SamiaBooks
First titles 2027

Books worth
keeping.

Samia Books is the imprint of Samia Studios. We print the best essays and reporting from the Journal, picture books for children, and short field guides from Samia Learn. Every book is written by a person, edited by a person, and lists its sources at the back.

See the first titles ↓For authors ↗

Three lines

What we
publish.

A small list, made properly. Each line starts with work that already exists at another desk of the house and ends as a book you can hold.

Essays and reporting

The best of the Samia Journal and commissioned long works, printed properly. Geopolitics, culture, history and science, with every claim sourced.

Paperback and hardback. 120 to 320 pages.

Children's picture books

Stories that teach honesty, patience, courage and the joy of making things. Illustrated flat, inked and bright, alongside the Samia Kids films.

Hardback. 32 to 40 pages. Ages 3 to 8.

Field guides

Short, practical, illustrated books from Samia Learn. How a river treaty works. The numbers that run the world. One subject, explained once, clearly.

Paperback. 64 to 96 pages.

First titles

Three sample
covers.

The first three books are being written now. These covers are samples of the house style, one from each line. Titles, text and art may change before print.

Sample cover: The River. A blue river winding between green banks under a yellow sun. THE RIVER Essays on water and power SAMIA BOOKS
Sample

The River

Twelve essays on who owns water and who decides, from the Nile to the Colorado.

2027
Sample cover: The Star Who Could Not Sit Still. A smiling yellow star bouncing over pink and blue hills. THE STAR WHO COULD NOT SIT STILL A picture book about patience SAMIA BOOKS
Sample

The Star Who Could Not Sit Still

A small star learns that some things, like a sunrise, are worth waiting for. Ages 3 to 6.

2027
Sample cover: Numbers That Run the World. A blue globe with grid lines and three number tiles. 8bn 2% 1.5° NUMBERS THAT RUN THE WORLD A field guide from Samia Learn SAMIA BOOKS
Sample

Numbers That Run the World

Twenty numbers, from interest rates to carbon budgets, each explained on a single spread.

2027

Sold direct from this site when the first titles print, and through bookshops. Online payment is coming; we will not take money for a book that does not exist yet.

How we publish

Seven steps,
no shortcuts.

The same process for a picture book and a four-hundred-page collection. It is slower than most. That is the point.

  1. 1
    Commission or accept. Most books begin as a commission from one of the desks. Some arrive as proposals from authors. Either way, one editor says yes and owns the book from then on.
  2. 2
    Edit with care. A structural edit first, then a line edit, then a copy edit. Each pass is a conversation with the author, not a set of silent changes.
  3. 3
    Fact-check, with sources at the back. Every number, name, date and quote in a non-fiction book is checked against its source. The sources are printed as endnotes so a reader can follow them.
  4. 4
    Design in the house style, by a person. Cover and interior are set by a designer in the studio: paper, ink lines, flat colour, Archivo and Figtree. The author approves the cover before it is final.
  5. 5
    Print on demand, plus a first run. Every title is available print-on-demand so it never goes out of stock, and we print a small first run for bookshops and for the shelf.
  6. 6
    Sold direct and in shops. Direct from this site, and through bookshops that ask. No exclusive deals with any retailer.
  7. 7
    Authors paid quarterly, with a plain statement. Royalties are paid every three months with a one-page statement: copies sold, where, at what price, and what the author is owed.

Written by people

No book here
is generated.

No book, essay or children's story from Samia Books is written by a machine. Tools help in the workshop: they gather sources, check a date, suggest a cut. A person writes every sentence, checks every claim, and signs the work.

The same rule covers the pictures. Illustrations are drawn by an illustrator. Nothing is published as the first output of any tool.

The author's name on the cover means what it has always meant.

  • Every book has a named author and a named editor.
  • Non-fiction lists its sources at the back.
  • Corrections to later printings are listed on this site.
  • Illustrations are drawn, credited and paid for.
  • If a book cannot meet this standard, it waits.

The reading list

Hear when the
first book prints.

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