How Much I Spent Self-Publishing My Second Book
All of the costs—from proof copies to author hardcovers for my bookstore and some unexpected purchases.
The first time I self-published a book, I went with a publishing company. Do I regret it? No. Not exactly, anyway. I first tried to publish traditionally, with a publishing house. However, after over 60 rejections, I wanted to take my book into my own hands. It was too depressing for my bubbly debut.
First, let’s talk about when I published The Manhattan Mishap. It was expensive; in the thousands. And you know what? I wasn’t even completely satisfied with it. Long story short: the cover wasn’t what I wanted and I don’t like that post-publication, I have to pay more if I want to make any changes. I have to jump through all these hoops and open my wallet to update or edit my own work.
No, thank you.
The good thing about going with a company is that I learned a lot about self-publishing a novel. (I have a whole section on my website dedicated to the whole process with all the details.) I got to go through all of the steps, alongside a contact person and an editor, and see how everything came together. Since it was my first book, I think that part was super helpful.
This time, after a recommendation from another author friend on Barnes & Noble printing versus Amazon, I decided to go with the latter. She told me that B&N had terrible quality, which is astounding considering they stock their self-published books and wouldn’t they want to have high-quality books on their shelves? Who knows. All I can speak on is my experience with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing.
My experience with Amazon’s KDP for self-publishing
From start to finish, the process was easy to navigate. I find Amazon’s website and backend ugly and unappealing to look at, but nevertheless, it was simple and got the job done. Although, there were still a couple of hiccups.
First of all, I’m unimpressed with the scheduling option for your book’s release. At first it seemed perfect. Like, my book can be scheduled on a certain date and I don’t have to think about it again! However, the annoying thing is that your manuscript locks I think it was 5 days before the scheduled release. I knew this going in.
The issue arose when their backend system told me I had until October 8th to make changes to my book that was publishing on October 13th but then never unlocked the editing options to let me make changes. So, I was constantly refreshing the page, checking to see if I was able to make changes before it went for final review—and it never unlocked.
For the paperback version of Thirteen Emotions, I got an email stating that my book was available to make changes and I immediately went to the website and in less than a minute, my book had locked for edits.
This was incredibly frustrating because I was counting on that time to be able to upload a new manuscript with a few minor changes. And thankfully they were just that: minor. Thirteen Emotions ended up publishing with the old (ugh) manuscript and as soon as it went live, I uploaded the new one.
There were only a few orders on the first day, so not too many people got the old version of the book. It was only a line or two anyway. Which, doesn’t seem like anything to fuss over, but as a writer, I want people to read the book exactly as I intended it, not with a sentence or two missing.
The other annoying thing was a couple of colouring discrepancies and it was a bit difficult to align the spine text just right. For example: I used Amazon’s template to align my cover art within the margins and when I did a preview of the book before requesting a proof copy, everything looked perfect. Then, when the book arrived to me in physical form, the spine was way off.
I guess that’s a risk you take when self-publishing. It just makes me cringe thinking that someone who spent their money on my book might receive a less-than-perfect copy. At least if it looks really bad, people can easily return things to Amazon. But I’d hate anyone to think those errors were on me. I promise, I tried my best to line everything up error-free!
Ok, so how much did I spend on self-publishing my book?
I spent just under $500 on self-publishing my book through Amazon KDP. If we want to get exact: $494. I spent $120 on Canva Pro so I could design my own cover (for this book and future ones). Then there were the five or so proof copies I ordered which ranged from six to 12 dollars. I bought a specific font which was $23 which I used both on the cover and inside the book.
The biggest costs came from ordering author copies to sell through my own website. I spent $272 on hardcovers for my bookstore. This, of course, wasn’t necessary in order to publish my book. I didn’t have to do this, and if I didn’t, it would have saved me a few hundred dollars. However, I love the idea of selling signed copies with handwritten notes to those who want it. It feels more special and personal.
In the end, I think I kept the cost as low as I possibly could for what I wanted to do. Five-hundred doesn’t seem like a whole lot when I’m living out my dream and getting to publish books. I’d definitely spend this much again publishing my next book. (Hint: it’s a Christmas novella set in Victoria, BC releasing holiday season 2025.)
However, I’m sure that my costs are going to skyrocket for the next novel because I want to hire a freelance editor. (Does anyone know any?) This time, I did all of the editing and rereading myself.
The only other major cost was… my time. Sure, I write because I love it and that’s why it doesn’t feel like “work” per se. But boy oh boy, I spent hours and hours writing and reading and editing and reworking this book. I wish I’d kept track of it all so I could have calculated how much I would have made if I was getting paid to do this. Maybe next time.
Here’s a video I did about the cover on my TikTok:
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Come with me to drop off some Thirteen Emotions pre-orders:
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Thank you to everyone who has ordered a copy of Thirteen Emotions and helping to support my author dreams. You can grab a copy through my website or on Amazon worldwide and Bookshop.org.
Don’t forget to leave a review if you can! Either on Goodreads or wherever you purchased Thirteen Emotions. It helps so much.
I’ll leave you with this TikTok I did about how to best support an indie author.
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