How Shark Tank Winner Shaan Patel Leveraged a Book Launch to Drive Record Revenue for Prep Expert

When Shaan Patel published Prep Expert Digital SAT Playbook with Scribe, he was already 15 years and three books into running an SAT/ACT prep company. What he didn’t expect was that one launch week would drive his highest one-week revenue in company history, and that the book would double his annual revenue the following year.

The Founder Behind the Book

Shaan Patel is the founder and CEO of Prep Expert, an SAT and ACT test-prep company that has helped over 100,000 students in 15 years. He pitched the business on Shark Tank in 2016 and made a deal with Mark Cuban. By the time he came to Scribe, he had already published with one of the biggest names in the industry: SAT 2400 in Just Seven Steps with McGraw Hill, which sold over 50,000 copies and hit #1 on Amazon for SAT prep.

The problem with that first book was royalties. Shaan was making 30 to 50 cents per copy.

“We published a book called Prep Expert Digital SAT Playbook, and it’s been amazing for my authorship, thought leadership, but most importantly, my business ever since.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

Why Scribe

Shaan had self-published several more books after the McGraw Hill release, but the DIY workflow was a downgrade in quality. Two things lined up to make 2024 the moment for a new, professionally-produced book: the SAT had just gone fully digital (its biggest format shift in a decade), and Shaan wanted to capture that wave with a real launch.

He came to Scribe because he wanted McGraw Hill-level polish without giving up McGraw Hill-level royalties.

“[Scribe was] the perfect match between self-publishing, but still getting that professional level of publication.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

The project had a hard deadline. The launch had to happen the week the new digital SAT debuted. Shaan told Scribe’s team what he wanted to accomplish and how fast.

“When I met with [Scribe] a couple of years ago and I gave [them] the idea for what I wanted to accomplish in this very short timeframe, it sounded impossible, but [the] team made it happen.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

“[Scribe’s] team put the book together in such a short timeframe and then [made] all of that come to life in such an amazing and professional way that we can compete with the Princeton Reviews and the Kaplans and the Juggernauts in our space without having to go through a major publisher and still keep all that ROI for ourselves.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

The Launch Week That Broke Records

Shaan ran a Hormozi-style book launch event the week the new digital SAT debuted. The event wasn’t framed as a sales pitch — it was framed as seven strategies to improve test scores and get scholarships, with the book and his Prep Expert courses as the offer at the end.

“We registered close to 10,000 parents and students. We ended up selling over a thousand books.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

He converted ~10% of registrants to book buyers in a single week. The book went #1 in multiple Amazon categories — SAT test guides, ACT test guides, and Education and Learning — and top 3 in several others.

“We had our highest one-day revenue ever since we aired on Shark Tank in 2016. We had our highest one-week revenue in company history. We did more revenue during the book launch week than we did all of the previous month.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

The Long Tail That Kept Compounding

The launch was not a one-week sugar high. The book has continued to compound.

“We’ve sold more books in 2025 than we did in 2024. In 2024 is when we had the launch event. I think we’ve sold already over like 20 to 30,000, somewhere in that range.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

“It’s been exactly what we had hoped the book would serve as — a tremendous lead generator for our business.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

The Royalty Math: 50 Cents vs. $13 per Book

The royalty side alone validates the project. Royalties on the new Scribe book run at roughly $13 per copy — a 26-to-43x multiple over the 30 to 50 cents per copy Shaan earned on his McGraw Hill bestseller.

“The book itself generates tens of thousands of dollars in profit from the royalties every year.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

The Inflection: Prep Expert Doubled Its Revenue

The remarkable part is what happened to Prep Expert’s core business — not the book itself.

“We doubled revenue compared to 2024 and 2025.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

“I can pinpoint literally my book launch event date from that.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

Before the launch, Prep Expert had been struggling.

“We were kind of always struggling where to get leads from. Now it feels like leads just get easier. It just comes freely. We have too many leads almost.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

The ROI on the Scribe Project

Asked to put a number on it:

“The amount that we spent on the Scribe project has generated a 10x plus return ever since, if not 20x.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

The free-book funnel Shaan built around the book — prepexpert.com/free-book, which gives the print book away in exchange for shipping and uses order bumps and upsells to liquidate the ad spend — has become a seven-figure earner on its own.

Looking Forward

“Now I don’t work nearly as hard because I have all the leverage from the book.”

— Shaan Patel, Founder & CEO, Prep Expert

Shaan plans the next major Prep Expert book around the next SAT format change — which historically happens every 8 to 10 years.