So this is a question that occurred to me the other day and I'm asking for no other reason than pure curiosity.
In
this thread Hitch made a comment about what publishers spend:
Quote:
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They pay the thousands to the editor, to make it readable. They pay the cover creator (in the trades, this is thousands, not hundreds, of dollars). They pay for any advertising...
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and it reminded me that whilst there is a range of prices available there is still quite an investment to be made once you decide to actually pay someone for editing services and cover design.
So my question is this: at what point in your writing career did you decide to start paying out for such services? Were you already selling books at that point? and did you have an indication of whether you could cover your costs? how much of a risk did it feel and how did you decide how much to spend?
And is it possible to work your way up from spending almost nothing whilst you gather a readership, or is it too difficult to attract an audience without a decent cover etc?