Finances
It will cost you money to publish a book. But it costs far less than it used to, thanks to new technology and tools having become accessible to anyone.
Still, it costs money, time, and energy. You will know best which of those you have the most of – and what you need more of for your project.
If a publisher takes care of most things connected to the book’s publication, your own work is fairly straightforward. Their professional advice on language, structure, design, printing, distribution, marketing, and sales will probably make it easy for you and lift the quality of the finished product. But it can also feel as though you feed the manuscript into a big machine that spits out a very different product at the other end two years later. And what do you get in return for calling yourself an author? A very small percentage of every copy sold.
If you publish the book yourself, you keep a much bigger slice of the pie when you sell a copy. But then you also have to do a fair bit of the work yourself.
As well as taking all the profit in the project, you also carry the financial risk. There is no guarantee you will sell as many books as you would like. You need to work out what you can afford to put on the table, what you can afford to lose, and trust that – over time – you will get back what you have invested in the work.
Budget: Set up a simple budget in which you list all conceivable expenses and incomes.
Typical expenses include the retailer’s percentage of sales, printing costs, design, language services, postage, advertising, storage, and hiring a venue for a book launch.
If you are a group of friends or professionals, perhaps you can each chip in to make the book a reality?
You can also ask local businesses whether they would like to contribute, and look into grants from cultural funds.
Consider pre-sales and crowdfunding, so that you bring in money from customers before the book is finished – money that can cover the expenses.
And then we hope book sales generate income. Work out how many books you need to sell to break even – and, in time, to make a profit. Remember to deduct commissions and discounts for the shops.
Pulling the levers: There are so many things you can adjust in the process that affect the bottom line:
- If you sell most of the books yourself, you keep all the income—but you also have to spend time posting books or driving around delivering them.
- If you choose a professional designer, the book will look more attractive and sell better.
- Printing 500 books costs far less than printing 5,000.
- If you choose a soft cover instead of a hardback, the printing cost will go down.
- If you sell the book for a bit more instead of a bit less, income will increase.
- If you reduce the page count, it costs less to print.
- If the width and height of the book increase, it will cost more to print.
- If you sell 500 more books, you bring in quite a bit more money…
- …but then you may need to print 500 more books, which increases the costs…
- …but if you are going to print 1,000 books, it does not cost much more to print 500 extra.
…and so on. Many factors affect the accounts. Feel free to play with the numbers and see what is possible.
The bottom line: Anyone who wants to publish a book themselves takes on both risk and reward. You are far from guaranteed to sell out, but if you put together a solid budget, bring in money where you can, and choose services and products carefully, you will usually make a profit.
Yet, for many, the profit is not the goal. They just want to spread their ideas, to have some sort of professional ‘business card’ to point to. A decent book can build trust and authority, or it can be a great way to collect your years of writing for friends and family to read.
Printing and distribution of digital books is now so affordable that it is possible for most people to realise their dream of publishing a book.
I do hope your book project turns out well, and that the design is typographically pleasing to the eye 🙂
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Finances
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