The Real Costs of Self-Publishing a Book

[510bhan]

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/05/the-real-costs-of-self-publishing-book

The comments/replies are worth reading to see what self-publishing authors' experiences have been.

[Skip Slocum]

 

[JewelAS53]

Thanks for this. I have saved the link for future reference.

[ed]

I would slightly disagree with the prices in there.

Here is what you can do it for.

Editing - Low end ( $300 ), High end $700 ( outsource through elance.com )

Copyediting - Free if you are a good copywriter But about $150 low end, up to $500 high end ( book blurbs)

Cover - $500 ( ebook and print ) WELL WORTH THE MONEY!!! get a professional don't slap any cover on it

Formatting - $120 ( print and ebook ) I found the guy on createspace he does an excellent job. Now days you can do it yourself using scrivener but I cant be bothered to learn. Its quicker to give it to him ( he delivers, mobi, epub and print version for that )

ISBN - FREE in canada, You dont need one for kobo, amazon or createspace as they assign you one. Only for barnes&noble and ibooks or if you plan on selling locally.

Distribution - free

Getting book printed - like $4 a piece through createspace. Well worth it. They do a nice job ( cream pages a must )

Marketing - How long is a piece of string? It's up to you really ( facebook ads, goodread ads, kindleboard ad, ereaderbuddy.com, bookblast, bookbub, ereadernewstoday )

SANITY - PRICELESS!!!

[510bhan]

So still a minimum outlay of about $1,000.

[ed]

So still a minimum outlay of about $1,000.

Yes per book.

Now some people skip editors and covers and they suffer for it. I think its well spent money.

[herron]

I've self-published three (print and digital for each).

My total outlay for the actual publishing (of all three)...$75. Advertising...approx. $350 (including an ad to appear in the September "New York Review of Books"). Spent a couple hundred entering various contests (most of which was wasted money...that I won't do again). I was an editor for almost 20 years, so I did my own editing (with the help of beta readers), designed my own covers, designed and placed my own ads (I was an ad agency art director for 12 years, too).

Created my own print files, and did the html for the conversion to epub and mobi files for digital (which I did myself through the free open source software jEdit and Calibre).

It was tedious, but I have far more time than money ... and something must have worked. Two of the three were award-winners.

 

[510bhan]

You've many advantages over the rest of us, Ron.

Congratulations nonetheless, sounds like a lot of hard work went into keeping expenses down.

[Skip Slocum]

Shoot yeah, here-here for Ron.

[herron]

Shoot yeah, here-here for Ron.

You've many advantages over the rest of us, Ron.

Congratulations nonetheless, sounds like a lot of hard work went into keeping expenses down.

Thanks, both of you. It's not something I recommend for folks who shy away from tedious endeavors...and if you've never worked with html, ePub or mobi code before it can be a nightmare.

Fortunately, ghosts and demons and things that go bump in the night never scared me...and I was too naive to be afraid of html.
 

[herron]

Just re-did the covers to my books, changing from my full name to initials.