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How much will it cost?
Within reason, as much as you want it to!
There is an awful lot you will need to decide.
You need to decide first what sort of treatment
you want. Naturally if you go for the whole works, copy-editing,
text design, proofreading etc, you’re going to pay more.
How long is the book? Do you want to type-set
the text slightly smaller, making it cheaper to type-set and
print but harder to read? Or do you want nice large text,
and pay a bit extra for printing? Who's going to be reading
your book should be an influence on your decision, in that
books for younger children should have larger type, for instance.
Then you need to decide how many copies of the book you want,
do you want hardbacks? Paperbacks? Both? How many will you
need?
Pay attention, this is the maths part!
We’ll take below a basic example
and work through the figures:
200 paperback copies of a novel-sized book
(216x138mm), 112 pages long, text only (no images or diagrams)
black and white throughout, with a full-colour cover (author
to supply the image), delivered to your door (mainland UK)
for as little as £750.
Unit cost = £3.75
(total costs / number of books).
Retail price = £11.99.
Discount to get the shops to buy it = 50% (i.e. they buy from
you at your selling price and sell at full retail, that’s
how they make their money).
Your selling price = £5.99 (retail price x 50%)
Total revenue (if you sell all the books) = £1199 (selling
price x number of books)
Total profit = £449! (Total revenue –
total costs)
In addition to this, if you’re
selling direct (i.e. through a website) you can afford to give
a lower discount and take more money per book!
A note of caution
This makes it look simple, and everything
above is perfectly possible, but it’s the selling the
books that’s the hard part; please bear this in mind!
As Irene Lawford-Hinrichsen, self-publisher and Presta client
says: "Books don’t sell themselves. To successfully publish
and market your own books, you have to be totally dedicated
and single-minded." |
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