SOC 2 in Plain English
A Practitioner’s Field Guide: the complete three-volume set
Each volume stands alone, with its own index. Read in order — Learn, Run, Operate — or take the one you need.
SOC 2 in plain English, for a small team, not a twenty-thousand-dollar mystery. A customer asks for your SOC 2 report; the three volumes take you from there to audited and beyond: getting audit-ready, the audit and continuous operations (with ISO 27001 alongside), and the templates and worksheets that make it routine.
Companion to the SOC 2 Audit-Readiness Assessment toolkit — the assessment and ready-to-use templates that put this book to work.
From the blog: Do you actually need SOC 2 yet? · SOC 2 or ISO 27001 — which one does your customer actually want? — essay-length previews of the same ground this set covers, free.
Getting Audit-Ready
A customer just asked for your SOC 2 report, and the first quote you got was twenty thousand dollars for a tool, a consultant, and an audit, before anyone explained what SOC 2 even is. This is the book that explains it. In plain English, for a small team, it walks you through what SOC 2 (and its cousin ISO 27001) actually require, how to scope your system, how to find your gaps, and how to get audit-ready without wasting money or time you do not have.
The Audit and Operations
Volume 1 got you audit-ready. Now comes the audit itself, and everything after it. This is the plain-English guide to engaging an auditor, surviving fieldwork, reading the report your customers will read, and then running the programme month after month without it taking over your life. It covers the SOC 2 audit end to end, the evidence operation that feeds it, the annual cycle of surveillance and renewal, and ISO 27001's management system in depth, for the same small teams Volume 1 was written for.
The Operator's Workbook
The working artefacts behind the SOC 2 in Plain English set, in one place. Volumes 1 and 2 teach the readiness work and the audit; this workbook hands you the templates, worksheets, and reference tables to do it: the Readiness Ladder gap-assessment sheets, the full policy set, the evidence tracker, the risk register, the vendor-management kit, the system-description builder, and the audit-prep tools, plus the master glossary, the maturity rubric, and the SOC 2-to-ISO 27001 crosswalk.
The set at a glance
Swipe sideways to see the full table →
| Volume | Pages | Depth | ISBN | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1 | 335 | 16 chapters | TBD | TBD |
| Volume 2 | 339 | 16 chapters | TBD | TBD |
| Volume 3 (Workbook) | 337 | 7 chapters | TBD | TBD |
Where to buy
SOC 2 in Plain English will be available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook through print-on-demand retailers, each volume sold separately. The links activate the moment the titles list; until then, email us and we’ll tell you at launch.
Cover art, pricing, and availability are not yet final and will be updated when these titles are listed for sale. Books are sold through print-on-demand retailers (KDP, IngramSpark, Amazon, and independent bookstores) — not through the Sylvan Assurance toolkit store.