When you’re contemplating going indie, you need to save money. It’s that simple. Because you may not want to, and many people likely don’t, but you will need to spend money if you realistically want to sell books.
You need to get your manuscript edited, and not by family and friends. You need an objective pair of eyes to scour your manuscript. And if the editor’s good, he or she will not hold back and will let you know what needs fixing.
Then there’s the cover art. That’s the second most important aspect of putting out your own work. At least I think it is, and I’ve never done it before. But after the story, you need something professional to go up against the Big 5 and the reputable (somewhat big) independent publishers, and there are a few that rival the Big 5.
A good cover, in my humble opinion (and I could be wrong and will gladly admit that I am), will cost a few thousand dollars, and that’s simply a guess on my part based on what I’ve seen out there.
Take Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes:
Did you know Travis self-published his book first, not expecting his cozy fantasy to explode the way it did? Well, he did, and I recommend everyone who’s thinking of going full indie to read the wonderful chronicle of his journey. He is a strong advocate of ensuring a self-published book looks as close to a traditionally published one as possible. He doesn’t say how much he spent on his cover (and it’s a great one), but he implies it was not cheap.
Now, if you can’t afford a super-expensive cover, that’s fine. I get it. This is reality. We have more pressing purchases than a flashy cover, which doesn’t guarantee you’ll sell anything. At the same time, anyone can spot a bad self-pubbed book cover. That isn’t to be mean, it’s simply the truth.
If I go independent, I want to give myself the best possible chance to succeed, knowing what I am up against (professional book publishers) and that millions of books from trad/indie authors are released a year.
That brings me to my website. I’m not sure what I paid in 2013 to get a professional website made, but I’m guessing it was at least $500, and I didn’t mind paying it. I knew nothing about code and didn’t want the hassle. And I was pleased with the outcome. I wasn’t looking for anything flashy, just a logical landing spot. I’ll keep that landing page for a little while longer until I transfer to the WordPress site I’m building. It won’t look much different than my current one. The difference is that I spent roughly $150 to go it alone (paying for the WordPress subscription that provides access to all the features). I was given quotes of $750 to $800 for SquareSpace packages from professionals. I found those quotes fair, honestly. I’d received ones in the $2,000 range.
And I’m enjoying the process of learning it as I go. Does it look like some super-snazzy author website? Not right now. But it gets better-looking every day as I figure things out. The money I’m saving will absolutely go toward a cover if I go that route. And to me, that’s a worthwhile tradeoff. (I can always hire a professional if need be to help with the bells and whistles.)
Every dollar counts.
And I haven’t even gotten to marketing yet. Sheesh.