Tag: authors

C is for….Costs. There is a wide spectrum of costs and providers when it comes to self-publishing. And let me tell you something, the costs part is really something I didn’t have down to perfection. As mentioned yesterday, I had a very good day job and in the back of my mind, I dreamed about the positive reception, the way it was simply going to work out.

• Important Note: Dear Chemical Engineer Husband of Mine, if you’re reading this, do not act surprised, I did tell you and it’s in our tax return
• Second Very Important Note: I am also sharing at the bottom the costs of other self-published authors who have shared their breakdown on their site and who are awesome, just saying 🙂

The most money I spent on was on editing.Why? Because some of the feedback I received made me rewrite a big part of the story. Hence, I needed more editing than maybe others. And definitely more than what I will need for my next books.

• Cover Design by Derek Murphy:  $850
• Editing by Sara Biren, Maya Rock and Double Vision Editorial (content editing x 2, line editing x2, copy editing): $2500
• Blog tour (cover reveal), Blog Review Tour & Book Blitz: $350
• Patchwork Press/Netgalley (one month): $45
• Prizes for giveaways (Gift cards, Donations to DonorsChoose.org): $100
• Other Promotion and advertising (Facebook, copies of books, ): $500
• Formatting by Cait Greer: $150

What I’m going to do differently:

• Cover: I’m learning Photoshop and I will be doing my own covers. Sound crazy…but I think this is really going to work. I always loved taking pictures, I always loved playing around with pictures. I might show you some ideas during this month 🙂
• Promotion/advertising: I will use Facebook differently, will invest some money on other outlets (like Bookbub, ENT and so on…). The experiment with Facebook for advertising was a definite fail for me.
• Formatting: I am learning how to do my own formatting too.
• Editing: I am using only one provider for one book – and my books are I think more ready to go to editing than before. This will bring down the costs. A lot.

In another post, I’ll talk about my actual sales, how I didn’t meet my investment and how this all adds up to my “lessons learned”, and how I still believe in me, in my writing, in my books, in my success.

Interesting articles on self-publishing costs

• Juliana Haygert shares her costs of self-publishing
• Another post by Juliana Haygert about her costs of self-publishing
• Jennifer Ellision: Turning a profit
• The Write Life:  How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book? 4 Authors Share Their Numbers.
• You can try to be the next Hemingway for $6000 (The Guardian)
• The Real Costs of Self-publishing a book (on PBS)

Join me tomorrow for D is for…Cover DESIGN

One of the things I had not done properly was my business plan. I wanted to publish and I wanted to make sure it was the best product I could master (with the help of editors and cover designer, and, and, and…) but I didn’t sit down to think:

• “What’s my big goal?”
• “How do I define success for myself?”
• “What will my promotion schedule look like?”
• “What will be the costs and the possible unknowns?”
• “What’s my two-years goals, my five-years goals?”
• “How many books will I be publishing a year?”
• And so on…

The main reasons I didn’t do this were: (i) lack of time (my full-time job was time and mind consuming) (ii) the main job was definitely providing me enough funds to not worry about meeting my costs, and (iii) did I mention my unrealistic expectations?

Basically, if I want to succeed, I need to start looking more at the business side of things. I will be revamping my business plan and to do this, I have been reading more and more about the topic:  here are a few wonderful articles/podcast that have helped my research:

• Podcast with Denise Grover Swank – Business Plans for Authors on Rocking Self-Publishing 
• A business plan for self-published authors in 3 parts by Denise Grover Swank (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
• The 7-step business plan for writers by Angela Ackerman
• How to Plan your Publishing Business by Savvy Writers

• The Publishing Business Plan – 7 Essential Elements by The Future of Ink

  Join me tomorrow for C….like Costs