Welcome to the Publish and Paid podcast, where we share book, business leadership and life lessons in 20 minutes or less, to help you build a thought leadership, brand and business. My name is Jasmine Womack, I'm a former middle school language arts teacher turned 7 figure entrepreneur, and I am glad that you are here. Let's get started!
Welcome back to another episode of the published and paid podcast. My name is Jasmine Womack, and I am excited about our topic today. Today's topic is all about how to manage increasing publishing costs. Oftentimes, when I'm working with prospects, or even when clients are new to the programs, that is one of the questions that come up, you know, like, how much can I anticipate to pay for the publishing of my book.
Now, here's the thing, we do not include book publishing and the prices of our programs, because that is a totally separate service. And I want you to know that everyone's pricing will be different. And the difference really is based on the length and the work kind of your book, and how much editing that you need. Okay, so we're gonna get into all of that today.
Now, when you are preparing to write and publish your first or next book, at the top of the list of things to consider is the cost of publishing. And actually bringing your book to the world. Writing your book is one component, and then self publishing, and getting your book in hand. That is a different phase. That's a different component of the writing and publishing process. And of course, you also have marketing as well.
For the sake of this topic, we're only going to focus on one component, and that's the publishing costs.
Now, at the time of this recording, particularly in the United States of America, inflation is impacting so many different people, it's impacting companies. It's impacting business owners, and the cost of everything from eggs and milk to paper, office supplies are going up. So does that mean that you should pump the brakes on publishing a physical book? Does that mean that you should only try to publish a digital book also known as an electronic or ebook? Not at all, one of the ways in which you have to begin to shift your mindset is that you have to begin to look at your book differently.
Your book is not an expense, it's an income generator, or at least it should be, if you're listening to this. And if you've already written a book, and you're not actively selling your book every single day, then at that point, your book becomes an expense. But your book should really be an income generator, it should be a product in which you are selling every single day.
Your book is also a lead generator, and a qualifier when you write it the right way, when you write it in a way that's going to expand your brand and grow your business, your book should actually bring leads to you and it should also qualify leads.
So in essence, the publishing of your book will pay for itself. To be honest with you all, when I published my first book, I took my tax return that year, and used it to pay for the publishing, the editing, and everything that I needed at that time when I wasn't doing it myself, right. And I paid probably around three to $4,000 to bring my book to life. And that was with me. Also figuring everything out that was with trial and error that was with me messing some things up having to switch cover designers that was also with the extended time, right? I didn't have anyone giving me a shortcut, and telling me how to do this. I was figuring everything out on my own.
But I made that back literally in my pre sales and with my book launch. And everything that came after that was clear profits eight years later, and I still passively sale copies of my first book.
So your book should be an income generator and you have to be again to look at it as such, okay, it's not a passion project, it's not something that you do, because you just want to do it. When you sit down to write your book, you need to write it with the goal and with the intention of it making money for you. So with that said, how do you manage increasing publishing costs? And how do you budget for it right now? Well, the main thing that you have to understand is what's required for publishing like what is included in that.
You're going to need editing, you're going to likely need several rounds of developmental editing. You're also going to need book cover design, you're going to need interior format, and typesetting. You're going to need technological setup for your sales page and automated emails. And of course, you're going to need resources to print copies of your book.
And the price of your actual book to actually get physical copies in hand, the price of your book will vary depending on the size of your book. Depending on whether or not you have color photographs, or images inside of your book is going to be dependent upon the type of paper that you use the color paper that you use, for example, cream colored paper is more more expensive than white paper. Okay, hardcover books typically are more expensive to print, then paperback books. So all of these nuances will determine the ultimate price of your publishing costs. So the type of cover that you have your shipping times like when you have your book printed, whether or not you select standard shipping, overnight shipping, all of that is included in the cost of publishing.
Where you have your book printed, your printing location, whether you use a mom and pop, local printer, or whether you use an online printer can determine the price of publishing your book. Now, unless you have a T, or unless you already know how to do some of these things yourself, you're either going to be learning investing time to do it. But I honestly suggest that you build your own publishing team and hire contractors to do all or at least some of this for you. Now out of the publishing costs that I just shared, your most expensive costs outside of printing your book will be your editing.
First and foremost, editing costs are going to depend on your word counts, or your page count, it depends on the editor that you select. Some editors will charge by the page, some editors charge by the word. When I was providing editing services, which I no longer do, I was charging by the word and many of the editors that I recommend clients to charge by the word because page count can be manipulated based on the size of the fonts that you choose. So if you choose a larger font, it's going to be more pages, if you choose a smaller font, it's going to be smaller page, there are fewer pages, unless the editor says all of your text has to be Times New Roman 12 point font. So typically, though, editors will charge by the word. That's what experience and professional editors do. Okay?
Now, they may typically charge you one flat fee, which may include two rounds of editing, or they may charge you per round of editing. Meaning, that if you have two or three rounds of edits, meaning that you give them your manuscript, they edit it, they give it back to you, you make the corrections. That's one round. If you want them to look over the corrections that you've made, again, you send the manuscript back to them. Now you're going into your second round. Okay.
So, typically, they'll do multiple rounds of edits. And I suggest that because the last thing that you want is a book field with errors that is going to immediately destroy your credibility. Now, if you have one or two errors in there, I've seen traditionally published books that have three or less errors in there, right. But I've seen some self up some self published books that are full of errors like nobody even looked at If somebody just wrote it, and decided to have it laid out and published, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, who put this out, like they didn't even read over their own work."
Now, one of the reasons why editors will pay per round is because once you go through the suggested edits, you may be required to remove some content, you may be required to add some information, you know, you may want to add a chapter or remove a chapter.
And so when you start making these additions, or or these changes, these types of changes, change the word count. And therefore, it can either extend the work that the editor has to do, or it can reduce it. So that's why editors typically will charge per word. Okay?
Now, you must budget for this. And it's important to know this, and set at least at least $1,000 to the side for editing at a minimum, at a minimum, okay.
If you want to have a 20 to 30,000 word book, you need to set a minimum of $1,000 aside, okay, now, if you end up hiring an editor off of Fiverr, or Upwork, or some other gig site, then you may end up paying between $500 and $800 for a round or two of edits.
If you hire someone that's local, stateside, and that and they are experienced editors, then of course, you can expect to pay a bit more than you would off of a gig site, and you don't even know really know what you're gonna get.
Now, again, you must budget financially for the editing phase. And you must also schedule time for it. Because oftentimes, when I see authors set their book release date, they never factor in the time and energy commitment for editing.
Now, I've worked with some clients that literally put their heads down and got through their edits. And I've also worked with some clients who drugged their feet and took their precious time with the editing.
Editing is extremely tedious, because you have to go through everything, you have to read your book, word for word for front and back, read the editors comments and actually go in and make the updates in the suggested corrections.
But it is time and energy well spent. Because after you're finished with your edits, the remainder of the publication and publishing process actually goes very fast. Because you can have your book laid out in less than a week or two. Okay? Editing typically takes the most time and it's the most time intensive. And it also requires the most financially but when it's done, it's done. And then you don't have to worry about it anymore. Like it's done. You don't have to worry about it anymore. You can move forward to have your book typeset and then publish it. Okay.
So in essence, the more knowledgeable and the more prepared you are for this process, the better your publishing experience will be. And the better able you will be prepared to manage your publishing costs. Right.
We have Published and Paid Live coming up in Atlanta, Georgia, October 11 and 12. We definitely want to see you there. So if you are ready to transform your million dollar message into a best selling book and high ticket coaching program, be sure to go to www.publishedandpaidlive.com to secure your ticket and I will see you in the room.
