So you have decided to become an author for many different reasons and want to benefit from it. But, what does that decision looks like when it comes to expenses? How much will you have to pay to see this dream come true? Reasons And Want to Benefit From It Will you be able to publish it as soon as you want, or do you have first to wait and save money for it? What does this process look like? In this blog, we are going to cover all these points.
Reasons And Want to Benefit From It First, the cost of publishing changes dramatically depending on whether you will be a self-published author or if you will go with the traditional route.
What is self-publishing?
Self-publishing is the process of publishing a book entirely on your own. You do not go to places other than your distribution channel, which is mostly amazon, to get your book published. There are no agents, no publishing deals, and no upfront payment. You post it on your own through your means. You have to do everything on your own when you are self-publishing. Everything is your responsibility, from writing to getting an editor and a cover designer and getting it correctly formatted.
This does not mean you have to do all this alone; you will have to hire people to do the things you cannot do. It means that there is nobody else controlling your decisions. So now, how much do you get paid as a self-publish author? The great thing about self-publishing is that you get to keep all the royalties aside from what amazon will take away as their distribution funds. Otherwise, you get to keep the rest of it.
This means if amazon takes 30% to 40%, you get to keep 60% to 70% of your royalties which is about 50% more than traditionally published authors. So although you do have to pay more upfront, you get more back for the effort you have put in. another great thing about self-publishing is that the amount you are paid is directly correlated to how much work you want to put into selling your book. You must do all the marketing on your own, meaning you can sell more books if you put in a little more work or have the right strategy.
Traditionally published authors:
People are usually more interested in becoming traditionally published authors. Firstly, you must get an agent to pitch your manuscript to different publishing houses. Your agent will also be responsible for negotiating your pay percentages. These steps and the others make traditional publishing a lot longer process, and many other people have more control in this process than you. Being a traditionally published author, you are mainly responsible for writing and hitting your deadlines. Unlike self-publishing, you don’t have to worry about cover design, formatting, etc.
Also, with traditional publishing, you don’t have to pay any upfront costs; in fact, you are the one who gets the advance, unlike self-publishing, in which you have to pay a few things to get your book from draft to an actual published book.
Cost of different steps while publishing a book:
1) Editing: the first step is editing. It is the most crucial step. Getting an editor is not very cheap. You can expect to spend around 300$ to 2000$ on an editor; that depends on the type of edit you get and how long your manuscript is. The length of your manuscript matters so much because editors typically charge per word.
2) Cover design: It is the next step that comes in the way. You have to pay a professional to design your cover. This is because a professional cover designer has expertise and knowledge about the market. The price range for this also varies greatly because they can offer different packages. It can cost you from 300$ to 600$ or even more.
3) Formatting: There are also different kinds of services you find with formatting. You can find an excellent professional for formatting for about a hundred bucks.
4) Promotional material: You also have to add an expense of promotional material if you want to purchase ads or if you want to buy anything that is going to help you promote your book. This can be anything from promotional imaging to social media scheduling software so you can stay up-to-date and keep marketing your book even if you are busy doing something else.
So, to sum up, how much it costs to publish a book, the answer is simply that it varies. It depends on what you are looking for and what you are willing to pay. Also, the quality of edits, the cover design, etc., pivots and is up to you.
