Making cents of the dollars

Illustration by paperbeatscissors

So I want to talk about the business side of my indie book adventures. While working on my first book I looked at several sites to try and estimate how much money I’d have to put down to publish my book. Pretty much all I got was; the price varies.

Whelp, that’s not helpful.

Therefore, I thought it might be valuable to other people for me to peel back the curtain and show my expenses for Hench. My costs will not be your costs, but they will give you some real-world numbers to better evaluate how much money you should save, and how much you should ask for when approaching people for services.

I’m a highly organized person, financially speaking, so I have a detailed record of where all my hard earned money went. I’ll also talk a bit about profits and why this is (for me) a passion project.

So, let’s break it down!

Book cover design: $450.00

Editing: $500.00

Additional illustration: $450.00

Proofreading: $100.00

Promotional materials: $350.00

ISBN cost: $295.00

Title setting: $49.00

ARC and prepress: $245.50

Asset royalties: $39.95

Webhosting: $129.6

Layout software: $31.49

THE BIG UGLY TOTAL: 2640.54

If you’re not familiar with the costs of self-publishing that number may be shocking. I know my jaw slackened when I realized how much money was required, that’s for sure. And yes, those are accurate numbers. And yes, I put a lot of time and effort forward (and luck) to keep costs as low as I could get them.

So how the heck did I wander past 2.5K when I was being so parsimonious? Well, you know the adage, do it right and do it once? It’s true, and unfortunately it costs money to do it right. I could have saved money by getting a free isbn from another company, but I wouldn’t own my codes unless I got them from Bowker themselves, and that takes moolah. I also could have designed my own cover, I even tried, but it wasn’t anywhere near as good a professional illustrator who knows her stuff. I did do my own layout, which saved a bundle, but I payed for it with migraines…

So, now that the initial cost is down, what do the returns look like?

in a couple of words? Not good.

When you buy my book from a e-retailer I get about two bucks. So that means I have to sell over 1300 books to break even, and for a debut novel that will take years. In short, I’ll have to put out a few more books in the henchman series before my first book will get decent sales traction, because nothing sells like the next book…

In other words, I’m not quitting my day-job anytime soon. And seeing that it will take years to see a modest profit, it’s quite apparent that this venture is a passion project, not a profit venture. Honestly, that’s how I like it, writing because I love it.