How much paid working time can narratiQ free up in your publishing house?
narratiQ can reduce repetitive preparation and analysis work across screening, acquisition and editorial development. The exact value depends on your workflow. That is why we disclose our assumptions and their limits – and let you replace every relevant number with your own. Revenue growth, bestsellers and job cuts are deliberately not part of the calculation.
- Editable assumptions
- Assumptions and limits disclosed
- No speculative revenue included
- The acquisition decision stays with the editor
Where economic value is created
Three product stages with three different effects on your capacity. Each card links to the matching part of the calculator. The full report also creates reusable foundations for metadata, marketing and sales – their modelled capacity effects are included separately below.
An example year: where narratiQ reduces preparation work on the way from submission to programme.
- 100submissions
↓ Short report supports screening
- 15reviewed in depth
↓ Full report prepares the acquisition meeting
- 5acquisition rounds
↓ Editorial assistance structures the revision
- 2editorial projects
Illustrative example figures showing how the funnel works – not measurements and not a typical conversion rate.
Short report
Screen more manuscripts without reading every manuscript in full first.
Economic effect: screening and prioritisation capacity.
- structured first assessment
- recommendation and risks
- target audience and market fit
- verified comparable titles
- concrete next steps
Full report
Prepare acquisition decisions and downstream publishing work from one shared analysis.
Economic effect: acquisition and programme capacity.
- acquisition and programme decision
- publisher fit
- market research
- verified comparable titles
- positioning
- title economics
- rights assessment
- metadata foundation
- marketing and sales foundation
Also enables downstream publishing work
Metadata preparation · Marketing and sales material
Editorial assistance
Turn manuscript findings into structured revision work.
Economic effect: capacity in editorial development.
- prioritised editorial issues
- evidence from the manuscript
- author-facing tasks
- revision planning
- version comparison
- revision tracking
The economic value calculator
Every value can be changed. Every number carries a label saying where it comes from. Zero and negative results are shown as they are.
How the calculator works
Start with annual volumes and full labour costs. The calculator initially uses conservative, clearly labelled assumptions; you can then review and replace every further detail.
Your publishing year in numbers
How many manuscripts come in and are screened, how many do you assess in depth, how many titles do you acquire and edit? These three volumes scale every annual result on this page.
Preset: the calculation uses 500 until you change it.
Preset: the calculation uses 40 until you change it.
Preset: the calculation uses 15 until you change it.
Average full cost per working hour
Use the average fully loaded cost of one productive working hour across the employees involved. If available, replace our planning assumption with your own controlling figure.
Model assumption: the calculation uses 40 until you change it.
This single figure scales every euro amount on this page – unless you differentiate by function below.
First result using conservative assumptions
€18,000 / year
based on 450 hours of freed capacity
Your annual volumes and full labour costs already apply. You can optionally review the underlying time assumptions in the next step.
Review time assumptionsReview time assumptions and product detailsOptional: replace our conservative assumptions for screening, full reports and editorial support with your own values.
Short report: screening
Publishers receive manuscripts from authors and agencies and first have to decide which ones deserve a closer look. The short report gives you a fast, structured first impression: What is the manuscript about? How well does it fit your programme and your audience? And which strengths, risks or open questions argue for or against spending more time on the title?
Both time values start from our model assumption (45 → 15 minutes per manuscript). Replace them with your own screening practice – your numbers are more robust than our assumption.
Model assumption: the calculation uses 45 until you change it.
Model assumption: the calculation uses 15 until you change it.
Freed screening time: 30 minutes per manuscript.
The screening calculation uses 500 manuscripts per year. Change annual volumes
Full report: the acquisition decision
When a manuscript is seriously considered for your programme, the far more demanding assessment begins. The full report prepares this decision systematically: it analyses content and quality, checks the fit with your publishing house and positions the title against comparable titles and market information. It also provides arguments, opportunities and risks for acquisition, positioning and the internal programme discussion.
Choose a scenario or enter your own figure.
The calculator starts conservatively. All scenarios are modelling assumptions, not measured narratiQ averages.
Selected: 2 h freed per full report.
The calculation uses 40 full reports per year. Change annual volumes
Editorial assistance: working on the acquired manuscript
With the acquisition, the actual editorial work begins. Editorial assistance translates the manuscript analysis into concrete work steps: it prioritises content and structural issues, backs them up with passages from the manuscript and supports the planning of the revision. For new versions it also shows what has improved and where work is still needed.
How many hours does structured editorial preparation free up per title?
The calculator starts conservatively. These modelling assumptions must be validated in real editorial workflows.
Selected: 4 h freed per title.
The calculation uses 15 titles with editorial assistance per year. Change annual volumes
Capacity value
Capacity value = the economic value of the freed-up working time.
€18,000 / year
based on 450 hours of freed capacity
Example calculation based on your inputs and our model assumptions – not a measured narratiQ customer average.
Currently included: Short report (screening) · Full report · Editorial assistance · Metadata · Marketing
- Screening
- €10,000250 h
- Acquisition & analysis
- €3,20080 h
- Editorial & downstream
- €4,800120 h
- Total
- €18,000450 h
Capacity value is not automatically cash savings.
It only becomes economically effective through a decision about what the freed time is used for.
Capacity value is not a pricing recommendation.
This calculator estimates the economic value of potentially freed working capacity. It does not estimate a publisher's willingness to pay and does not determine the price of narratiQ.
Capacity value by product
The same calculation, split across the three narratiQ products: how much of the capacity value does each product free up – per year and per unit?
Example calculation based on your inputs and our model assumptions – not a measured narratiQ customer average.
Short report (screening)
€10,000 / year
250 h
€20 per screened manuscript
Full report
incl. Metadata · Marketing
€5,600 / year
140 h
€140 per full report
Editorial support
€2,400 / year
60 h
€160 per title
Total
€18,000 / year · 450 h
The same applies per product: the capacity value is not a price recommendation and not an automatic cost reduction – it shows where the economic value arises.
What happens to the freed-up time?
Optional: allocate the freed hours across the five paths. You decide which share is realized in cash terms and which remains as capacity within the team.
No allocation entered yet – this step stays neutral until you assign percentages.
Three scenarios side by side
Hours freed per title with all activated components. Euro amounts follow the full costs you set above; switching metadata or marketing off changes the totals.
Conservative
7.5 h
freed per title
€300
capacity value per title
- Full report2 h
- Metadata0.5 h
- Marketing1 h
- Editorial assistance4 h
Model
Current planning model22 h
freed per title
€880
capacity value per title
- Full report6 h
- Metadata1.5 h
- Marketing2.5 h
- Editorial assistance12 h
High
36.5 h
freed per title
€1,460
capacity value per title
- Full report10 h
- Metadata2.5 h
- Marketing4 h
- Editorial assistance20 h
Screening is not part of these figures. It is calculated separately in minutes per manuscript against its own annual volume.
Freed capacity is not automatically a cost reduction
narratiQ can free up paid working time. That does not automatically reduce your salary costs.
Economic benefit arises only once the freed time is put to use. There are five common paths:
- more titles handled by the same team
- fewer external commissions
- fewer overtime hours
- additional hires avoided
- more time for higher-value editorial work
One and the same effect, two languages
Inside a publishing house the same effect is described differently at two tables. Both sentences mean the same thing.
narratiQ gives your editors back the capacity to work on the manuscripts where human judgement is genuinely needed.
Fewer paid working hours per reviewed manuscript – or more reviewed projects per editor.
The calculator above quantifies the second wording. The first is why the editorial team supports the change.
What this calculation deliberately leaves out
Our calculation is deliberately conservative: we value these six potential additional benefits at €0. Each of them can be real – none of them is converted into euros here.
Better acquisition decisions
A structured basis can improve which titles you take on. What that is worth depends on the individual title and stays out of this calculation.
Faster reaction to offer deadlines
Being able to bid in time can decide a title. Whether it does is outside our model.
Publisher fit
A title that fits your list performs differently from one that does not. We do not put a price on that difference.
Rights opportunities
Subsidiary and licensing potential recognised earlier can pay off. Licensing revenue is not part of the calculation.
Quality and consistency
Comparable criteria across all manuscripts make assessments more consistent. We do not attach a euro amount to that.
Current market intelligence
Verified comparable titles and market data support the decision. Their contribution to revenue is not estimated here.
We leave these out on purpose. A number we cannot defend would weaken every number we can.
One budget decision. Flexible use in daily editorial work.
Day-to-day editorial work is not structured as a euro purchasing decision: publishing management agrees on an annual usage framework once – as a budget or a volume. Editors then use short reports, full reports and editorial assistance freely within that framework; roles and approval limits are configurable. We discuss prices in conversation, based on your actual annual volume.
Methodology
Four formulas carry the entire page.
Capacity value is not a pricing recommendation.
This calculator estimates the economic value of potentially freed working capacity. It does not estimate a publisher's willingness to pay and does not determine the price of narratiQ.
Capacity value =
freed working hours
× full cost per working hour
Annual capacity value =
annual freed working hours
× full cost per working hour
Annual freed working hours =
time freed per manuscript
× relevant manuscripts per year
Screening capacity =
(current screening time − remaining human screening time)
× manuscripts per yearWhat we deliberately do not calculate
This includes future book revenue, bestseller probability, the value of better acquisition decisions, avoided misacquisitions, future licensing revenue and hypothetical job cuts. The reasoning for each item is in the “Deliberately conservative” section above.
Inputs and assumptions
The calculation uses only your inputs and clearly labelled presets or model assumptions – not supposed industry standards.
| Input | Used for | Label | Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual volumes | Scaling to your publishing operation | Preset or your value | Must be adapted to your publishing house |
| Full cost per working hour | Conversion of freed time into capacity value | Model assumption or your controlling figure | Not an industry benchmark |
| Screening effort before and after narratiQ | Capacity value of the short report | Model assumption or your value | Not a measured customer average |
| narratiQ time gain | Scenario calculation | Conservative model assumption or your value | Must be validated in field tests |
We currently present no external figure as an industry standard. Where reliable customer data is missing, the page says model assumption; the publisher test replaces those assumptions with a before-and-after measurement in your workflow.
The time advantage
For the pile of unsolicited submissions, speed is a question of capacity, not a race. That changes once an agency offers a manuscript to several publishers at the same time:
- The agency sets a firm offer deadline – it runs whether your editorial team has capacity or not.
- In a pre-empt, one publisher secures the title with an early offer that is often valid for only a few days.
- Auctions are decided within one to two weeks and require editorial, sales, marketing and management to align in that window.
Earlier structured information can create more room for internal alignment, market checks and the offer process. It does not decide the deal: offer amount, contract terms, list position and the author’s trust in their future editor weigh more.
Speed does not guarantee the acquisition.
Test the calculation against a real title.
The most reliable number is not ours. It is the difference in your own workflow before and after using narratiQ.
narratiQ is used as an annual allowance – we discuss the terms against your actual annual volume.