The Cost Of Publishing.

To my dearest friends and followers,

I can't believe it's been exactly one week since my book was published!!
If you'd like to learn more about my book, click here. You can also pre-order it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble!!

So, this week I want to talk about the cost of publishing. I'm sure everyone who publishes a book will find that these numbers are not exact, depending on who you publish through and how you decide to go about it, but I want to share my experience and show just how expensive or inexpensive self-publishing can be.
Several weeks ago, I wrote about my journey in choosing a publisher and why I chose IngramSpark. You can read about that here: Publishing with IngramSpark.

Setting up my book.
After I wrote my book, which I typed out in OpenOffice, it was time to format it. I had to use Adobe InDesign, as IngramSpark required that I do so. The cost is 20.99usd a month. I payed for 1 month and was able to format my book with the help of a YouTube tutorial.
I then made the decision to purchase my own ISBN through Bowker, instead of using the one IngramSpark provided. This is because Bowker is cheaper in the long run (since I plan on writing several books). IngramSpark provides 1 ISBN per book, each at 85usd. I spent 295usd for 10 ISBN's, making them each 29.5usd. Since I am doing a print and ebook, I spent 59usd for two ISBN's.

Designing the cover.
In the early days of writing my book, I wanted to design it myself. However, once I had finished writing it, I wanted to hire someone to design the cover. In the end, I designed it and created it all myself. The actual art, I created using watercolor and pens. As for the editing of the photo and the font, I used Canva and BeFunky. I spent 12.99usd to use Canva, and 6.99usd to use BeFunky. I also spent 1.00usd on a graphic design. Once I had uploaded the cover to InDesign, I spent another 13.00usd on the font I wanted, which I purchased from Creative Market.


Uploading my book to IngramSpark.
So, in choosing IngramSpark (IS) I knew that it would be more expensive than some other publishers out there (like Amazon). I was ok with this, simply because IS distributes the book to brick and mortar sellers, which is extremely limited when publishing with KDP. I knew I wanted to be in stores.
 The cost of uploading a book with IS is 49usd. Luckily, this was one cost I got to avoid, as I used a promo code that offered free title uploads.

Proof Copies.
Once it seemed that my book was complete, I ordered a proof copy which cost me 37.01usd. Granted, I payed for rush print and shipping. XD
Anyhow, I ended up having to upload new revised files. It costs 25usd for each upload!! Again, IS had a promo code for free revisions, so it didn't cost me anything. I then ordered another proof copy, which was another 37.01usd. I didn't order anymore proof copies after that, but I did submit several revised files, each with the promo code, so I never had to pay for it.

Marketing.
Once my book is actually on sale on May 29th (right now, it's only available for pre-orders), I want to have it featured in IngramSpark's catalog, which gets sent to a number of retailers and libraries. It costs 85usd per catalog. I might have my book featured in the "Advance Catalog", since it is a work of fiction, but also in the "Christian Advance Catalog", since it is written by a Christian author and has some Christian themes in the story. That would cost me 170usd for both catalogs.
Something else I want to include in the cost is, once my book became available for pre-orders, I ordered 20 copies to give away and to have on hand. That cost me 130.96usd.


The total.
To make things a little bit easier, I listed each cost that I have made and then put the total:
Adobe InDesign: 20.99usd
ISBN: 29.5usd
ISBN: 29.5usd
Canva: 12.99
Canva design: 1.00usd
BeFunky: 6.99
Creative Market: 13.00usd
Proof Copy: 37.01
Proof Copy: 37.01usd
Large Order: 130.96usd
Total: 318.95usd

There are cheaper options out there, but honestly, IS is definitely on the cheaper side of things as far as self-publishing goes. It really just depends on what you're looking for and what kind of services you want, how you market your book, etc.

I hope this was helpful or at least interesting. XD
Thank you so much for reading and don't forget to check out my book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble!!

Yours truly, 
Me