Novel Writing Made Less Impossible -- The Necessary Expenses of Publishing

One question I'm asked frequently is, "How much does it cost you to publish one of your fine, fine, super-fine books, Brian?" The hope is that I'll tell them the books are free from Amazon, or wherever. Well, hate to burst that particular balloon, but ... Print On Demand, the idea of publishing only the number of copies you (hope) you can sell, revolutionized self-publishing. Now, any of us can produce books for very little money. However, there are still some expenses that go along with printing entrepreneurship.

For the sake of brevity, I'll ignore the costs of your equipment (computer, printer, the electricity to run them, as well as paper and ink) because chances are you had it around anyway. But instead of constantly cruising for pornography or cat videos, you're producing timeless literature. I'll also ignore the value of the time it took to produce the book. Trust me, you'll never get that back unless you sell at Grishamesque levels. However, the costs of self-publishing a book are inevitable, but not overwhelming. Here are a few items to consider paying for ... THE PHYSICAL BOOK: the assemblage of paper, ink, and glue costs something. You are paying for the physical copies of the book itself. The only way to get around this is to issue only e-books and that's just not practical.

EDITORS, ARTISTS, & DESIGNERS: as indie publishers, one of our goals is to make our book as good, or better, than what comes out of the larger houses. For that, we need editors to make the book readable, artists for that great cover illustration that will make readers race to you like rats out of Hamlin, and designers (both interior and cover) to make the package as attractive as possible. If you can do all, or any, of this yourself, good for you. But if you can't, or don't want to, be prepared to shell out some money. ISBNs: the International Standard Book Number is what helps retailers order your book. It also helps generate a bar code that retailers can scan to get the price and manage their inventory. You get these unique numbers from www.bowker.com. I recommend not using the printer-supplied ISBN because if you do, THEY become the publisher of note and could take a percentage of any ancillary rights such as audiobooks, films, toys, any licensing, etc. By the way, if you make an audiobook of your tome, that's a different ISBN, as are different editions of your books (except e-books which won't be scanned so I don't see the need to get the number for them). Also, while CreateSpace will generate a UPC barcode for your book for free, you might have to pay someone to create one for you, or purchase a program. PROMOTION/ADVERTISING: you might wish to buy ads on Amazon, Facebook, or Instagram, or in other publications. You could even hire someone to generate social media content for your work. And there's always more expenses, some I might not know about. But be aware that you CAN cut corners and costs, if you're clever and do your research.

NEXT WEDNESDAY: Let's Push the Button! PUBLISHED AT LAST!

TOMORROW: Your Visual Branding

NEXT APPEARANCE: On April 14th, I'm at the Tippecanoe County Public Library Author Fair. The event features many of Lafayette, Indiana's top writing talents under one roof! And I'll be giving a talk on how to build a freelance writing career from the ground up.

The TCPL Author Fair will be at the main library at 627 South Street in Lafayette, Indiana in the McAllister Room from 11-2, to be followed by an hour of coffee and conversation. Admission is FREE and we fully expect to see you there! And on April 20-22, I'll be one of the honored guests at CAPE CON. It's Cape Girardeau's premiere pop media show and I'm elated to be there for Ken Murphy and his awesome family. The other guests of honor will be artist Mike Zeck (Captain America, Punisher, Master of Kung-Fu, etc.), Steven Grant (Whisper, Punisher, more), Lou Ferigno (TV's Incredible Hulk), and Reb Brown (TV's Captain America). In addition, my awesome friends will be in attendance, such as Amy Hale, Sean Dulaney, Jason Nugent, Heroes For Kids, Castle, Perilous, Nathan Bonner, Burg Comics, Jay Noel, Costumers For Christ, Brian Rhodes, StL Comics, Cakes Reanimated, Campus Comics, Pense Productions, and Villainous Grounds, and MORE! It's a low admission price for so much to see and do. We'll be at the Osage Center and you can get more information at www.cape-con.com. See you there!

SPECIAL NOTE: My newest book, The Haunting Scripts of Bachelors Grove​, is currently on sale. It's part memoir, part grimoire. The first half deals with my entry into writing indie comics and joining Silver Phoenix Entertainment. I print four of my comic scripts for The Haunting Tales of Bachelors Grove, three of which have not been produced yet. Then I add four horror prose tales, three of which are NEW.All this behind a great cover by my Art Sherpa, Trevor Erick Hawkins, over 300 pages of terror and history for only $19.95 in paperback, $2.99 in e-book (FREE if you belong to Amazon Prime).

If you have any questions for me, write to me at Brian@RisingTide.pub. No attachments, please, for security reasons.

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