So you’ve written a book. Congratulations! You’ve poured your heart, soul, and possibly your sanity into 80,000 words that may or may not make sense. Now comes the next question: How much will it cost to publish this masterpiece?
The short answer: your money, your sleep, and possibly your last shred of dignity.
The long answer: let’s break it down.
The Two Roads: The Sane and the Insane (and the Insanely Broke)
There are two main paths to publication, each with its own brand of financial pain.
- The Traditional Route (aka The Lottery Ticket): This is where you write a book, convince a literary agent that you’re worth it, and then they convince a major publisher to give you money to publish your book. You pay nothing upfront, but you’ll get a royalty rate so small, you’ll need a magnifying glass to see it. It’s like finding a winning ticket for a million dollars, but the prize is a check for $15,000 and the option to buy a coffee with a 10% discount.
- The Self-Publishing Route (aka The Business Plan for Crazy People): This is where you are your own publisher, your own editor, your own marketing department, and your own personal banker. You pay for everything, and you keep all the profits (after a small, insignificant chunk goes to the distributor, the tax man, and all the influencers you pay to market your book).
The Self-Publishing Breakdown
Since most of us aren’t going to win the traditional publishing lottery, let’s focus on the glorious financial journey of the self-published author.
Editing – $500 to $5,000 (a.k.a. “The Necessary Evil”)
Editing is where you pay someone to politely tell you your book baby is ugly.
- Developmental edit: “This entire middle section is boring. Kill it.”
- Copyedit: “You used ‘defiantly’ instead of ‘definitely’… 147 times.”
- Proofreading: “You accidentally named your hero’s dog ‘Barky’ in Chapter 3 and ‘Marky’ in Chapter 17. Pick one.”
If you’re looking for affordable editors, these are my go-to lifesavers: Erica Russikoff, Melanie Yu and Beth Lawton.
Book Cover – $100 to $1,000 (Please Don’t DIY This in MS Paint)
Covers sell books. If your cover looks like you hired your cousin Kevin who “sort of knows Photoshop,” people will run away faster than you can say “Comic Sans.”
• Cheap premade cover: looks okay, but your book might have a twin somewhere on Amazon.
• Custom cover: expensive, but at least your vampire doesn’t look like he was drawn during lunch break.
Warning: You will spend three weeks debating the shade of red for your title font.
If you’re hunting for the best cover designers, here are a few gems: Books And Moods, Chloe Friedlein and Eve After Cover Design.
Formatting – $50 to $500 (a.k.a. “Making Your Book Look Like a Book”)
What you get: A beautifully laid-out book that looks like it was made by someone who knows what they’re doing.
The Reality: You’ll try to do this yourself, only to discover that Microsoft Word has a deep, personal vendetta against you. You will spend five hours trying to get the page numbers to align, give up, and then spend $400 for someone to do it in 20 minutes.
- Print formatting: pages, margins, spacing… all the things you didn’t know you cared about until your proof copy looked a mess.
- Ebook formatting: so your chapters don’t explode on Kindle and force readers to sue you for emotional distress.
ISBN – $0 to $125 (a.k.a. “Your Book’s Social Security Number”)
In the US, you can get one free if you use Amazon KDP’s, but then Amazon is technically listed as your publisher. If you want independence, you’ll pay for your own.
Translation: $125 for a 13-digit number no one but librarians care about. Yay. You can pay 125 for one, or $295 for a block of ten (because you know you’re not a one-hit wonder… right?).
Marketing – $0 to “How Much Does a Kidney Sell For?”
This is where dreams go to die.
• Facebook/Instagram ads: $5 a day that feels like setting cash on fire.
• Book tours: exciting, but it’s really just you sitting alone in a Barnes & Noble hoping your mom shows up.
• ARC reviewers: some are angels, some are trolls who’ll say your book is “fine if you enjoy trash.”
Miscellaneous Writer Expenses – $$$ Infinite $$$
These don’t get listed in official “publishing cost” blogs, but they’re real.
- Caffeine supply: $50 a month or however much your local coffee shop decides your addiction is worth.
- Therapy: priceless.
- Snacks you eat at 2 a.m. while crying over rejection emails: $300 annually.
- Therapy again, but this time for your family, because you yelled “DON’T INTERRUPT MY PROCESS” when they asked you to take out the trash.
The Grand Total
So, how much does publishing a book cost?
The “I’m a Professional” Total: Somewhere between $2,000 and $7,000.
The “I’ll do it myself and cry a lot” Total: Who knows? Your tears are priceless.
The “I won the traditional publishing lottery” Total: A very, very small fraction of your dignity and creative control.
In the end, publishing a book is a lot like having a baby. It’s an incredible, life-changing experience, but it’s also incredibly expensive, messy, and you’ll spend a lot of time wondering if you’ve made a terrible mistake. But hey, at least you have a book to show for it. Now get back to writing the sequel. Those commas aren’t going to edit themselves.