Questions, answered plainly.

No, and we ask you to read this one carefully. Cricket Hollow Press sells editorial, design, and publishing-setup services. We do not sell a guarantee of publication, distribution, reviews, rankings, or sales. Whether a book goes live depends on your timely approvals, on the manuscript meeting the content policies of retailers such as Amazon KDP and IngramSpark, and on your account with those retailers remaining in good standing. We may also decline a project at any stage if we conclude, in our professional judgment, that we cannot stand behind the book; if we do, you are billed only for work completed and any unused payment is returned.

You do. Your manuscript is your copyright under United States law from the moment you write it, and nothing we do changes that. Cricket Hollow Press takes no ownership, license, or option on your work, and no share of your royalties. When your invoice is paid in full, the cover design and formatted interior files we create for your book are yours to use for that book, in any edition, forever. We retain the right to show the cover and the title in our portfolio and to keep our own working files. Stock images, fonts, and illustrations used in your cover are licensed for your book under their own terms and are not transferable to other projects.

The review covers the first 50 pages of your manuscript and a one-page synopsis or chapter map; short books such as poetry collections and gift books may be sent in full. That is the standard sample used across the industry, and it is enough to assess voice, opening, structure, and the habits that run through the whole book. A full-manuscript evaluation is a separate service quoted after the review. Turnaround is five business days, starting on the first business day after we have received both the $295 fee and a readable file. The review is a written professional opinion, not a promise about how the book will perform, and not a legal review of its contents. It is delivered by email, followed by one thirty-minute call to be scheduled within 30 days of delivery.

You receive each cover concept and each interior proof by email, and you have seven calendar days to respond with either written approval or consolidated revision notes. Foundation includes one cover concept and up to three revision rounds; Boutique includes two cover concepts and up to three revision rounds on the chosen concept. Additional rounds are billed at $100 per round. If we do not hear from you within seven days we will send one reminder; after seven further days of silence the project is paused. Once you approve the final cover and interior in writing, any later changes are billed at $100 per hour, and any change made after the book is live may also incur retailer fees.

The Manuscript Review is $295, paid in full through Stripe to schedule your review, and is non-refundable once the read has begun. Boutique and Foundation are paid in two halves: the first invoiced when the Service Agreement is signed, which holds your place on the schedule and starts the work; the second due before the final files are released and the book goes live. Package payments secure your place on our schedule and are non-refundable except as described in the first question. If you cancel mid-project, you owe payment for all work completed to date, pro-rated by stage, and you receive the work product for the stages you have paid for. The $295 review credit applies to a package begun within 90 days of the review's delivery. The PDF guides are delivered immediately and are not refundable. Prices are in U.S. dollars and may change for future projects, never for a signed agreement.

By sending us a manuscript you confirm that it is your original work or that you hold the rights to every part of it, including quotations, song lyrics, photographs, letters written by other people, and recipes or material drawn from other sources; that it does not defame any person or invade anyone's privacy; and that publishing it will not break any law or agreement you have signed. Cricket Hollow Press does not provide legal review, fact-checking, permissions clearance, or libel reading, and our editorial notes are not legal advice. You agree to cover any claim brought against the press that arises from the content of your book. If you are unsure about any of this, please speak to a Florida attorney before we begin; we are glad to wait.

Yours, unless we agree otherwise in writing. Our standard practice is to set up your book in your own Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, and Draft2Digital accounts, working with you by screen-share so you never have to give us your passwords. Together those three put a book on Amazon, on order at bookstores, in every major ebook store, and in library catalogs, at no platform cost. The retailers pay every royalty directly to you; Cricket Hollow Press never holds or handles your sales income. If you would rather we publish your book under the Cricket Hollow imprint and in our accounts, that is a separate Distribution Agreement with its own written terms, including how and when royalties are passed through to you and what we are permitted to spend on marketing. We offer it only for books we have chosen to champion, and it is never a condition of any package.

You have two options and we will help you choose. If you buy your own ISBNs from Bowker, you or your own imprint name are the publisher of record, which gives you the most independence. If you prefer, we can assign a Cricket Hollow Press ISBN at no charge; Cricket Hollow Press then appears as the publisher of record in retailer catalogs, but you still own the copyright and the book, and you may re-issue it later under a new ISBN at any time. Amazon's free ISBN lists Amazon as the publisher and cannot be used at other retailers, so we do not recommend it for a book you want in bookstores.

Foundation books typically take six to eight weeks from signed agreement to live listing; Boutique books eight to twelve, depending on the depth of the edit. These are good-faith estimates, not guaranteed dates. The most common delays come from approval rounds that take longer than seven days, from manuscript changes after editing has begun, and from retailer review queues we do not control. A project that is inactive for 60 days because we are waiting on you is closed; it can be reopened within a year for a $150 restart fee, subject to our schedule at that time.

Cricket Hollow Press is a Florida business and every agreement we sign is governed by Florida law, with any dispute heard in Duval County, Florida. We are an independent contractor, not your employee, partner, or agent, and neither party can bind the other. Our total liability for any project is limited to the fees you have actually paid us for that project, and we are not liable for lost profits, lost sales, or indirect damages. Before either of us goes to court we agree to try, in good faith and in writing, to resolve the matter directly for at least 30 days. This page summarizes our standard terms in plain language; the signed Service Agreement for your project is the document that controls, and nothing on this website is legal advice.