Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
I disagree on cheap editing. Editing and covers are actually fairly expensive and have gone up substantially in the last 7 years. Even if you do your own cover, you are probably going to pay 70 to 100 dollars for various pieces of stock art--and that is at the low end.
While copy editing can be had for around 200 to 300 dollars, that isn't all that cheap for some budgets and it doesn't include storyline editing which is often more like 300 to 600. Marketing is becoming extremely expensive for self-published authors--check the prices at bookbub one of the most popular places to take an ad out these days. Some one-day ads are over 1000 dollars. I think the cheapest is 300 or so for a one-day ad. Book sites that used to take a percentage of the haul (Based on amazon numbers sold) now price such that they take nearly 80 to 100 percent of what they guess the profit to be. The author gets "visibility" and hopes for "sell-through" on a series.
Marketing USED to be cheaper because many sites relied on at least some income as an Amazon (or other) associate. But the cost of ads has skyrocketed, especially on a site that has the ability to drive sales. You can buy 5 and 10 dollar ads, but your results are usually zero. (Many ad sites spend too much time trying to reach AUTHORS rather than readers.)
Some of the low-cost advantages of being indie have receded as the cottage industry serving us writers has expanded and grown.
That said, we don't have employee costs such as paying out for healthcare or 401k or pensions or whatever benefits a large company might offer.
(These are not complaints. Just pointing out some of the costs of indie publishing.)
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I would consider every one of the costs you listed to be relatively cheap.
In the last three years I have participated in crowd funding the production of three books for two different authors raising funding for projects that ran a bit higher than what you listed.
If authors I like are writing more books in a series or shared universe I like I am willing to pony up part of the costs. To pull this off a writer needs to build a fan base (hitting conventions and book signings will help) but it is doable without having to have a cash reserve for those costs.