Self-Publishers: when did you decide to start spending, and how much?

[latepaul]

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:

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...

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?

[morriss003]

I've paid for advertising and that's it. Did it help? The ads I bought at book sites may have helped. My Google Ad did not.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by morriss003

I've paid for advertising and that's it. Did it help? The ads I bought at book sites may have helped. My Google Ad did not.

Are you basing your assessment of the Google ad on it's click stats? Or on the number of times it appeared?

I ask because it occurred to me that as a user, while I kind of like Google's ads (in that they pay for the services I use, and they are well enough targeted that the content doesn't bother me) I don't think I have ever clicked on one.
Maybe I should, to help keep my beloved Google services, free, but I tend to just ignore them.

HOWEVER I am aware that I have noticed company names and urls in the adds, and I am certain that because I've seen something on a Google ad, even though I didn't click at the time, I later patronized them when I was looking for that type of thing, so I'm pretty sure that the ads worked on me.

ApK

[Anna Drake]

My only expensive outlay has been for an editing program. It was by my standards a large expense at over one hundred dollars. But compare that to the price of having one single book edited, and I feel I'll come out ahead. It's so difficult to edit my own writing. But yikes, I don't earn enough to pay an editor's fee. Not that I think they're out of line, just above my humble means.

I've bought one fifteen dollar ad, trying to push my sales at that overly well known outlet, where I sell virtually nothing. Had wonderful luck last year with several other retailers, though. Well, everything is relative. What is wonderful to me might be chump change to others.

Anyway, I think outlay should be held to below income. Or as Mom taught me, I don't count my chickens until after they hatch.

[VydorScope]

I spent $50,9876,576,321 on marketing, but that is okay cause I sold 5 copies of my free book doing that! W00T!