The Cost of Publishing a Book: Part 1

Hey you! I've been promising it for over a week, and here it is, my explanation of the process and cost of professionally self-publishing a novel. Because there is so much info, I'm dividing it into two posts. Today's will focus on the pre-publication costs (editing, layout, printing), and the next installment will focus on the post-publication costs (distribution, marketing, and promotion).


First, the facts: according to UNESCO, around 2,000,000 books are published every year. In 2012, the most recent year I can find numbers for, Bowker states that nearly 400,000 of those are self-published. To be heard in that noise, you have to do it right, and that means stellar writing and professional editing, design, and promotion.

That doesn't come cheap, hence my Kickstarter campaign. I'll paste my budget for the book I hope the campaign will fund below. It doesn't include all the costs of professionally self-publishing because I'd already absorbed some of them on my own, but it gives a good snapshot:
I'll break down the process.

1. I wrote and revised The Catalain Book of Secrets. I estimate this took me 1500-2000 hours over the course of twelve years.
2. I sent the book in for two rounds of editing. Jessica Morrell is the freelance editor I use for all my projects, and I recommend her highly. Professional editors charge by the word, page, or hour (I prefer by the page), and the cost to have an 80,000-word book professionally edited is in the ballpark of $1500-$4000.
3. Then I sent the manuscript to my agent, who took me through four more rounds of editing. She's awesome, but she couldn't sell the book. I decided to self-publish. This book has magic, and I need to get it out there.
4. I knew I needed ISBNs for the book--one for paperback, one for hardcover--as well as bar codes for the paperback (the hardcover won't be for sale; it's only offered as a reward to the Kickstarter donors). You can buy one ISBN for $99 or ten for $300. Because I'm also self-pubbing a novella, a bought ten. The bar code is $25 per.
5. Next, I immediately started looking for reviews. It can take 3-6 months for professional reviews to come in, and I knew I wanted them on the book cover. Getting reviews when you're self-pubbing is difficult, and I went the controversial route of paying $425 for a review from Kirkus Reviews. Other credible (as credible as it can be when you are paying for it) review sites for indie authors are Publishers Weekly (this one is actually free, though you need your book cover complete to submit), Indiereader ($225), and Midwest Book Review ($50). Once your book is formatted (cover and interior), there are many free options for reviews. NetGalley will make your book available to reviewers for $399.
6. If you don't have a website yet, you need one. I'm overhauling mine, using Bizango. If you've got design skills, you can make one yourself for cheap, paying around $150 a year for hosting. A professional website will cost you from $2000-$5000. If you don't have an online presence yet, now is the time to build it through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the rest.
7. I found a cover designer and interior designer named Scarlett Ruger. Next to professional editing, this is THE most important (and costly) step in the pre-pub process. Your book has to look professional on the outside and in. For $1000, Scarlett creates the cover, and designs the 
   
   interior for hardcopy, mobi (Kindle), and epub (all other ebooks). Her price is on the low end, but I've seen her work and love it. I've also used Crowdspring for the $600 Toadhouse Trilogy cover and hired an interior designer to design the book's interior for around $500. 
8. After you have your cover and your interior layout done, you need to hire a copyeditor to proof the almost-final copy of the book. This will run you from $400-$800. Don't skimp here. Nothing turns off readers (myself included) like typos and inconsistencies.
9. Next, it's time to choose your printer and distributor. Createspace, Amazon's POD arm, is professional and quick, and they don't charge a set-up fee, so this step is essentially free. However, and this is a big however, you are hurting indie bookstores and your chance of getting your book into a bookstore if you go this route. I am choosing IngramSpark because they allow a returns as well as a competitive discount. They charge a $50 set-up fee. I may also use Createspace for Amazon-only hard copies of my book and will certainly have my ebook available for sale in Kindle format, but I very much want to support and be supported by independent bookstores, and Ingram accommodates that.

All right. :) That's all the pre-pub steps and costs. I have spent/will need to spend around $9000 to get to this point, and that's because I shopped around. If you have design skills, you can bring it even lower. My next post will be on marketing and promotion, which is where the really expensivestuff comes in, but please, I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions below. Can you recommend other cover designers, other printers, other editors? What are your thoughts on paid reviews? Did I skim over anything you'd like me to go deeper into? What did I miss (please, tell me now while I can still do something about it!).

You can find my Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675834533/the-catalain-book-of-secrets.