How Much Does Indie Publishing Cost?

By Henry DeVries, CEO, Indie Books International

Like indie filmmaking and indie music, the artist (that is you, the author) controls the process and takes the risks. Because the author takes the financial risk, the author gets better financial rewards in the way of higher royalties and lower author cost of books.

While an author can cobble together a team on the cheap and self-publish, that is not recommended as a marketing strategy. The old adage is true: people do judge a book by its cover.

To publish an indie book can cost $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the bells and whistles that you want. If a book has color photos or is published as a hardback, expect the costs to be in the upper end of the range.

But, some say, I hear you can go to Amazon and publish a book for hundreds of dollars. I know, because I went that route for some of my books. The template approach made my books look awful.

Rigor costs money. Here is what you are paying for with an indie publisher:

• Conceptual editing and market expertise
• Line editing
• Fact checking
• Chicago Manual of Style editing
• Proofreading
• Front cover design
• Back cover design
• Help writing back cover copy
• Help gathering testimonial blurbs
• Interior design and layout
• Interior design corrections
• Graphics
• Pricing recommendations
• Paper recommendations
• Size recommendations
• Project management
• Production management
• Quality control
• Marketing strategy
• Marketing support

This is no time to take short cuts. Prospects will judge you by your book.