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Okay, so I’m looking to indie publish a novella.
It’s currently looking like it’s going to be $50-$100 to get it professionally edited
It’s going to be $400-$600 to get a cover that doesn’t look like an indie cover (which my best friend jokingly said she’d disown me for if I published with a cover that looked indie.)
It’s going to be ~$250 to get a set of 10 ISBNs, two of which will be for the ebook/hardcover versions and the other eight I can save for different writing projects.
I could possibly get typesetting done for free, but it could be up to $200.
I want to publish through Ingram spark, which will be $50 for print and distribution.
Overall, this is going to be between $750-$1200 dollars to publish a novella and have it look really, really good.
Is there anything I missed, and do you have any thoughts?
The pen is mightier than the sword, but in a duel, I'm taking the sword.
ekseaver.wordpress.com@e-k-seaver That looks really low for an editor. What type of edits are you looking at?
And your cover price looks high. Poole Publishing makes good-looking covers (depending to some degree on the genre, it looks like) for $150 at the most expensive. A $400-$600 cover might give you more of a quality guarantee, but you can go cheaper without trading too much value.
I’ve never paid for ISBNs, personally. I just let KDP assign me ISBNs. But that’s something that can differ from author to author, so I don’t have any specific comments on this.
Typesetting = formatting? I found this surprisingly easy to learn on my own, though I’ve had a good amount of trial and error in the process. I personally found it a worthwhile time investment, but that depends some on your priorities and skill set.
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
@r-m-archer, yeah, I probably underestimated the cost for that a little bit, but my book is a novella and on the shorter end of that spectrum. It’s not going to be over 20k, and I’m friends with a woman who’s a freelance editor and author and I was going to use her. (It’s Rachelle Ray Cobb, if you guys have used her before.) She charges $1 for every page (double spaced TNR 12) for line edits. Based on my calculations, that’s going to be somewhere around $80 for my novella. I messaged her a couple of days ago asking if she thought it was a better investment for me to do line or content edits.
I want a really, really well-designed book cover. I’m not cutting corners in that area. XD
Yeah, that’s just something I’d prefer to pay for– if I’m investing so much into my book, I’d like to own as much as possible.
Yes, yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t clarify. *Nods* Okay, cool. That’s kinda what I was thinking about– but I didn’t know how wise it would be to try it.
The pen is mightier than the sword, but in a duel, I'm taking the sword.
ekseaver.wordpress.com@e-k-seaver Ah. I think I was underestimating how many fewer pages a novella can be. XD
And also working off of my own pricing, which I might need to adjust down a little bit.I haven’t worked with her yet, but she’s tops on my list for this next book. I’d be curious what she says on the line vs. content editing front, if you’d like to share later. 🙂I’m not sure that going cheaper is always “cutting corners,” but I understand. Covers are important. XD I definitely agree with making the cover one of the biggest investments (if not the biggest).
That makes sense. I’m probably under-informed when it comes to ISBNs. The more purely practical something publishing-related is, the less it’s in my wheelhouse. ;P
No, that’s a lack of familiarity with different terminology on my part, lol. But now those are locked in as synonyms in my brain, so thank you. 😉 One option for formatting might be to pay to get this book formatted and then practice typesetting in between books so that you can more confidently do it on your own with future books, without delaying projects while you learn or anything like that.
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
@r-m-archer Ohh yeah that makes sense.
That’s probably a good idea. She has an English degree and a ton of experience… so like… yeah.Yeah! I’ll let you know when she gets back to me.I really like Seedling Design’s covers, so that’s the one I’m thinking about going with.
Yeah, everything I’ve read said “please buy one.” Even some of the companies that would assign them.
Oh, that’s a good idea.
The pen is mightier than the sword, but in a duel, I'm taking the sword.
ekseaver.wordpress.com@e-k-seaver also just so I know there are coupons for Ingram spark that lets u upload or reupload for free or just for a few dollars (I just discovered this the other day!) just look up Ingramspark coupons
#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSebAlso, with this topic, so would $2,000 be a good savings goal for Self publishing? At least for now because I also want this to be as professional as possible, but I’m gonna need to start saving now.
#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSeb@e-k-seaver Since I only do line edits and copy edits, I tried to choose a reasonable price based on what I saw others doing while also bumping it up a little so I charge based on what I’m good at (sort of “making up for” the fact that I don’t do developmental edits, which are generally a little more expensive). But it looks like I got the balance a little off, so I’ll need to fiddle with my pricing again. 😛
Ooh, those are pretty. I recognize a handful of the books they’ve designed for.
Yeah. There are some authors who are really good at design and do well with their own covers, but they tend to be pretty rare, lol. Buying a cover is definitely the safer bet.
A lot of what I learned about formatting I learned in between books, playing around with design for works-in-progress even though they weren’t done yet or designing a friend’s book to print just a couple copies (that was fun). Because I didn’t focus so much on design with my short stories, I cringe a little over all the things I know how to do better now when I look at my existing copies, lol. But at this point I know how to format well for my novels, which, for me, is the ultimate goal. (I’m realizing my publication journey has maybe been kind of weird. XD)
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
@godlyfantasy12, thank you! That’s incredibly helpful!
From what I’ve researched, yeah. Especially if you’re writing a full novel, which will cost more to edit and stuff.
@r-m-archer, ohhh yeah that makes sense.Yeah, they look really good.
I meant buying ISBNs, but yes, that too. XD
Any tips? What have you learned that you wish you’d have known at first?
The pen is mightier than the sword, but in a duel, I'm taking the sword.
ekseaver.wordpress.com@e-k-seaver Oh, oops. XD
Mm… I’m not sure? My route was kind of unconventional–I knowingly put less effort into my short stories because I know they’re not what I’m focused on and I wanted to put out something decent but not necessarily stellar while I worked on novels–but… it worked for me? Those short stories were a great opportunity for me to work on writing under a deadline, formatting, cover design, and editing, among other things. So even though they’re not perfect and I don’t promote them a whole lot, they served their purpose and gave me an opportunity to learn to do a lot of stuff on my own (even if I’d choose to hire out a lot of those things for most books moving forward) and to practice marketing here and there. So… I don’t know? Aside from “Don’t rush,” which I’ve learned from multiple projects over the years, there’s not much I’d tell myself to change if I could go back. Which doesn’t mean it’s the route I’d recommend for someone else, just… I don’t really know what advice to give from it because it worked more-or-less the way I envisioned? I’m sure that’s very helpful… ;P
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
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