02 May The Cost of Indie Publishing
I Published My Book for Fifty Dollars
I published my first book for fifty dollars. Retirement: A Journey not a Destination was a do-it-yourself project. And, frankly that’s what it looked like, since I had so little expertise in graphic design and formatting of text.
But that was just fine because I only meant it for a limited audience of family and friends. And, it was a great learning experience.
My novel Hattie’s Place is intended for a much wider audience. Thus, I want to make certain that the final product does not look homemade. I have chosen to publish independently through Create Space, as I did last time. However, this time I’m availing myself of the professional services offered by the CreateSpace publishing consultants.
Author Editing Services
CreateSpace offers editing services. However, I did not feel the need of them, as my manuscript had already been through two professional editing rounds. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I invested $2448.93 in the Kirkus Collaborative Editing package for a professional critique of the content and structure of my novel.
After extensive revisions, I had an additional copy edit done for $1580. (The cost is figured on a basic fee plus a per word fee. I had a little over 90,000 words.)
I spoke with one of the publishing consultants at CreateSpace, who was very helpful in answering all of my questions. As a result, I purchased the following services:
- Custom Cover—CreateSpace designs two professional book covers, based on a questionnaire about my manuscript and my own vision for the cover. I can choose one of the two. The cost is $399.
- Simple Interior–I can select from several basic fonts and styles, and CreateSpace formats the interior for the hardcopy of the book accordingly. This includes properly formatted title page and table of contents. The cost is $199. (The interior of my book is simple because it has no pictures or graphs or tables. To add any of those items would be more expensive.)
- Simple Kindle Conversion–CreateSpace will also convert my manuscript to Kindle format. The cost is $79.
- Marketing Copy Essentials–An expert copywriter crafts my marketing materials based on my book’s target audience, summary, and key messages. This also includes my back cover text and author biography. The cost is $249.
- LCCN Assignment—CreateSpace does the paperwork for having a Library of Congress number assigned to my book. The cost is $25.
So far, I have $4979.93 invested in my book–$951 for the CreateSpace services, $2448.93 for the collaborative editing, and $1580 for the the copy editing. For my next novel, I would forgo the collaborative edit, and that would bring the total to $2531.
Support to Fit Your Budget and Needs
My point in itemizing the cost of each of the services I selected, is to illustrate how much support is available to an author seeking to publish his/her work.
You can do it on a shoestring, for as little as $50, if you’re willing to devote your own time or if you have a writing support group/technology savvy friends to help. You can invest around $5000 and get it all done professionally. Or, you can pick and choose only those services that you are unable or unwilling to do for yourself, and invest something in between the two extremes.
Adding Images and Graphics is More Complicated and Expensive
I need to mention one caveat. The process becomes more complicated and expensive if you’re seeking to publish a manuscript with lots of images or graphics. Examples are a children’s book with more illustrations than print, a memoir or travel book with pictures, a book that contains graphs or tables.
I can’t tell you specifically how complicated or how expensive the addition of images and graphs would be, because, with the exception of the cover, my book is exclusively text. What I can say from experience is that if your manuscript is primarily simple text, the CreateSpace process can be a quick, seamless, and budget-friendly way to publish.
For more on this topic, see Indie Publishing and Ending CreateSpace Author Services.
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