Wednesday, March 9, 2016

How much I spent publishing my first book

I wondered for months about whether this post was appropriate, or not. I didn’t want to offend anyone, after all. But when I first considered self-publishing, knowing how much it cost to publish was one of the things I wanted to know. Of course, this is only a reflection of how much I spent and my reasoning behind them.

I spent $ 686 on publishing my book. 88% of the money went toward editing and the rest towards my book covers (e-book + print edition). For me, editing and the cover was the most important. I opted to do the formatting myself, because I couldn’t afford to hire anyone else to do it. I live in South Africa and at the time of publishing, the rand was R 12 to $1. Meaning, for the $ 686 I spent, in my own currency it worked out to R 8232. For me that’s a lot of money. I wasn’t working a proper day job during those times. I was working as my brother’s research assistant/ data capturer. I was paid whatever he could spare. So I had to publish on the budget I had. It’s not an excuse. It’s just the truth.

If you can believe it, hiring an American editor and cover artist was more affordable than hiring someone from my own country. I’m happy for both my editor and cover artist. They gave me two fantastic products, which I am over the moon with.

As you have read I didn’t have a marketing budget. At the time of preparing for the book’s release I didn’t feel like making a big deal of the release was what I wanted. So, I only tried marketing forms that were free. I mainly had my blogging friends help me out. As someone just starting out in publishing I thought it was the best choice for me.

So, that’s a breakdown of my costs. What do you think? Any questions?

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