What Going Indie Will Cost You: Part 3 of Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think

I've had many people ask me what everything costs when one decides to self-publish, and sadly there is no straightforward answer. Instead of trying to estimate what someone might spend on self-publishing a book, I'll tell you my own experience.

First of all, let's straighten out one thing: I am not considering any of the packages you can buy to self-publish your book - the ones that cost thousands of dollars and provide a cover artist, editor, marketer, etc. That's a great way to go if you want, but for me, it was pretty much taking all the self out of self-publishing. So everything I talk about below pertains to doing everything yourself, including hiring out artists and editors if needed.

Some of you might laugh at these numbers, but they are what they are and I'm happy to share them so you have a realistic expectation of self-publishing. You might spend more. You might spend less. Everyone and every project is different! I know some of my fellow Indie writers have sold more copies than myself, and some have sold less. It makes me happy to see that everyone is different and that it is truly up to the writer's own devices on what they sell, how they sell it, and how well it does.

*First, I used CreateSpace, a Print-On-Demand publisher (POD). Print-On-Demand simply means that the publisher, like CreateSpace, doesn't print and ship your book until someone purchases it. This literally means the book costs you nothing out-of-pocket - you and the publisher make a profit off each sale. Self-publishing with a small press costs MUCH more because you must pay for all of your print copies up front and then sell them. POD publishing is taking off, and there's a good reason why!

TOTAL SALES (first 6 weeks): 151 copies

TOTAL REVENUE (first 6 weeks): $1,066.47

TOTAL SPENT (first 6 weeks): $1,240.92

TOTAL LEFT TO EARN BEFORE I START MAKING MONEY....: $174.45

Now, you must understand these numbers keep changing. The total I spend changes every time I pay postage on signed books I send out, and that will change the amount I have left to earn. But I do think that as time goes by, the gap between the two will get larger and larger until my revenue is much higher than what I spent on the book.

Here's a breakdown of the costs for you:

COVER: $217.35
(This is the cost of stock photography for the background, as well as the cost of the dress I had custom made, and props. I did not have to pay the model or the seamstress for the dress - only for materials. Because of the kindness of others volunteering their time and talents, this cut down on costs)

POSTAGE: $267.26
(Shipping overseas can get expensive, but most of this was paid by the customers, so it was not directly coming out of my pocket. This also includes shipping materials - bubble mailers and labels, etc.)

ADVERTISING: $151.22
(This includes giveaway items and advertising on Facebook)

BOOKS: $446.50
(These are physical copies I've sold by hand or by mail, as well as free copies for reviews and giveaways. Consequently, I make the most profit, even with double-shipping, to sell copies by hand, but over half of my sales are ebooks and books sold through Amazon, so I make a different profit off each kind of sale)

EDITORIAL SERVICES: Free
(This is usually not wise, I'll admit, but I happen to know some amazing people)

SWAG: $85.47
(This includes bookmarks and business cards...hint: Vistaprint.com does practically FREE business cards...)
 

RELEASE PARTY: $34.12
(All I paid for was food at Costco. Talk about simple)

PUBLISHING (CREATESPACE): $39.00
(Yes, that's right. $39.00 to publish my book. Everything else up above was completely unnecessary. I could have paid this $39.00 and that was it. Oh, and you can choose not to pay $39.00 if you want. It gets you the Expanded Distribution Channel service through Amazon. I'll discuss this later)

Now, that being all said, let's look over some things. If you wanted to self-publish and completely forgo print copies - selling only ebooks, you'd cut down on a lot of cost. Even if you sell print copies, you do not have to sell them by hand as I have done for some of my sales. You can simply sell them through Amazon or CreateSpace or Lulu or whatever print-on-demand publisher you've used.

So, now that I've shared all of that lovely information with you (it's unnerving to share all this, by the way), I'll give you an idea of what you should spend money on if you decide to self-publish.

Quite honestly, you can self-publish your book COMPLETELY FREE. A lot of people do this. I don't think it's very smart to do that, but that's just my opinion. Publishing a book is a huge deal, and you should treat it as such. If you are uncomfortable pouring some money into your work, you probably shouldn't be self-publishing.

If you are going to self-publish, you should absolutely, most definitely spend your money on at least these things:

*update - someone whom I respect as a self-published author, made it clear to me that perhaps I shouldn't imply that you HAVE to do these things. She is 100% right. You really don't have to do these things, but in my opinion, doing these things may help your chances at getting your book more noticed. Just my opinion. As this person always says, and I agree with her 100%, the QUALITY of the book INSIDE is what matters!!! Therefore, I do think getting a good editor is important, or at least making sure your work truly is ready to put out there.

BOOK COVER
Either pay a designer or buy stock photography or something to make your cover look professional. If you can't make it look professional yourself, hire someone. Your cover says a lot about how you feel about your work. Readers pick up on that in about 5-billionths of a second. You have about 5-billionths of a second to make a reader go "Oh, I want to read that book!" or "Oh, I hate that cover. It looks amateur, so the book is probably amateur." However untrue that may be, it's sadly true in this day and age.

EDITING
Do not underestimate this. This might be where you spend most of your money, actually. Unless you seriously know what you're doing or you know someone you completely trust to edit your work, hire an editor.

ADVERTISING
Do not underestimate the power of social networking! This can cost money when you start to advertise your book. There are reviewers you can pay to review your book. You can advertise on Facebook for relatively cheap. You'll want to do giveaways. You'll probably want bookmarks and business cards if you're sending out print copies of your book.

If you're self-publishing, the most important thing is to be professional. Professionals advertise. Advertising is how you sell copies. It's probably going to cost you some money.
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Here are some fantastic links you should check out:

SELF-PUBLISHING: Maybe You're Not So Vain After All? by Anne R. Allen

The Indie Author Revolution by Seth Mullins

ISBNs Don't Matter As Much As You Probably Think They Do, But You Might Want To Start Owning Your Own Anyway by April Hamilton

Kindle Author Interview: Mary McDonald on Kindle Author

Will Self-Publishing Make You Die? by Livia Blackburne 

CreateSpace Self Publishing, Create Space Book Photos by Lisa Shea

8 Reasons Self-Publishing is Entering a Golden Age by Joel Friedlander 

Empty Validation by Zoe Winters 

Vanity Press Goes Digital by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg

 Jamie DeBree has been kind enough to share the following here. This post is originally found on her author site, here. Jamie is the author of the recently released romance novella, Tempest.

Self-Publishing: Be Prepared 
by Jamie DeBree

I made a lot of mistakes when I decided to self-publish Tempest. Mostly because rather than researching the heck out of how to do it first (like I do with most things), I just decided to jump in with both feet and pick it up as I go. I didn't do too badly, but there are still some things that would have gone much more smoothly had I thought them out ahead of time.

Don't set a public release date until you have finished revising/editing your work. My reason for doing this was to set a very public deadline and force myself to get the work done. It worked great to motivate me, and if I'd only done an ebook as originally planned, it would have been fine. Unfortunately, deciding to add a print copy set my delivery time line back – which leads to the next thing I should have done early...

Decide early what formats you're going to publish in. I originally planned to release Tempest only in ebook format. Then I discovered that the majority of my regular readers still prefer print books. Because those are the people most likely to help me get the word out, I impulsively decided to release print copies as well. It turns out that print takes a lot longer to format and get approved/ordered – so if you want to do a print release, plan well in advance. Give yourself a month to six weeks to format, upload, fix any issues, and order proof and sales copies when dealing with print publishing. Ebook publishing goes far more quickly – you can format and upload an ebook in less than a week. 

Double-check your formatting and proofreading. My biggest mistake was switching the order of two chapters when I formatted Tempest for print, and then copying that error across all of my ebook formats. I caught it before the final print copy, but not before several e-copies had already sold. My plan for next time is to format and order a proof of the print copy first, read that carefully to mark and fix any mistakes, and then use that file as the basis for my ebook copies. I'm confident that will catch the majority of mistakes and make for a much cleaner release next time. 

Order any print copies you plan to sell from your home at least one week ahead of the release date. My readers have been very patient in waiting for print copies to get here for signatures, but it's been a long wait. 

Don't forget the small stuff. I really dropped the ball on this one. The print copy has a dedication in it, but I forgot to add it into the ebook copies altogether until I had to redo them because of the chapter switch. I'm still not entirely sure it made it into all copies. I completely dropped the ball on acknowledgments, though I did remember to give credit to my editor and cover artist. These are things that will be far better thought out and included as a matter of course in later works. 

Be proactive getting review copies out. I offered 20 ebooks free for review, and had only one person accept it. Later, I heard that a lot of people simply hadn't been aware of the offer – it was listed on my web site and I mentioned it a few times, but I should have made a bigger point of getting the word out. I think doing that would have been very helpful in getting more initial reviews, so I'll be doing more of that next time, for sure. 

I think those were my biggest mistakes for my first self-publishing experience, and hopefully my sharing them will help someone else not to make the same ones.
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I have really enjoyed my experience so far with self-publishing. It has been fun and exciting, but a lot of work. I'm pretty sure I'd like to try and publish through a small publisher, as well, and I'm not sure an agent or a large publisher are good options for me. I have the resources, talents, and drive for self-publishing. You might, too, but be honest with yourself before you jump in.

What is the bottom line here? Mostly likely, self-publishing is going to cost you money, time, heartache, and a lot of patience and determination. And most likely, you're not going to make a lot of money off self-publishing. AT FIRST... 

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Why Self-Publishing Is Better Than You Think Series

Do You Want to Jump the Fence? - August 26th
The Vase - September 1st
What Going Indie Will Cost You - September 8th
Whither The Author-Artiste? - September 9th 
Influences & Self-Publishing Might Just Stink For You - September 16th 
The Absolute Nightmare (or not!) of Formatting a Print Book - September 22nd
Cheaper Than Kinko's - September 23rd 
Don't Listen to Me - September 30th