Self-publishing can be as cheap or as expensive as you want. The general rule of thumb is: in order to make money, you have to spend money. If you need to start thinking about the cost estimates for self-publishing your next book, we’ve got you covered. Here are some costs you should expect:
Developmental Editing
You may think your book is the next masterpiece, but if you don’t have some sort of developmental editor (that is, someone who helps you edit the content of your manuscript), then you may have some issues. Some people get their developmental editing for free by going to classes and workshops where you can do peer editing. Other people pay between $2000 and $18,000 for a professional editor. A good middle-of-the road estimate is about $3000 for 56 hours of editing work, which is about how long it takes to edit a novel.
Copyediting
The amount you’ll pay for copyediting will depend on your copyeditor’s expertise and the amount of grammatical mistakes you have in your text. If you pay a college student with little experience, you may only pay around $300. If you pay a professional and you have a lot of mistakes, you may pay up to $7000.
Cover Design
Maybe you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but we all do. If you want your book to seem worthwhile, you need a good cover design. You can do it yourself, or you can pay around $100-$150 for a cheap graphic designer. Some people can pay up to $3500 for a high-end, award-winning designer to do their cover design.
Book Formatting and Layout
Your book needs to be well formatted and needs to have a layout that is pleasing to the eye. If you do the formatting yourself, you can do this for free. If you have trouble formatting your layout, you can pay a professional to convert your digital manuscript to a print format. This costs around $200 for a 400-page book.
Printing
If you print on-demand only (which means you only print as you sell copies), you can have your consumers pay for printing as a part of the cost. But if you print lots of copies up front, printing costs around $4000 for 500 trade paperback copies. You can also eliminate the cost of printing by publishing solely via e-book.
ISBN
If you want your book to sell in stores or be put in libraries, you need an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). You don’t have to get one, but if you do, it typically costs $100.
Marketing and PR
There are lots of ways to market your book, and they’re all quite expensive. Hiring a marketing consultant or publicist can cost you $2000 or more per month. You can also pay amateurs, like college students, to do some cheap marketing for you on social media for $10-$20 per hour. You can also plan and host a launch party, which can cost an estimated $1000 depending on how big you go.
Reviews
Paying to have your book reviewed is a great way to get your name out there. A book review from Kirkus is $425. Other reviewing sites cost between $150-$600.
Advertising
There are many modes of advertising that you can use to get your book out there. Print advertising can cost $1200 or more. Facebook ads or using Google Adwords can cost you around $500 each.
Website
You can build a free website through Wordpress.com, or you can hire an agency to build one for as little as a few hundred dollars for a basic site design, or up to $3500 or more for a sophisticated site. Either way, expect to pay for a domain name and website hosting as well, which costs around $150 a year.
Distribution
If you do the distribution all yourself, it’ll be free. If you use sites or stores like Amazon or Barnes and Noble, they will take a percentage of your profits from sales.
Summary of Costs:
- Developmental Editing: $0-$18,000
- Copyediting: $300 - $7000
- Cover Design: $0 - $3500
- Book Formatting and Layout: $0 - $4000
- Printing: $0 - $4000
- ISBN: $100
- Reviews: $150-$600
- Advertising: $0-$3200
- Website: $0-$3500
- Distribution: $ 0 - 70% of profits (not included in totals)
- Low-End Cots: $550 or less
- High-End Costs: $42,400 or more
