avatarRené Junge

Summary

A self-published author details the costs involved in publishing a high-quality book, including cover design, proofreading, book promotion, and advertising, totaling approximately €2452.50 (or $2700) per book.

Abstract

The author of the article, a self-published writer, provides a transparent breakdown of the expenses associated with publishing a book without the backing of a traditional publishing house. The costs include a professional cover design, thorough proofreading, promotional activities through various channels, and advertising on platforms like Facebook and Amazon. Despite the high upfront costs, the author emphasizes the importance of these investments for the success of a book launch, which occurs every two months. The article also touches on the misconception that self-publishing is an easy or less professional route, highlighting the significant effort and financial commitment required to produce a successful book.

Opinions

  • The author acknowledges the stigma of self-publishing as unprofessional but counters this by detailing the meticulous process and significant expenses involved in producing a high-quality book.
  • There is a wide range of pricing for services like cover design, and authors must choose based on their budget and the quality they seek.
  • The author values the relationship with their cover designer, who

This is how much I spend on selfpublishing a book

As a self-published author, you control the entire production- and publishing process of your book. Nobody tells you what your cover should look like and what marketing activities should be done. That sounds good, doesn’t it? But of course, you bear all the costs that would otherwise be paid by a publisher. In this article, I’ll tell you how much I spend on publishing a book.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Self-publishers still have a reputation with many readers for being unprofessional. They think we authors write our story, convert the document into a Mobi file, and upload it after we’ve quickly created a cover with Photoshop.

In fact, there are thousands of such books in the Kindle shop — but you have to search for them for a long time because nobody buys these books and therefore they are practically invisible in the shop.

What it costs to produce a high-quality book is what I show today using the example of a typical book launch, how I do it every two months.

The cover

From the inexpensive premade cover for thirty Euros to the graphic masterpiece for a thousand Euros, the market in Germany, where I publish, offers everything. In the USA, the prices are comparable.

Everybody has to decide for himself which budget to plan for his cover and look around the market accordingly.

I have been working with my designer for years, who knows precisely how to put my books in the limelight to encourage my readers to buy them.

I pay 300 € and get an e-book cover, a print cover, and an advertising banner optimized for Facebook.

Cover: 300 €

proofreading and editing

Proofreaders and editors calculate an amount per word. The longer the book, the more expensive the service. The prices vary strongly and also depend on the ordered extent of the work.

If, in addition to spelling and grammar, the style and plot of the text have to be checked, it can quickly become costly.

I always only use spelling and grammar. Still, since I am a long-time regular customer of my proofreader, she also pays attention to plot holes, logic errors, and inadequate formulations.

Since my books are between 50,000 and 55,000 words long, I pay about 600 € for proofreading.

Proofreading: 600 € + Cover 300 € = 900 €

Book promotion sites

As soon as the book is published, advertising must be done. In Germany, there are four suppliers that I have commissioned because they have proven to be useful. The prices of the different providers also vary a lot. The more readers the website and the newsletter reach, the more expensive it becomes.

The most expensive service I order costs 348 €and the cheapest costs 10 €. In total, I spend 581 € on book promotion pages.

Book promotion pages : 581 + Cover 300 € + Proofreading 600 € = 1481 €

Facebook Ads and Amazon Ads

When you finally figure out how to create profitable ads on Facebook after many attempts, it’s a beneficial channel.

However, most authors only burn money in their first attempts on Facebook. It wasn’t any different for me at first.

Meanwhile, I am planning a budget of 500 €.

At Amazon, it’s challenging to spend the money you have. Even if I enter a daily budget of 40 €, Amazon uses at most 5 € per day.

Thus, at the end of an advertising month, I get an average cost of almost 100 € for Amazon ads.

Facebook Ads + Amazon Ads: 600 € + Cover 300 € + Proofreading 600 € + Promo Sites 581 € = 2081 €

vouchers

To sell as many books as possible to my target group at the start of sales, I have a pool of 375 hardcore fans who have registered in a list. I then send these people Amazon vouchers for the book. Since I take a launch price of 99 cents for my books, the vouchers cost me 371.25 €.

However, I get royalties of 29 cents for every book bought with a voucher.

But since never all vouchers are redeemed, it is challenging to calculate here how much of these costs are generated again by associated sales. So I put the full amount into my calculation.

Vouchers: 371,50 € + Cover 300 € + Proofreading 600 € + Promo Sites 581 € + Facebook ads and Amazon Ads 600 € = 2452,50 €

In total, I invest 2452,50 € in every book I publish.

Converted into US dollars, that’s about $2700.

Conclusion

Self-publishing is a business like any other. You have to invest in making money later. Many aspiring authors, but above all, the readers are not aware of how high these costs are and how difficult it is to cover them through sales and then make a living from them.

Fun fact: Until two weeks ago, I sold my books exclusively for 99 cents. From these revenues and the income from Kindle Unlimited, I have financed all my books and my life so far.

As you can see, to be profitable in self-publishing, you have to sell a lot of books.

Warning: If someone tells you to publish a book about Amazon Kindle, that’s easy money, then run in the other direction. This guy obviously has no idea and just wants to sell you overpriced courses.

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