After publishing six e-books in 2010 out of financial desperation, I’ve come to two conclusions:
1) Digital self-publishing is a straightforward process that isn’t particularly difficult or expensive.
2) There is nothing a small publisher can or will do for writers that they can’t do better for themselves. I don’t mean literally do everything yourself, but a writer can contract for production services as well as a publisher can.
Why? Small presses are often run by a few dedicated, but overworked individuals. They typically contract out most services, and they often pay bottom dollar. I know this because I’ve worked as freelance editor and turned down all of the work offered by small presses because they simply don’t pay enough. Small presses are trying to profit and survive like everyone else and they cut costs where they can.
A large publisher can offer distribution and promotional backing, but most small publishers don’t offer either, so what’s left for the author is the label of being traditionally published and the convenience of having someone else contract the production work. Giving up most of the profit for these small advantages is a hard bargain that I don’t recommend. As the author, you have to sell the book no matter who publishes it, so you might as well make the investment, publish it yourself, and reap the rewards.
The three main elements to producing a quality e-book are editing, cover design, and formatting. Many authors are tempted to do all three themselves to save money. But unless you’re incredibility talented and have all the time in the world, it’s probably not a cost-effective decision.
Editing can be expensive, especially if you contract for content evaluation, but you can keep the cost down by sending your manuscript to beta readers or working with a critique group to fine tune the plot and structure. You should, of course, print and read the manuscript out loud before paying anyone else to proof it. After carefully reading it yourself, send it to a professional editor for line editing and proofreading. Many editors charge $1500 and up, but you don’t have to pay that much. You can find someone to proofread your manuscript for $300–$800, depending on the length of the novel. If you pay less, your editor will be in a rush and probably won’t do a good job. If you pay more, it may take a long time to earn back your investment.
A good cover is also essential. Most cover artists charge a flat fee, and you can expect to pay between $150 and $500. Some charge a lot more than that, but why spend that much if you don’t have to? One way to save money is to find the right image yourself, so you’re not paying the artist for that time. One of the great things about self-publishing an e-book is that you can revise it as often as you want, including creating a new cover down the road when the book is making money. The best way to find a cover designer is to network with other writers, including joining listservs that focusing on marketing.
Formatting: I originally thought I would learn to format my own e-books to save money. Other authors make it sound easy. But I quickly decided that the time and frustration spent on the learning curve was not cost-effective. Time is money. For me, it made more sense to send my Word files and cover jpgs to a professional for formatting. The e-book I got back was gorgeous. In fact, I received two files: a mobi file to upload to Amazon and an epub to upload everywhere else. I strongly recommend working with a formatter who produces these two types of files.
Readers’ biggest complaint about e-books is the formatting. Getting it right is essential. Rates may vary, but if you’re starting with a Word document, it shouldn’t cost more than around $150. For authors who have a backlist and novels that are in book form instead of Word documents, those books will need to be scanned, and the cost of e-book production will be more expensive. The number of errors from the optical character recognition is also much higher. It might be cost-effective to pay a very fast typist to transcribe your published book into a Word document before sending it to a formatter. You’ll end up with fewer errors too.
Taking the lowest rates I’ve mentioned ($300, $150, and $150), you can conclude that it will cost at least $600 to produce a quality e-book. I raided my very small retirement account to publish my six books, and I considered it a small business loan to myself. I now treat my novel-writing career as a business instead of a hobby and it has paid off for me.
How long does it take to earn back a $600–$1000 investment? That depends on many things, including how many novels you have on the market. The more books you have, the more credibility you have, which is why I decided to do all mine back to back. Assuming you’ve written a terrific story and produced a quality product, the biggest factor is how much time you’re willing to spend promoting. I spent at least two hours a day for six months, plus one exclusive two-week period during which I promoted eight hours a day (blogs, press releases, reader forums, etc.). I continue to spend at least an hour every day on promotional activities. For the record, I made my money back by the end of the year, and going forward is all profit.
It’s your book and you’ve invested your money, you might as well invest your time too and make it pay off.
L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and the author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mystery/suspense series: The Sex Club, Secrets to Die For, Thrilled to Death, and Passions of the Dead. Her novels have been highly praised by Mystery Scene and Spinetingler magazines, and all four are on Amazon Kindle’s bestselling police procedural list. L.J. also has two standalone thrillers: The Baby Thief and The Suicide Effect. When not plotting murders, she enjoys performing standup comedy, cycling, social networking, and attending mystery conferences. She’s also been known to jump out of airplanes.
Welcome to The WG2E, L. J.!
Wow what a treat to host you!
I first “discovered” you and your fabulous books on Konrath’s blog but also saw your Kindle Nation Daily pushes too.
My first Kindle Nation Daily pushes are coming up January 27th and 29th, and I can hardly wait. Can you tell us what Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle Nation experience did for your sales?
Congrats on all your success and for having the courage to go the Indie Epub route!
I downloaded THE SEX CLUB, and can’t wait to read it!
The Best of The WG2E Wishes — D. D. Scott
L.J.
Thanks for a very informative article.
Big question, however: did you also publish print versions of any of those 6 novels during 2010?
If not … why?
If so … how much extra to set up the printing/binding part of the operation?
Thanks.
Jeff
D.D.: The Kindle Nation sponsorship (and free short) gave me a huge bump in sales for those two books for a couple of days. Actual numbers? I think I sold around 500 books in three days. The long-term effect was to get the books into Amazon’s bestseller lists, where they had visibility. Once you get visibility, your sales increase even more. Then you have more visibility. It’s a positive cycle.
Great to hear, L. J.!
And thanks beyond bunches for the Real Numbers figure!
You – and your books too – rock!
Jeff: I published all my books as print versions through Amazon’s Create Space. I only paid $40 for the extended distribution and I paid for the cost of printing and mailing a proof, about $9. In the digital age, POD makes sense, especially since fewer and fewer people are buying print books.
Thanks for stopping in!
L.J.
LJ, it’s great to have you here! Between you and DD, I’m sold on the merit of the Kindle Push program. Going to sign up pronto! Thank you for sharing your story and expertise. It’s invaluable.
Thanks for all the info and the links LJ! It’s always more comfortable to work with someone that’s been recommended. I also see a lot of folks charging very high prices and very low prices, and it’s never easy to tell what you’ll be getting for the money.
L.J., how nice to see you here on WG2E.
I agree with you on the importance of editing, cover design, and formatting. It’s amazing, the number of indie authors who look to pay $25 for a cover design, then expect to be taken seriously. I’m having all 3 of mine redesigned from the ineffective covers supplied by my print publisher. The covers will cost me around $700 total. I expect them to look professional.
“A large publisher can offer distribution and promotional backing, but most small publishers don’t offer either, so what’s left for the author is the label of being traditionally published and the convenience of having someone else contract the production work. Giving up most of the profit for these small advantages is a hard bargain that I don’t recommend.” Your words are spot on. My guess is that this is where many authors still find a sticking point when they weigh the pros and cons of going indie.
The truth is that the small, traditional press that published my books in print form *did* confer enough credibility on my books to get them in the door for contests. I’ve won one award and been nominated for two others. That looks awesome on my resume. Plus the ebook industry still doesn’t have awards to match the weight of genre awards like the Edgar and the Hugo. BUT after you’ve gone through years of toiling over the distribution and promotion that a publisher should have provided, you realize that some of the glamor comes off those big awards. You realize that it’s time to climb off the fence and earn a living as an author.
Thanks for your post.
Suzanne Adair
Thanks for a thoughtful response, Suzanne. I should have mentioned some of the things you give up when you go indie, one of which is the ability to be nominated for awards. Others are the ability to join writers’ associations and access to foreign print-rights deals. Some small publishers don’t offer these benefits in the first place, but I also believe that in the future, these aspects will be less and less of a concern.
Another “benefit” that small publishers have trouble securing for their authors is reviews from the biggies, like Library Journal and Kirkus. Reviews from the big reviewers can be the sole criterion upon which an acquisitions librarian makes a purchase decision for collections. In that all three of my books were reviewed by Midwest Book Review, I was fortunate. But the way things currently stand, when it comes to getting reviews from the biggies, in most cases, having a small publisher provides no advantage over going it indie.
I also believe that in the future, these aspects will be less and less of a concern.
I’m curious to read more about why you think these aspects will become less of a concern. Do you, perhaps, foresee cornerstone awards (beyond EPI) and bellwether book reviewers arising to meet the needs of the electronic publishing industry?
Suzanne Adair
Has anyone tried liibook.com?
Liibook is a library-selfpublishing-socialnetwork kind of site. Authors can publish their eBooks in ePub or PDF format. It also has some other features worth mentioning:
- Author keeps 100% of the sales. No comission at all.
- eBook price is decided by the author.
- eBooks can be read online or bought to be downloaded. It’s up to the author.
- There is no copy+paste at all. eBooks are safe from piracy.
Hope this helps!
F
Gee! There’s some very interesting information here, so I’m trying to absorb it all now. Your new website really offers some great stuff. Thanks so much!
Thanks for hosting me today. It’s been a good discussion. As writers continue to come to me with questions, I’ll send them the link to this post. It should continue to be valuable.
L.J.
Hi, I would like to ‘push’ my award-winning suspense novel ‘Chill Waters’, and can’t find the url to do that.
I have a new book coming out soon, Night Corridor and am thrilled with the cover and trailer created by Gary Val Tenuta. check out the trailer here and tell me what you think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdYIBMNHtsM
Anyway, if you can tell me where to find the right place to buy an ad that would be great. Thanks.
Joan