and A+ or enhanced-content ideas (a comparison chart of series books, a character or map panel, a mood image with a quote). Follow ../submission/references/blurb.md for the copy itself. Copy the chosen long description into description.

8. Launch

Build publishing/launch-plan.md from the T-90 to T+30 timeline in references/launch-plan.md: ARC team, newsletter and reader magnet, street team, preorder, launch week, and paid ads with a test budget and stop rules. Update the plan as the author reports what happened; never fill in results they did not give you.

9. Rights and contracts

Keep publishing/rights.md from the inventory in references/rights-one-sheet.md: every right (print, ebook, audio, translation by language or territory, film and TV, and the rest), who holds it, the term, and the reversion terms.
When the author has a contract offer, read it against references/contract-red-flags.md and list each clause that matches a red flag with the question to ask. State that this is not legal advice and recommend a lawyer or agent before signing.
For rights the author wants to license, draft a one-sheet from references/rights-one-sheet.md.

Conventions

Planning files: publishing/launch-plan.md, publishing/retailer-copy.md, publishing/rights.md, publishing/one-sheet-{right}.md (for example publishing/one-sheet-audio.md).
Each file has YAML frontmatter with a type (launch-plan, retailer-copy, rights-inventory, rights-one-sheet) and updated: YYYY-MM-DD.
publishing/ is outside the story model: the CLI does not validate it and builds never include it. Build output in dist/ is disposable; rebuild it rather than editing it.
One story.md holds one edition's metadata. When the ebook and print ISBNs differ, record the one being built in isbn, set it before each build, and keep both in the copyright page and publishing/rights.md.
Dates are YYYY-MM-DD. Word counts come from story wordcount ..
After any manuscript change, rebuild every format and recheck page count and spine width before re-uploading.

CLI Maintenance

Use the Story CLI when it is available. If story is not installed, use bun run story -- from the Story Skills repository checkout or the bundled fallback node ../story-maintenance/scripts/story.js with the same arguments, resolving the path relative to this skill folder. If no CLI is available, fill the metadata by hand from references/metadata-checklist.md and tell the user that the EPUB, print, and metadata builds need the CLI.

After editing story.md metadata, adding matter pages, or changing the manuscript:

story reindex .
story wordcount . --write
story validate .
story build . --format metadata

Reference Files

references/metadata-checklist.md - Every publishing field, ISBN sources and trade-offs, keywords, BISAC subjects, descriptions, AI disclosure, and CIP or PCN notes
references/copyright-page.md - Copyright page template, optional lines, permissions credits, and legal deposit notes
references/print-interior.md - Trim size choice, page-count estimates, rendering to PDF, printer checks, cover wrap, and proofs
references/launch-plan.md - Distribution and exclusivity, pricing considerations, and the T-90 to T+30 launch timeline with ARCs, newsletter, and ad testing
references/contract-red-flags.md - Clause-by-clause red flags for publishing and rights contracts, and where to get a professional review
references/rights-one-sheet.md - Rights inventory template and one-sheets for foreign, audio, and film rights