Hidden Costs of Self-Publishing
Breaking down the dollars & cents of the “free” publishing option
If you’re a writer with a finished manuscript wanting to self-publish, there are a lot of options to consider when looking for services to help you produce a professional-looking product. As a freelance and award-winning editor who has worked with a number of clients to help them self-publish their books, I’ve seen firsthand the costs that go into making an author’s book stand out.
So, let’s break them down and see what the prices might be in terms of money, time, and resources. To produce a professional-level book, the more DIY the level of publishing, the more you might be spending out of pocket.
Since we can’t look at every type of book under the sun, let’s take the example of what it would cost to publish a novel of about 75,000 words with no illustrations except for the cover.
Based on how manuscripts are formatted when submitted, that would be approximately 250 words/page, or about 300 pages in manuscript format. Assuming you’d want both a print book and an eBook, let’s take a look at some of the costs to make it happen.
Self-Publishing Overview
While self-publishing has been around for a long time, the field has diversified quite a…
