The Cost of Self-Publishing

The Shadow of Dawn Book Cover

I've recently read a lot about the cost of self-publishing, and the numbers being thrown around are staggering. In this post, I'd like to share what I typically pay to self-publish a book (hint: it's less than you might thing). I do believe you have spend money to make money here. You pay for what you get, and trying to launch a book "cheaply" can result in your book being buried with very minimal sales.

Let's start with my process. I begin by writing my novel in Scrivener. Scrivener can be painful to learn, but I found it worth the effort. I did quite a bit of google searching and spent hours watching youtube tutorials, but I'm now in a place that I know enough to be dangerous. I love that I can segregate chapters and scenes, track characters, input front/back matter, export in my desired format, and the corkboard is a nice option if you're in a habit of changing chapters around.

Scrivener cost: $59.99/one time for all novels

From there, I usually conduct no less than a dozen rounds of self-edits. This isn't my strongest gift as a writer, so I usually print out a hardcopy for my wife to edit (she is lovingly critical and has a good eye).

Hardcopy print cost: $90/one time per novel

Once my wife completes her round of edits, I apply those edits before sending the manuscript off to an editor through Upwork (a friend I know who edits a variety of works).

Editor cost: $475 for 110K words/one time per novel

Now the fun part beings. Once I have received the edits and applied them to my manuscript, I reach out to Damonza to create my book cover. They are great, and I highly recommend them. I truly believe you will struggle to get the same quality work from anyone at their price.

Damonza ebook cover cost: $375/one time per novel

To cap of the creation of a brand new novel, I send everything over to Tall Pines Books, who formats the interior, acquires ISBNs, and uses the ebook cover to create print spine and and back cover.

Tall Pine Books cost: $475/one time per novel

Lastly, comes marketing. I use BookSirens and BookSprout to build out an ARC team to gain reviews prior to my book launch. I also use Amazon ads and Meta ads once the book is released. Below cost also includes author proofs and copies.

All in marketing: $1,500

So, in total, for my first novel, Beautiful Torments, I spent an estimated $3K to publish. I'm by no means a USA Today or NYT bestselling author - yet :) - but my book have done well enough to keep the writing alive.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps encourage you to keep writing!