The Cost of Publishing

A few months ago I had a disagreement on social media with a chap who informed me that 'it is a very bad idea to publish for free,' I disagreed with this notion and he replied, 'then you shouldn't have any expectation of success,' he didn't seem to realise that to some of us it is the only viable option to having anyone actually read our books, even if it does end up being only a small market.

The truth is that publishing, be it self-publishing or co-operative can be very costly what with editing, printing (if required), cover design, marketing and distribution, the price per copy mounts up. The only control measure is your own budget, what can you afford to put in to these books, after all, you have only put your heart in soul in to it so far.

It sometimes seems a shame that after we spend months and in some cases years writing a story, inventing new characters, polishing plot lines and adding our inspirations of humour, we then find ourselves having to justify how much money we spend on ensuring that someone reads it. I know you can always hold out for the lucky letter from the agent or publisher to hit your mat saying yes we would love to offer you a publishing contract, oh and by the way here is a tasty advance. But the reality is that there are not enough of these contracts for every budding author out there and some of us will do the hard work ourselves.

So how far can we go? How much can be achieved when publishing for free? Also how is that affected if you aren't publishing under your own name?

Publishing to an e-book format such as Kindle is completely free, so if you choose this you do not have to spend anything on physically publishing the book, there is also a simple cover designer function which can help you avoid spending out money for that attribute either. You pay the price of not having a professionally designed cover for the book which could potentially cost you sales but it is a balance.

As discussed in other blogs you can edit the book yourself and utilise some beta readers to give you initial feedback for areas of improvement, but marketing is still the killer for cost. It is entirely possible to market for free, utilising local media, social media, friends and family, but unfortunately there is no way of judging the effectiveness of a campaign without trying it first. Also what works for one may not work for another, effectiveness could change dependent upon the genre of the book, it's title, date of release, amount of friends on social media or anything else that happens to be going on in the world at that time. Also if you decide not to publish under your own name for whatever reason then you face the issue of not being able to utilise friends and family for marketing purposes.

Overall there is no way of knowing if a free marketing campaign on a free book will work without trying it for yourself, but I do smell a challenge coming on myself. I have two books nearing completion, one that I am publishing in my name and one that I am not, both that I am intending being available on Kindle. This might end up being a very good opportunity to try out a well thought out marketing and launch campaign which is free, in order to see how effective that it can be.

What are your thoughts? Let me know below in the comments. Have you tried free marketing? Did it work for you?

Written by Martin Wallace