Wondering how much does it cost to get a book published? There’s no straightforward answer to this question, but we can only give you a ballpark number. The cost to publish a book depends on the quality, length, animations, and marketing budget, which can range between $500 and $6000.
If you are looking for a comprehensive breakdown of the total cost to self publish a book, you have come to the right place. This blog covers the basics and teardown of the total cost to publish a book, regardless of the platform.
Some people even wonder does it cost money to publish a book, while others know the price range but are not sure about it. Ready to learn the hidden cost to self publish a book? Let’s get started.
How much does it cost to self-publish a book?
To give you an idea of book publishing, on average, it might cost you $2500 to $5000 to self-publish a book. The total cost to publish a book is calculated after you factor in the marketing, writing, editing, proofreading, animations, and design part.
If you are asking how much is it to publish a book for a client or someone who will publish the book for you, the answer is the bare minimum when it comes to self-publishing a book on Amazon. You don’t have to pay a dime to any publisher to show your work to millions of readers on Amazon.
Also, not many of you know this, but Amazon-published authors get a $2 to $4 royalty on every book sale. However, best-selling authors on Amazon get higher royalties consistently.
Difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing of a book
Some writers get discouraged because they think publishing a book is a hassle. But if you know how much to publish a book really costs, you will pick up your pen and start writing magic. Now let’s get down to brass tacks!
Self-Published Books
- As we said earlier, self-publishing a book on Amazon KDP won't cost you much but there are other costs that you need to consider.
- As an author, you have to pay for the book cover design, editing, formatting, proofreading, and all the costs that help make your book ready to publish.
- The estimated cost will be around:
Editing: $1000 to $2000
Design: $500 to $2000
Formatting: $100 to $1000
Proofreading: $400 to $1500.
Marketing: $500 to $5000.
- The bottom line is that you have to handle every step of the process, which can be taxing for many new authors.
- The plus side is that you will receive higher royalties from your book sales as well as creative freedom.
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Traditional publishing
- While choosing the traditional publishing method, you won't have to bear any publishing costs, they'll handle the cover design, editing, and formatting.
- Some of the biggest publishing companies according to stats in 2022 were Thomson Reuters (Toronto, Canada), Penguin Random House (New York, USA), and Pearson (London, England).
- You can reach out to them to get your book published.
- The only caveat is that you have to share a higher royalty rate with the publishers and might even have to do your marketing as well.
- There's another thing you'll have to consider, which is hiring a literary agent to represent your book.
- Also, this is a time-consuming method because your book might get rejected by traditional publishing firms.
Hire a publishing company
- There is one more thing you can do and that is to hire a reputable publishing company like Ace Book Publishers to self-publish your book.
- They'll provide you with affordable rates to publish your book while efficiently handling all the process that goes into publishing a book.
- The best thing though is that you won't have to share your profit or ownership rights with them.
How much does it cost to make a book?
In 2022, the global book publishing revenue was $129 billion. So if you have a long-term goal of self-publishing books, you might wonder how much do book editors make, or how much does it cost to start a publishing company. Let us discuss the cost of every book genre because you need subject matter experts to write and edit a book for you.
History Books
- It requires extensive fact-checking and removing the wrong side of history.
- It might range between $400 to $600.
Science Fiction
- It requires more pages than a basic novel, which means more editing, pages, and proofreading.
- The range is between $800 to $1000.
Nonfiction
- The average cost can be between $900 to $1200, which requires editing, detailed proofreading, and critical readings to squeeze out the hiccups.
Children’s Books
- The total word count of any children’s book or storybook is much lower compared to all the genres mentioned above.
- It might cost you between the range of $300 to $500.
You should always remember that the real cost of making a book is a good investment if you have planned carefully, maintained the budget, and know the complexities of how much money does it cost to publish a book to bring your vision to life.
What are the basic steps in publishing a book?
Once you are done with the first draft of your book you have been meaning to write for decades, here are all the steps to take to publish it. You can check the list here and follow them along.
Planning and writing
- The first step is thinking and analyzing how much time it would take to write a book.
- If you are running as a consultant or run your own business, you might have an idea of the total number of days to write and finish a book.
- To give you a little context here, on average it takes 50 to 60 days for a normal writer to finish writing a book based on genre.
- For some writers, 60 days might seem a lot, but it requires consistency and perseverance.
- While other writers finish a book in 100 or more days while writing longer pieces.
- So, you need to plan accordingly and write consistently to save time and cost.
- Or you can hire a professional ghostwriter from Ace Book Publishers to make work easier for you.
Edit your book
- This might be a shocker to some people but editing and proofreading are different.
- You have to read every sentence, edit the words, and ensure there are no typos and grammatical errors.
- Plus, you have to correct the style, sentence flow, and syntax, and make structural tweaks.
- If you think you are not capable enough to edit and proofread a book on your own, you can always pay a professional editor to do it for you.
- Most professional editors might charge you $1500+ for a 30,000-word draft.
- On the other hand, a proofreader checks typos, punctuation, and everything else on the book draft to make it flawless.
- You have to hire a proofreader before sending the draft to the designer.
- Once the design part is done and dusted, the proofreaders will give it a second read and ensure it is error-free.
Format and cover design
- The next step is to get your book formatted professionally to fit the method of publishing you want.
- E-books have a different formatting style and paperbacks have a different format.
- Then you'll need to send your book to get a professionally made book cover that can attract your readers.
Index your book
- Based on the book genre, indexing might cost you $100 to $300.
- This is important for non-fiction books, but indexes are not required in children’s books.
Send your draft to beta readers
- You have to take a second opinion on the overall writing and editing part.
- Get as much feedback as you can, which can make the sentences refined and on-point.
Printing
- You might have to pay for printing, and the cost of it depends on the book's quality and the number of pages.
- Or you can choose the print-on-demand option to save you extra cost.
Now your book is ready, you can start looking for publishing and marketing options to reach your target audience.
How Much Does It Cost to Publish a Children's Book?
The cost of publishing a book can vary based on multiple factors, and whether you want to self-publish or hire someone to publish it for you. If you wish to self-publish a book, you have more control of the entire process. The only caveat is that self-publishing is not easy, and it requires both effort and investment upfront. Some of the investments you’ll have to consider in publishing a children's book might include:
Writing and Editing
- You can hire a professional writer with experience in writing Children’s books for $15 to $40 an hour if you are not writing the book yourself.
- Once the writer is done with the draft, hire a professional editor to correct the syntax, maintain the sentence flow, and rewrite sentences if need be.
Illustrations
- You can hire any expert freelancer or a book publishing services to create aesthetic illustrations for your children’s book.
- Some people save money on illustrations, but it can make or break your profit sales after you publish it.
- Great book illustrations can outweigh the cost of publishing a book.
Designing
- Most book publishers are known for their amazing layouts and attention-grabbing designs for as low as $25 and as high as $150.
- But expert designers from a renowned book publishing company can charge you more than just $150.
Printing and production
- Most of the steps don’t require you to pay an upfront fee, which includes Amazon KDP publishing.
- However, Amazon will charge you and get a royalty on every book sale and print.
- All in all, you might have to pay $8 to $10 per copy and $4 to ship the book to customers.
Marketing
- You need to create an online presence to let people and interested buyers know everything about the book and how to buy it.
- Online presence includes social media marketing, regular posts on Facebook groups, or Amazon ads.
- You can also use promotional platforms like BookBub and pay them to market your book for you.
- The cost can be between $1000 to $3000, based on the number of months you are hiring them for social media marketing services.
- The best solution though is to hire an expert publishing company to handle the whole writing and publishing process from A to Z. For this, we recommend Ace Book Publishers to get your children's books published at affordable rates.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that the major cost and money to publish a book goes to the writer, editor, proofreader, designers, print, and marketing. However, the real cost drills down to the path you are taking, traditional publishing methods, self-publishing a book, or hiring someone to publish it for you.
With careful planning and budgeting, you can ace book publishing and get consistent customers for years to come. Looking for someone to publish your book? Reach out to one of our sales reps to help you with book publishing and help you with regular sales and marketing.
Frequently Asked Questions
The typical cost of marketing books can be between $100 to $10,000 based on the number of months you are hiring someone to do it for you.
The real cost of printing a 300-page book is based on the paper type, printing technology, binding type, color printing, and overall printing quality. As a rough estimate, you have to pay up to $4 to $5 for a single-page run. When it comes to 300 pages or more, you can get a discount and the rate can be between $2 to $3.
The approximate time to write a 100-page book is roughly 25 hours, considering you are writing 1000 words every hour and writing 300 words on every page.
Printing is expensive because of the cost of the paper (weight, quality, and type), Ink and color printing, and skilled workers to prepare the materials and operate the printing machine properly.