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The Realities of Self Publishing

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Came across this today - a clear and concise article on the actual costs of self publishing, marketing etc. for those interested in bypassing traditional publishers and producing their own book.

Click on this link to read the article. reality check 

My fourth book was self published. It is  not distributed officially to book stores or even available online (yet). I sell copies exclusively at my writing workshops. I can tell you this - if you can have the book edited to a high standard and just pay for set-up, ISBN and printing, it's possible you can produce a book for around $3 each. Your selling price is up to you, but bearing in mind that these costs don't include the hours it took to write the book, you would want to make a decent profit margin. Even so,it's a small print run, because you are financing it yourself. It can be done. But there are good and bad companies out there, willing to take your money, so beware! Do your sums. Think about the market you are aiming at and how you plan to physically get your book to its readers. And its all worth it, IF the book is well written in the first place.
cheers, Dawn

Comments

  1. Unknown6 February 2013 at 16:37

    That's a very good article Dawn. My local writers group produces an anthology every year or two, and at best we break even, even with the occasional government grant and whatnot. We've also got lots and lots of unsold books laying around (something else to take into consideration for print publications).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dawn Meredith6 February 2013 at 21:38

    absolutely, Chris. It can take years to finally sell them.

    ReplyDelete

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