As most people have probably figured out, I’m a rather frugal person. One reason we have been able to produce many books in a short period of time is because they don’t cost us much to produce. Admittedly, I have a background in graphic design and more than a decade of experience in laying out long documents, so our little company has certain advantages. I can do quite a bit of the production work involved in publishing our books.
Many people have asked me how they can self-publish a book on budget. Publishing on the cheap isn’t impossible, but you do have to be creative. The more you do yourself, the less it will cost. Here are a few ideas for ways you can cut book production costs.
1. ISBN numbers. If your book is going to be distributed in any way in the book industry, you must have an ISBN. For me, this expense is non-negotiable because my books are sold on sites like Amazon.com. However, if you only plan to sell books at the back of the room during your presentations, you don’t need an ISBN. Similarly, if you plan to sell only in Kindle and certain other “e” formats, you also may not need an ISBN for your book.
2. Editing. Although I have been known to harp on the fact that everyone needs an editor, the price you pay for editorial services varies widely. Editors who charge reasonable rates do exist. However, the more editing you need, the more the service costs. The better your manuscript is from a structural and grammatical standpoint, the less you have to pay. One easy way to save money is to get a whole lot of other people (literate friends, family, retired English teachers) to read your book before you hand the manuscript off to a paid professional editor.
3. Interior layout. If you don’t have experience in laying out books, you have quite a learning curve ahead of you should you opt to do it yourself. Desktop publishing software that is most often used to lay out books, such as Adobe InDesign, is expensive and challenging to master. You can lay out books in a word processor, but they won’t look as good. If none of that matters to you and you want to learn, many articles and books on layout and book production exist to help you. Another alternative is to find a designer to create the basic design template or framework for you and then do some of the production work yourself.
4. Cover design. Prices vary widely for graphic design services, so explore your options. Also consider getting the artwork for your cover from people you know. For example, one of my clients is lucky enough to have a husband who is a photographer. She was able to use one of his photos on her cover, and I’m willing to bet he gave her a good deal on the artwork.
5. Printing. Get quotes from many different book printers. The best “deal” depends on the quantity you need. Don’t ever print more than you can use, since that’s just money down the drain. I use Lightning Source because the unit cost is low, and they offer incredible distribution. But if I were printing 5,000 books, my situation would be completely different. If I were only printing 10 books, I might opt for Lulu, which unlike Lightning Source has no set up costs.
When it comes to business, almost everything is a trade off between time and money. If you have more time than money, you can invest some in learning and perform tasks yourself. If you have more money than time, you can save time by having someone else do the work. No matter what you do, always strive to create the best book possible, given the resources you have.