The Basics of Book Publication

Writing a book is hard.

Publishing a book is harder.

Winning fiscal success as a novelist?

Ouch.

I feel like I should apologize for the tone; it’s not all that happy, is it? That’s because it’s really not. Publishing a novel is hard. I know so many people who take short cuts, and then they wonder why their books aren’t successful.

Some refuse to spend money on advertising.

Some use AI covers with very little regard to quality. (And we won’t discuss the other problems associated with AI. I do not use AI anything on any of my books. I don’t even use anything other than basic spellcheck. I don’t use grammar checkers. I have human staff for that. When I write a book, it is me, a screen, and the words I write. That’s it, that’s all.)

Some refuse to hire editors, believing that their self-editing abilities are sufficient. (Spoiler alert: they really are not.)

Publishing a high quality book is expensive.

My General Expenses for Publishing a Novel

Before I get involved with the nitty gritty, work marketing angles, or even go into the general creative process, I think exposing how much it costs for me to publish a book will illuminate the level of investment required for a quality product.

Cover Art

I use the best covers I can buy. (My designer is Rebecca Frank of Bewitching Book Covers, and I highly recommend her.) Each cover costs me approximately $1,000. I will spend extra on things like print spreads and audiobook covers. Sometimes, I buy special marketing material to make my job easier, which also costs money.

Rebecca is worth every single penny.

Her covers sell books. Her covers sell a lot of books. Sure, my name sells books, but bad covers even with my name slapped onto it means one thing: only readers who are hardcore fans are going to take that book seriously.

I’ve done that test, and I did not like the result.

Covers sell books.

For each novel, I expect to spend roughly $1,500 in various cover costs. This is the higher end of the indie market, but the covers are that important.

I have never had a cheap cover render the type of sales results I want from a book.

Editorial

I do not pay any of my staff less than $1,000 per 100,000 words. (Scaled to the word count of the project.) Most of my novels are roughly 100,000. I have three professional editors. Some of my editors are paid more than that depending on what they’re doing.

As such, I generally spend a minimum of $3,000 per novel on editorial.

Typos still escape us.

Oh, and typos still escape us after I count the ten or so volunteer beta readers that I have who help with the final typo checks. (No, I am not currently looking for anyone to join any of my teams, sorry.)

Marketing

Unless I have a reason not to, I generally spend a minimum of $3,500 per release. I just released a project on May 1, 2024 without any marketing budget whatsoever; it’s a passion project, and while I spent the money on the cover art and the editorial, I’m saving those marketing dollars until the book is a little older and I have a better idea of how it’s being received. My readers know it exists, as I posted about it to my primary blog, but I did not give the book any marketing dollars.

This isn’t a mistake. Here’s why: when you independently publish, you can throw marketing dollars at a book at any time to recreate a launch scenario. Sure, you won’t get the release day rank boosters, but there is zero reason a book or series can’t be revived later.

I’ll discuss that more in depth at a later date.

The Process of Publication

This is a quick and dirty list that I will expand in future posts, but this is designed to give you an idea of what is involved with publishing a novel from start to finish.

Write the Book

You can’t publish what hasn’t been written. If this is your first time publishing, I would be wary about preorders; don’t set up a preorder until you are done the entire prepublication checklist, and that includes cover art and editorial!

Secure an ISBN

This isn’t always necessary, but if you want to give yourself a professional presentation, having the appropriate number of ISBNs helps. I bought a block under my publishing imprint (that I created) near the start of my career; I dished out for 100 ISBNs. This wasn’t at all a waste of money for me.

I use them early, I use them often… and I will need to buy another block eventually. It can take anywhere between one to seven ISBNs per book. (eBook, Audiobook, Print Editions (one per trim size), and so on.) Generally, I use three ISBNs per book.

I have some books with ten ISBNs. So far, I’ve used 260 ISBNs. (Technically, I have 1,100 ISBNs, because after I blew through my first 100, I bought a 1,000 ISBN block.)

Build your Book’s Basic Package

This is your cover and your description, the core foundational marketing tools you’ll use to sell your book. Without these things, you can’t sell abook.

Pick Your Price

Do not undervalue your book. I never recommend someone sell their debut for $0.99. I have done the $0.99 new release attempt once.

I lost $20,000 in raw revenue. I did not gain many new readers, certainly not enough to justify the loss of $20,000.

$0.99 is how you tell readers that your book is not of any value and that your product quality is not worth anything.

Please don’t do this. I don’t give a flying whats-it what others say. Just because a bunch of people do something does not mean that it’s actually a good idea.

If you write a great book, people will want to buy it. That is how this industry works.

$0.99 new releases send a message that your book has not been professionally curated and is not worth the money later on.

Please value yourself and your book. You goal is to earn money, not lose it.

(Seriously. I lost $20,000 doing this. I did not ever earn that money back later. It was gone with the wind. And it almost completely ended a series because that was money that I couldn’t turn around and reinvest back into the series or put on the table as food.)

Side-note: $20,000 may sound like a huge huge amount, but when your basic book expenses start at a minimum of $4,000 with a $3,500 advertising budget, and your rent is $3,500 a month… $20,000 does not go very far. And the tax man gets half my money.

Most authors I know can’t afford the $0.99 gamble… but they do it anyway. And once they start that gamble, they often keep doing it, just because the readers they did get are bargain hunters who won’t pay more than $0.99 for a book.

Price your books fairly. I started at around $4.99 for books between 80-120,000 words.

Currently, I am priced at $6.99 for books between 80-120,000 words. I charge $7.99 for 120k+.

Pick Your Publication Type

Are you going exclusive with Amazon? Wide? (Also known as publishing with all available vendors.) Only you can make this decision, and there is no one correct answer to it. I publish wide, as I strongly feel I should be allowed to publish my books to digital libraries, something Amazon’s exclusive system bars.

Familiarize yourself with the Vendors and Distribution Options

If you aren’t sure about how to distribute, use a service like Draft2Digital. I use Draft2Digital for all of the vendors that are either difficult to access or annoying. They take a cut of the royalties to do the heavy lifting, which I appreciate. I work directly with Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Google Play. On the print side of things, I work with IngramSpark and KDP (Amazon). On the audiobook side of things, I distribute through ACX (Amazon) and Author’s Republic.

I also run a Patreon, which is where my super fans gather to support my books on a subscription basis. They have the option of supporting me through a subscription membership or buying things out of my store.

Once again, there is no one right solution. If you want to sell directly from your website using bookfunnel and payhip, do that. This is 100% a matter of personal preference.

All that said, each method is different and will have different results.

I prefer wide. Once upon a time, I was exclusive. I make a great deal more than I ever did wide than exclusive. Other people have the exact opposite experience.

Do what you feel is best.

The Basic Process of Launching a Book

These are the things that need to happen to launch a book. This is just a general list and may vary based on vendor. It is presented in no particular order, as every vendor has a different method of uploading a book. Some vendors need more input factors, too. For example, you have to set your sample on Barnes & Noble.

• Pick your vendors / Go to the publishing portal for those vendors.
• Set your Price
• Input Author Name
• Input Series Name (if Applicable)
• Input Book Description
• Input Book Cover
• Input Any Market Restrictions (where people are at when they buy)
• Input Categories
• Input ISBN (if Applicable)
• Input Keywords (to help people find your book)
• Submit for Review / Publish
• Input any other data the vendor asks for, including age restrictions, DRM, and so on.

You may need to provide proof that you have licensing rights for all elements of your cover. If so, you will need to show the vendor the proof of your license. Cover designers can provide this upon request. Obviously, AI generated art cannot do this, so if you are using AI, you may run into licensing issues with vendors.

I do not use AI, and I cannot provide any form of support or help with it. I am of the opinion that it should be avoided for commercial purposes, especially with the issues of copyright infringement during training remaining unresolved.

(I am not saying all AI is bad, but I am saying I’m not testing my luck, and I value my creative property rights too much do that sort of thing to other creators, photographers and artists included.)

Your mileage will vary.

At this point, you can click the “publish” button and release your book into the wilds. Good luck. (You’ll need it.)