Budgeting Your Self-Publishing Project, Part I
Budgeting for Admin, Editing, and Proofing Costs
It’s budget season. Or is it? Some companies budget in the summer, some in the fall, some other weird times of year. I don’t know if there’s a specific time of year when people make their personal budgets, for those who make personal budgets. I know it’s budget o’clock somewhere.
Common question: How much will it cost to self-publish my book? The answer is, it depends. If you must have a number, I can offer a range. Anywhere from literally zero dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. Like the salary ranges in many modern-day job ads, this is a range so broad as to be completely useless.
Anyone can self-publish a book for free. You can author it in a free writing suite like Google Docs. You can use Amazon’s free Cover Creator application to make the cover. No need to buy an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) from Bowker if you’re publishing on Kindle only, Amazon will supply an ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number). Upload your formatted manuscript file, pair it with your cover, plug in some metadata, and you’re done. This is a very simple process and if you can operate a Word processor to format your manuscript you can operate the KDP interface to publish your project. There is no need to pay someone to do it for you.
I hope I have now established that the lower limit of the range to self-publish a book is $0.00. Free.
If you are an author who intends to self-publish and you would like to invest some money into the production of your book, then today’s Shelf Life can help you figure out what you need to budget for and how much based on which specs. I’m going to walk you through all the major budget line items on which you might expect to spend money during this process.
In today’s Part I, I’ll cover editing and proofing costs as well as the administrative costs of publishing that you may wish to budget for. In Thursday’s Part II, I’ll cover design, layout, indexing, printing, as well as any admin costs I forgot about today.
Please note: Any of these items may be skipped over and omitted from your budget, because none of these items are required to publish a book. However, some of these line items are required to publish a book in certain formats or venues. For instance, you cannot sell your book into most retailers or libraries without an ISBN; an ASIN, which is free, is only valid at Amazon. Likewise, you will have print costs if you release a print product—printing is never free (although print costs can be deducted from profits rather than come out of your pocket).
All costs in this Shelf Life are expressed in USD. Further, these estimates are based on publishing a work of fiction. While some costs would go unchanged for other types of projects (for instance, cost of an ISBN), other costs such as editing, design, and printing may differ if you’re publishing another type of work like a dictionary, a picture book, or a textbook.
Admin Costs
I’ve already mentioned your ISBN so I’ll start there. If you wish to sell your book through any venue other than Amazon, you will need an ISBN. An ISBN is your book’s unique identifier in the market and is represented graphically by the barcode on the back of your book. You do not need to pay extra for the barcode of your book’s ISBN(s). There are generators that you or any cover designer or any printer can use to create the barcode.
You may need only one ISBN or you may need multiple ISBNs. Each format of your book requires a unique ISBN: Paperback, hardcover, e-book, library binding, large print, et cetera. If you are issuing only one format, then you can buy one ISBN from Bowker for $129. If you are planning to publish more than two formats—for instance, an electronic edition, a paperback, and a hardcover—or if you are reasonably sure you’ll self-publish future books, then just buy a back of 10 ISBNs for $295. If you use 3 ISBNs out of the pack of 10 it’s a better deal
BUDGET LINE ITEM: ISBN
BUDGET: $125–$295
You should also account for copyright registration, which I cover in more depth in a previous Shelf Life. You need not register copyright to own the copyright to your work, but rather to defend that copyright in a court of law. If you choose to register the copyright for your work, the fee for a simple online registration is $45 or $125 for a paper filing. Keep in mind that even if you opt not to register your copyright, books published in the United States are still subject to mandatory deposit.
BUDGET LINE ITEM: Copyright Registration
BUDGET: $45–$125
I’m not doing a separate marketing and promotion section, so I thought I’d include this here. Wondering how much it costs to promote your book and distribute ARCs (advance reader copies) on NetGalley? A lot, if you’re on your own. Way less if you’re a member of the IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association). Membership has a number of benefits you can read about on their site, but among those is their NetGalley Program.
The IBPA is a NetGalley member and allows IBPA members to list their book digitally on NetGalley for three months ($299) or six months ($499). In addition, they offer several promotional opportunities on NetGalley (beyond making the galley available) ranging in cost from $130 to $400. These costs are in addition to the IBPA annual membership fee of $155.
The IBPA isn’t the only NetGalley coop in town, but they are—in my estimation—the most reputable in the sense that they don’t require any vetting on the author’s behalf.
BUDGET LINE ITEM: ARC Distribution/Promotion
BUDGET: $454–$1054
Editing and Proofing
Editing (alongside cover design) is where many authors will invest the majority of their funds and realize the majority of the value of that investment. It’s frankly hard to know what to budget for this service because, first of all, there are many types of editing and they’re all different and editors charge different rates for them. If you’re unclear on the different types of editing, check out What to Expect From Every Edit for a primer.
Even if you know what level of review you need, the pricing can vary wildly. You can find folks on Fiverr and UpWork offering these services at a very low price point and you can find high-end editorial service providers charging much more than the averages I’ll share below. My recommendation is budgeting in the ranges recommended by the Editorial Freelancers Association and then shopping around to come in below your budget.
There are two ways to budget: By the hour or by the word. “By the hour” budgeting breaks down to by the word at the end of the day, anyway, because there is a standard expectation for how many pages an editor can edit in an hour and a standard expectation for words per page. I’ll give budget advice for both types. Keep in mind: You must have your finished manuscript word count—or an estimate—before you can budget for editing.
I recommend that you budget for copyediting plus proofreading if you believe your manuscript is in near market-ready shape and for developmental editing in addition to both copyediting and proofreading if you believe your manuscript could use additional polish to really shine.
Developmental editing typically runs $0.03 to $0.04 per word or $50 to $60/hour with an expectation that a developmental editor will edit on average 5 to 10 pages per hour. A manuscript page is typically estimated at 250 words. Consider that a 60,000-word manuscript would run $1800 (at 3 cents per word) to $2400 (at 4 cents per word) if you measure by the word, or from $1,200 ($50 per hour at 10 pages per hour) to $2,880 ($60 per hour at 5 pages per hour). Paying by the word is more precise and you know up front exactly what you’ll spend. Paying by the hour is less precise but you can get a good deal if you hire a fast editor.
BUDGET LINE ITEM: Development Editing
BUDGET: $0.035/word or $55/hour based on an estimate of 1,750 words per hour.
Copyediting is less expensive than developmental editing but is not simply a cheaper version of the same; these modes of editing work on different facets of the manuscript. Copyediting tends to run $0.02 to $0.03 per word or $40 to $50 per hour based on the estimate of copyediting on average 5 to 10 pages per hour. As with developmental editing, consider that a 60,000-word manuscript would run $1,200 (at 2 cents per word) to $1,800 (at 3 cents per word) if you measure by the word, or from $960 ($40 per hour at 10 pages per hour) to $2,400 ($50 per hour at 5 pages per hour).
BUDGET LINE ITEM: Copyediting
BUDGET: $0.025/word or $45/hour based on an estimate of 1,750 words per hour.
Proofreading is only suggested if you’re putting out a print edition of your book. Traditionally, a proofreader’s job is to review the formatted, typeset pages for any errors that remain after copyediting and typesetting. If you are releasing an electronic-only book, you may opt for a proofread instead of copyediting, in which the proofreader would do, in essence, an extremely light edit that looks only for typos and formatting errors.
Proofreaders typically charge by the page (that’s a typeset page, not a manuscript page) or by the hour, with proofreaders working an an average pace of 8 to 14 pages per hour. The going rate is $3.00 to $5.00 per page or $35 to $45 per hour. Consider a book that comes in at 224 typeset pages (that’s including blanks and front matter). You would be looking at $672 to $1,120 if charged by the page or between $560 ($35/hour at 14 pages per hour) and $1260 ($45/hour at 8 pages per hour).
BUDGET LINE ITEM: Proofreading
BUDGET: $4.00 per page or $40/hour based on an estimate of 11 pages per hour.
Don’t miss Thursday’s Shelf Life for the thrilling conclusion to this budgeting exercise.
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