I had a slightly awkward conversion with a business professional looking to self-publish a book – with the aim to use the book as his new ‘business card’.
We had discussed his aims and reasons why he was choosing to self-publish, the milestones and targets that he would use to test and measure his results and lead conversion, plus the momentum needed to build his audience on and offline.
Where the conversion started to unravel was when we began discussing costs to produce then print the book – given that his target market are also less likely to purchase an e-book.
The holistic figure I gave was $6,000 – which would include a print run of 500.
I was greeted with silence from the other end of the phone, before a chocked out “Really?”
So I broke down the production and printing costs for him as follows:
- Proofreading – $400
- Editing – $1,000
- Cover Design – $400
- Typesetting – $750
- Project Management – $500
- ISBN Assignment & Barcode – $140
- Printing – $2,500 to $3,000
Yes, $6,000 to hire the right team to transform your manuscript into printed form may seem to be a high priced investment – but it is an investment into your success by creating a professional product that will maximise your lead generation and conversion potential.
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I was looking at CreateSpace for as a possibility to self-publish. It seems like the right place for an unpublished author. The only real problem is formatting. I’m also not sure if anyone would actually buy it other than my friends and family. Any thoughts?
Createspace and Smashwords are great options for Self Published Authors that prefer Print on Demand – rather than investing in a minimum print run of 500. Both have great how-to-guides to walk new Authors through the process of creating their e-book, alternately they both have a list of e-book designers that you can hire for a fee.
For a novelist, the best way to begin to develop your audience base is to harness the reach of social media and blogging, two great examples spring to mind http://www.zoewrites.com and http://www.ellyklein.com.
Rochelle
Thank you for the links! I’ll be sure to check them out!
It’s very true, self-publishing costs way more than you think–and then marketing the book adds costs on top of that. I’d be curious to know what your business professional thought it would cost him.
It was the editing and design costs that through him, as he had budgeted for only half of both of these costs.
His graphic design has provided him with a quote that is a flat fee for the initial typesetting/cover design with an hourly rate to be applied for any editorial changes that need to be made.
My advice was to heavily invest in proof reading and editing, as the last three books I had undertaken had up to 30 hours of editorial changes that needed to applied post typesetting.
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