Self Publishing: Start Up Costs?

Deciding to publish–whether traditionally or on your own, either completely on your own or with the help of an indie portal like Evil Toad Press–is essentially deciding to go into business for yourself.  And I believe, personally, that the reason a lot of writers fail is that they don’t realize this.  Or choose to ignore the business-side realities of life as a writer.  Which is fine–if you want writing to remain a hobby.  Which, again, is fine.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with pursuing writing as a hobby.  I have a lot of hobbies, including woodworking.  There are a lot of reasons that, although I’m quite passionate about woodworking, I elected not to start my own furniture-making business.  It was a love I had, that when I was really honest with myself about why I was building furniture and what I wanted to get out of the experience of building furniture, I realized was only ever going to be a private love.

The word amateur comes from a Latin word meaning “lover of.”  An amateur is someone who does something simply for love.  And love really is what makes the world go ’round, so don’t knock love.  Doing something simply for love is special, and wonderful, and noble.  So long as you’re writing sheerly for love, you can focus solely on your writing–and if that’s you, for the rest of your life, then you’ve already accomplished something.  We live in a world that, increasingly, puts the focus on money and indeed values things in terms of the money they’re likely to produce.  Which is unfortunate, because things like satisfaction with your own life–the things that matter–can’t (and shouldn’t) be reduced into those terms.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with writing simply for the joy of writing; in my opinion, everyone should.

But if you want to make a living as a writer, a second unfortunate truth is that you have to get real about the nuts and bolts of writing as a business.

There’s an axiom, you have to spend money to make money.  Sometimes, that axiom is used to justify throwing good money after bad, Restaurant Impossible-style, when in fact what it speaks to is the need for a business plan.  Not a willingness to spend money, willy nilly, in the hopes that something exciting will happen but in a careful, logical, well-researched plan where every dollar is accounted for.  You need to know both how much money you’ll be spending, and what you’ll be spending to achieve.  And, too, when to pull the plug.  If you’re spending and spending, and not achieving the results you want, then the answer isn’t to spend more but it step back and evaluate your business plan.  Is it realistic?  Is it detailed enough?  Have you learned things, since you started trying to make a living as a writer, that you didn’t know before–and that should cause you, rationally, to reevaluate your business plan and perhaps make a few changes?

A business plan shouldn’t be rigid; it should update, as your understanding of your industry updates.

I’ll write another, separate post detailing what I think a (sample) business plan should be, for emerging writers, and how to tailor it to your own needs, if anyone’s interested.  Just let me know in the comments.  But for right now, I’m going to focus on the start up costs shared by all indie writers, regardless of how they choose to progress in terms of marketing their books, etc.  If you’re going to tell the world, I’m a writer, then you need to start by producing a quality product.  The writers who succeed, whether they’re published by someone in the Big Five or whether they’ve gone the indie route, all have one thing in common: they’ve invested this money, and in the same things.

There’s a common misconception among writers, incidentally, that a contract with the Big Five means that “someone else” has paid for these things.  They haven’t; that’s incorrect.  What they’ve done, in that case, is front the money–which they’ll then take out of the back end, in terms of royalties.  Remember, in exchange for all that editing, copyediting, cover art, etc, they now own the rights to your work in perpetuity.  And they’ll take their cut, and keep taking their cut, long after they’ve made back what they’ve spent on you.  Because, as someone who works in this industry, I have a secret for you: publishing costs are all, regardless of how you’re published, more or less the same.  Cover art is cover art; it doesn’t cost more for a representative of the Big Five to buy a cover from an illustrator than it does for you.  And the same goes with web design, editing, etc.  Web designers, interior formatters, etc; they charge what they charge.

Now, if you’re going the indie route, you’re also paying; the only difference is that you’re paying up front.  Your costs, unlike those of your traditionally published competitors, are fixed.  You might also, say, pay 2,500 USD for a website; the difference is that you’ll know exactly how much you’re paying, and what you’re getting in return.  And because you retain creative control, you can work directly with the web designer to produce exactly what you want.  Unlike your traditionally published competitor, who may wind up having no say in his website and who may, once he’s been published for a few years, have ended up paying for a hundred different websites!

Because another issue is that, as an indie publisher, you’re only responsible for your costs.  Whereas, in terms of traditional publishing, the cut taken from the more successful authors is also what covers the asses of that same publisher in terms of its failures.  Not everyone is going to wind up being the next Neil Gaiman; so Neil Gaiman gets to, indirectly, pay for all the websites for all the authors who wound up with their first and only book being remaindered.

Being a writer isn’t just something you do; any more than being an electrician, or an attorney, is just something you do.  It takes hard work, planning, and preparation; so while you’re perfecting your novel (and, if you’re smart, working on the next one), save your pennies.  Because, before you can launch your business, you’ll need the following:

A website.  As an author, you need a platform.  You need visibility.  Which, in your case, means a place for fans to a) find you, b) interact with you, and c) learn more about you.  A lot of authors mistakenly believe that having a Twitter account, and/or a Facebook page can take the place of a website; they are incorrect, for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost being, google does not troll social media websites for content.  Yes, if you search for your own name, it’ll come up.  If I search for “P.J. Fox,” my name appears, and Google tells me that I have a Facebook page.  Which isn’t that helpful, since I already know this.  But what about people who’ve never heard of P.J. Fox, and who are just looking for a new book to read?  Who are, maybe, googling terms like “feminist science fiction?”  Searches like that won’t bring them to my Facebook page, or my Twitter account; but they will bring them here, to this website.  Moreover, a website is permanent in a way that, say, a Twitter account is not.  Your website is where all of your most relevant content is gathered into one place, along with charming graphics.  Your website is, in essence, your public face.
A Twitter account.  This is where you’ll do the bulk of your actual social media interactions.  Fans feel more comfortable approaching their favorite writers, actors, etc on Twitter precisely because it’s so much more informal.  I, personally, think that a website (ideally with a blog) and a Twitter account are all the social media you need.  You’re better off focusing your energies on two separate platforms, each of which serves a separate and distinct purpose, rather than spreading yourself too thin over too many places.
A decent cover.  Cover design is everything.  You’ve poured your heart and soul into your book; don’t skimp now.
Professional interior formatting.  Yes, you can just “throw it up on Amazon;” that doesn’t mean you should.  Trust me on this, if you want to succeed as a writer, then you need to offer a product that makes you look legitimate.  Your book may in fact be the best book ever written but if it looks amateurish, or if rookie formatting problems cause you to loose chapters, have funny punctuation problems, random appearances of code (yes, all of this happens), then you’re going to be fighting a serious uphill battle.  Readers want a book that makes them feel confident.
Professional editing.  There’s a reason that your Big Five publisher will subject your book to editing–regardless of how you feel about the subject.  You need an editor.  There is no writer on earth so good that he can’t benefit from an editor; only writers with egos grown so large that they’ve become an actual handicap.  Listen, my day job is working as a professional editor and I have someone else edit my work.  If nothing else, you want someone to catch those typos that you’ve missed.  And trust me, they’re there.

There are obviously other things you can spend money, or time, on but these are the big ones; the gatekeepers, as it were.  And, as harsh as this sounds, if you’re not willing to invest your hard-won time and your hard-earned money in these things, then you should ask yourself how serious you really are about making a living at this.  It’s absolutely fine to treat writing like a hobby and to say, “I don’t want to spend my hard-earned money on a website for my hobby.”  But you can’t treat something like a hobby and at the same time expect it to succeed for you like a business.  Success, in any field, will only come as the result of your total commitment.

So a hypothetical breakdown of costs might look like the following:

A website: depending on the complexity of your design, and the functionality you want your website to have, you’re probably looking at somewhere between 1,500 and 5,000 USD.  You can get a beautiful, professionally produced website with a blog and as many additional static pages as you want or need, tons of beautifully written content and even more beautiful graphics, for 1,500 USD.  And don’t let anyone tell you differently; I’ll design it for you, I do that.
A Twitter account: free.  However, if you’re already paying for a website, and/or some advertising material, I’d highly suggest that you get your designer to design you a couple of professional Twitter covers.  Mine, for example, are the same mix of header-advertisements that you see on this website.  The cost to you for this should be, depending on what else you’re spending, either a) already included in your graphics package or b) around 75 USD.
A decent cover: usually starts at around 300 USD, and can go up from there.  If you want the kind of cover I have on my books, that’ll cost you about 300.  If you want a professional illustrator (and I work with several excellent professional illustrators), that can cost you anywhere from 300 to 1,500 and up.  Entirely, one hundred percent custom artwork isn’t cheap.  But the good news is, nor is it a necessary component of a beautiful, custom cover.  Most custom covers, in fact, do not feature proprietary artwork (other than that, of course, of the graphics designer).
Professional interior formatting: depending on the length of your book, this can run you from 750 to 1,500 USD.  This is including formatting for your print book as well as your e-book.  Both versions are (in my opinion) necessary, and since there are no upfront costs with using a print on demand outfit like CreateSpace, you really have nothing to lose.
Professional editing: depending on the length of your book, this is going to run you between 1,000 and 2,000 USD.  Trust me, it’s worth every penny.  You can learn more about how to get the most out of hiring a professional editor here.  When I say, hire an editor, I don’t mean hire me–although that would be nice!  I mean, hire someone who’s competent and with whom you can work well.

So for total start up costs, you’re looking at somewhere between 3,550 and 10,075; but realistically, your total costs should probably be somewhere in between.  And yes, that’s a lot of money; but again, this is looking at writing as a business.  And of course, as a business, there are other costs you’re going to be looking at later on: like advertising campaigns.  Audible versions.  And, according to Mr. PJ, any writer’s budget should include a healthy margin for Starbucks runs.  But the goal of starting right is that, later on, when you do do things like advertise, you won’t be hemorrhaging money because no one’s ever heard of you before or knows that they might want to buy your books.  Indeed, starting out with a great website, and some competent professional guidance on how to use that website, and how to make your book look its best, should save you a lot of money in the long run.

And by long run, I do mean long run.  You’re not going to make this money back overnight, unless you publish your first book and immediately become a NYT bestseller.  Realistically, you’re not going to start seeing real returns until you’ve published at least three books; the golden number that Hugh Howey uses, in terms of a backlist, is ten and I think that’s accurate.  Which, again…no business ever succeeded overnight, and without months–and years–of hard work.