The Challenge
Shaan Patel had lived both sides of publishing.
He’d published traditionally (and saw what “professional” really looks like), but the royalties were tiny—he earned roughly $0.30–$0.50 per copy on a book that sold more than 50,000 copies.
After that, he self-published several books DIY-style, but the process and polish didn’t match what he wanted—especially for test prep, where complex layouts, diagrams, equations, and formatting make production far more demanding than a standard text-based book.
Then a rare market moment arrived: the SAT shifted from paper to a fully digital test, with new question types and strategies. Shaan saw a narrow window to publish a definitive new playbook—and use the book not just for sales, but as a growth engine for Prep Expert’s core business.
The Scribe Solution
Shaan partnered with Scribe to publish Prep Expert Digital SAT Playbook with the goal of achieving traditional-publishing-level quality while keeping the control and economics of self-publishing.
From day one, the book was designed to serve two functions:
- A premium, professional product families would trust in a crowded market
- A lead generator that could consistently move readers into Prep Expert’s ecosystem
To support that second goal, Shaan built conversion points directly into the book. He included QR-code calls-to-action every ~100 pages, offering bonuses (checklists, extra material, etc.) in exchange for lead information—so the book continuously fed his email/SMS funnel over time.
The Results
Shaan timed his launch to the moment demand peaked: the week before the digital SAT rollout.
Launch event outcomes (one week):
- ~10,000 parents and students registered for the event
- 1,000+ books sold (about 10% conversion)
- Hit #1 in multiple Amazon categories, including SAT test guides, ACT test guides, and education & learning
- Prep Expert posted its highest one-day revenue since Shark Tank (2016)
- Prep Expert posted its highest one-week revenue in company history, generating more revenue in launch week than the entire previous month
Long-tail outcomes (post-launch):
- Shaan reported selling more books in 2025 than in 2024 (even though 2024 contained the launch)
- He estimated ~20,000–30,000 copies sold in the period discussed
- Prep Expert tracked in their CRM that many families buy the book and later enroll in courses, exactly as intended
The book became a profit center, not just a marketing asset.
Because test prep books are priced higher (he cited a $35–$39 retail range), Shaan reported earning roughly $13 per book in royalty profit—dramatically different from his traditional publishing experience.
The Funnel That Scaled
While Shaan tested Amazon ads (and found profitability challenging), he scaled a more effective system through Meta:
A free physical book funnel (“free book, just pay shipping”) priced at about $5–$7 for shipping, supported by order bumps and post-checkout upsells. He found this approach could often break even or be profitable on ad spend—meaning Prep Expert acquired leads at extremely low cost while building a pipeline of highly qualified parents and students.
He also found that shipping-paid physical-book leads were worth 3–5x more than “free PDF” leads, because the small payment created higher intent (and gave Prep Expert stronger downstream conversion behavior).
The ROI
Shaan emphasized how difficult attribution is because everything compounds together—but still estimated the Scribe project generated at least 10x return, potentially 20x depending on attribution.
He also described the broader business impact: after the launch, the company’s year-over-year performance improved consistently, and 2025 revenue was nearly doubled vs. 2024
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