How Much Will Your Publishing Dream Cost?
Yes, you can self-publish your book as an alternative to going the traditional route, and thank goodness for that, but you will also pay for it in both time and money.
The best advice I can give you is to start saving for this endeavor right now, wherever you are in the writing or publishing process. Your book is going to require a small (or large) nest egg no matter how much of the work you take on yourself. There will be services and tools to buy, and some less obvious costs every step of the way. The following is a list of the basics. If you want to hire a publicist or run a major ad campaign, you’re going to need a bigger budget! But those things are not imperative, so please read on.
Editorial Services: You’ll pay the largest fees during the revision process. Editorial services are not cheap but they are imperative if you want to put out a professional product. According to Reedsy, the average cost for developmental editing is $0.024 per word (“average” means you can obtain these services from editors who charge less than this or more). The average for copyediting is $0.017 per word. Proofreading will set you back an average of $0.012 per word, but you may be able to use friends/other writers for this, if you feel confident in their ability to help you weed out typos and page-design problems. (See my Is Your Manuscript Ready post.)
Take a tip from me (I’m a freelance editor and have been for decades, and I’m on Reedsy, too) make sure you are ready for editors when you reach out to them. In other words, prepare your manuscript as best you can before calling in the pros. Have several beta readers give you feedback and then revise according to that feedback before you hire the developmental editor. Ideally you’ll need only one round of this type of editing. But if you give the editor an early-ish draft that no one else has read, or was read only by a relative or best friend, you will likely find yourself going back for a second or even third round with your editor. This will be expensive.
The same goes for copyediting. The copyeditor can take your writing only so far. She’s going to fix errors and weed out awkwardness, but she’s not going to create awesome metaphors for you or beautiful language. Those things need to be inherent in the writing. Be sure you’ve taken your manuscript to the highest possible level before handing it off. In other words, give the copyeditor what you consider your final draft.
As I said before, if you have a few friends who are great at catching typos, you probably don’t need to hire a professional proofreader. But if you have the money, it’s definitely worth the cost.
Cover Design: You can get a very good cover for about $500 (if you will sell both e-book and paperback, you’ll need two different versions, so it will cost more like $700). Of course, you can find designers who will make them for cheaper, but from what I have seen, the cheaper ones don’t do the job as well as they should. Spend as much as you can afford to get the best you can afford. Some designers charge upwards of $3,000. That sounds crazy to me, but since there’s a demand for it, I’m going to assume those designers create some very good work. I had a wonderful experience using www.Damonza.com. (See my Cover post.)
Interior Page Design: I think you can find someone to do this for a couple hundred dollars. Or you can buy a program like Vellum and do it yourself, and then use it for as many books, both e-book and paperback, as you like for a flat fee of $249. Vellum also offers a plan for unlimited e-books for $199. (See my Interior Pages post.) Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and IngramSpark have page-design software as well (for free, I believe), but I have not used it. You want to use a program that creates a professional-looking finish, one that handles all of the different elements of the boo (front and back matter, folios, block quotes, etc.) while offering fonts and styles to your liking.
Author Photo: You’ll need a professional photo that’s at least 300 dpi. Count on paying about $75 to upwards of $200 per picture.
ISBNs: Amazon and Barnes and Noble will give you an ISBN, but you won’t own it. If you want to own the number—you’ll need to own it if you’re going to sell books wide (internationally and through bookstores) via a distributor like IngramSpark—you’ll have to visit RR Bowker’s website and buy them. They also generate bar codes for a price. One ISBN and one bar code will cost you $150.
Website: For about $150 per year, you can purchase and set up a Squarespace business website. Depending on what you want to do with your site—for instance, you might want to sell books from it—you may need a commerce plan, which costs more, about $220 a year. (See my Website post.)
Email Marketing: To manage your subscribers’ list, you’ll need an email marketing service. You can use Mailchimp’s free plan until you reach two thousand subscribers. After that, you’ll have to switch to one of their paid plans, which start at $9.99 a month.
Advance Reader Copies: Amazon can make these proof copies for you, and they won’t cost nearly as much as a “regular” book. But you will not get free shipping even if you are a Prime member. To give you an example of costs, the paperback version of They Will Be Coming for Us, a 360-page book, costs about $5. For three books, the shipping was $4.77, and the taxes were $1.35. The total for each book came to $7 and change. Don’t forget, media reviewers are going to want paperbacks, and you’re going to need copies for proofreaders, too. You’ll have to ship at least some of these copies out, so you’ll be paying for shipping again. (See my ARC post.)
Prepublication Reviews: To give you an idea of the costs, Kirkus charges $425 for a review but they’ve been offering a $50 discount for a while now. BlueInk Review charges $395. You can get a free review from Readers’ Favorite (readersfavorite.com) if you’re willing to wait a few months for it. I requested a review for They Will Be Coming for Us two months ago, and I’m still waiting. (See my Reviews post.)
Goodreads Giveaway: It costs $119 for the cheaper version, which most authors say is the one you need. The more expensive premium version costs $599. (See my Marketing and Promo post.)
Contests: These range in price from around $60 to over $100. Set a budget for yourself, and enter your favorites. (See my Contests post.)
Swag: These are the extras you give away such as bookmarks, bookplates, mugs, and whatever else you decide is good for your book. Your budget will dictate how much you spend.
Blog Tour: A couple hundred should be enough for a ten- to fourteen-day tour, though I have not set one of these up for myself. If you want a blog tour, work ahead. They’ll need to have copies of your book a month or two in advance. Because I missed the boat, I am going it alone, piecing together my own little tour. There are many companies that handle blog tours, and they vary greatly. From what I’ve seen $100-$200 should cover it.
Ads: The marketing books and websites I’ve read do not encourage writers to use paid print advertisement, but if you really want to, tread carefully and keep it to a minimum. Instead, most marketing experts advise using online ads such as on Amazon and Bookbub. But even with online ads, most suggest experimentation and a lighter hand.
Publicists: Publicists charge thousands of dollars to do their work, which is why most indie authors play this role themselves. If you are one of the few self-publishers who has a budget for a publicist, that’s great. All I can say, is do your research before you hire anyone, and obtain recommendations from other authors.
These are the main costs I came across as I moved through the self-publishing process. It’s quite a list, right? I agree. Start saving so the money will be there when you need it.
Have I missed anything? If so, please add a comment to the section below.
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Kim Catanzarite is a writer, editor, and instructor for Writer’s Digest University. She has worked as a developmental and copy editor since 1994. Her thriller, They Will Be Coming for Us, will publish June 1, 2021. Pre-Order Here. See my Special Offers here.
