How Much Does it Cost to Self-Publish a Book? How Much Money I Spent to Publish my Novel

How Much Does it Cost to Self-Publish a Book? How Much Money I Spent to Publish my Novel, Meet Me at the Summit// Let’s talk self-publishing costs! I published my novel on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, IngramSpark, and Draft2Digital. In this video, I’m breaking down the costs of self-publishing a book on Amazon, from hiring an editor, to marketing costs. Find out how much it costs to publish a book.

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In this video:
0:00 – Intro
2:50 – Estimated Costs for Self-Publishing
5:40 – Actual Costs for Self-Publishing

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Mandi Lynn published her first novel when she was seventeen. The author of multiple books, Mandi spends her days continuing to write and creating YouTube videos to help other writers achieve their dreams of seeing their books published. Mandi is the owner of Stone Ridge Books, a company that works to help authors bring their books to life through cover design and digital book marketing. She is also the creator of The Book Launch Planner, a planner designed to help authors publish and market their books. When she’s not creating, you can find Mandi exploring her backyard or getting lost in the woods.

DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links. By purchasing a linked product or service, Mandi Lynn will receive a small commission at no additional fee to you.

[MandiLynnWrites]

Let me know if you want another video on how I plan on saving money when I publish my next novel!

[AuthorBrittanyWang]

Love hearing all the budget details, thanks for sharing, Mandi! P.S. I'd LOVE to see a video sharing how you plan to save on publishing costs with your next book!

[MashAllahMari]

Oh this is really nice to hear I was imagining id have to spend like 10, 000 or something but Im glad to see you can do something budget and it still looks amazing!

[garnellwallace]

As someone who doesn't have a large publishing or marketing budget, I'd love to see a video on ways to cut costs.

[WordsPictures]

Thank you so much for sharing this Mandi!
Really admire your thought process before and after. I appreciate these breakdowns that you share.

Yes please to a breakdown of the book box and plans for your next book to save some money.

[ericarowanarts]

I love the financial videos. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the creative aspects so any info on finances is HELPFUL! I'm not looking forward to dealing with Ingram spark when my time comes. I'd love to see your video on how to cut costs on the sequel.

Great video!

[bryinasia]

Hi Mandy!
I'm shocked to hear that you paid only 1k for your developmental edit, only to find that you found more value in your beta readers! I spent nearly 2k for my developmental edit and it was a real money sap. May I ask, how did you find your beta readers? Is there a website you go to specifically to request / find a group of beta readers to do a preliminary reading of your work? Thanks so much!

[annpippin]

I m only interested now about having my book printed and details about that, and how to insure protecting it.s contents . Self publishing, I see now, is too expensive

[Kelly-Martin]

I think for developmental editors, we all charge different rates. Very interesting video.

[michaelsmythe]

Be interested in the word lengths of the book in question. I had my first book of 73000+ words in my 'Mindarra' series[Rural/Action/Romance] edited for $2500 [Aus]. About $1675 US, which I considered reasonable.

[vuyokazi]

Hi Mandi, did u factor the time cost to write the book? Did u pay yourself? Other than publishing etc? Did u price your time time investment?

[jeannemoore]

So, you designed your book cover, correct?

[fredswartley]

Thanks for sharing your experience in self publishing. Have you earned back the money you spent on your books?

[wordcharm]

Could you create a video where you give an in-depth explanation of what your developmental editor actually did? And how that compares to feedback you've gotten from beta readers. Being that you've decided to potentially skip on the dev edits next book, I was just curious what kind of work the dev editors you've worked with have done for you? Concrete examples of what your story was like before, and how they impacted the published book would be fantastic. Thank you.

[stansolo]

This video made me cry I only have $50

[JasmineMGorton]

I would look in Fiverr for cheaper editors.

[jaybrackett]

You sound like you know what your doing. I want to publish my first novel, but there are too many things I don't know and don't have the time to work them out.I'm 75 years old and can't afford to waste any more time. However, I would be happy to pay you to help me get my book published. I have several color paintings that I want included. If you would contact me so we could talk, I would love to discuss this. If no, please tell me so. Thank you, JB

[brittanyg]

I miss the days of CreateSpace where you could upload your manuscript however many times you needed without a fee. Lol

[fionahowellwrites]

Not including author copies, I was able to cut costs down to $850 for my new book, Blackwood. I still had an amazing editor, cover artist, and formatter. I find it all interesting how varied it all is. :)