Self Publishing Costs
How Much Does Self Publishing Cost?For an author who wants to get a book in print, sometimes the best method is to look in to the area of self publishing. The main difference between self publishing and traditional publishing is that in self publishing, the author bears the cost of the printing process. For those who are interested in self publishing a book, the first consideration should be to determine exactly what the self publishing costs will be, and then deciding if the investment is worth the expected return. As a general rule, it is fair to assume that the cost per book will decrease as the number of copies printed increases. This makes perfect sense, given the fact that there is a high cost to the set up of the offset printing process, proofreading, book jacket design and layout, and so on. Once all that is in place, it is fairly cheap to actually print more copies of the book. For a standard paperback book of about one hundred thousand words, measuring eight and a half inches tall by five and a half inches wide, with a simple one color laminated cover, an author should expect to pay about five dollars per book for one hundred copies to be printed. However, that cost drops to three dollars and fifty cents per book for three hundred copies, to four dollars a book for five hundred copies, to three dollars a book for a thousand copies, and to only a dollar twenty five cents per book for five thousand copies. At a print run of ten thousand copies, the cost is a mere one dollar per book! While is it easy to see that the cost of printing decreases (at least, per book) as the number of books increases, it is also easy to see that an author who invests ten thousand dollars in printing that many books may well then have a garage full of unsold books and no profits at all. The decision that a self publishing author must make at the onset regards how many books that author realistically expects to sell, and what investment is worth making with that goal in mind. It is also important to remember that most printers will reserve the right to charge the customer (the author) to pay for print overruns, which can fall between five and ten percent of the overall order. Obviously, this number can get very large at the high quantity end of the printing process. |
