Balance Sheet for Self-Publishing My Book

Production

Cover Art: $15

Interior Design: $100

Editing (Professional): $400

Subtotal: $515

Publishing and Distribution

Amazon Pro: $40

Promotion

Webpage: $100 (one year at Wix)

Booktrailers: $30

Movies: $30 (credits at xtranormal)

Subtotal: 160

Total: $715

This is the minimum I expect to spend.

I’ve budgeted a bit more, on the theory that everything always costs more than you expect, but I won’t go over $1000. If I had to pay more for the editing I would probably pay less for interior design, for example. I’ve already paid for the Wix site, but I haven’t paied anything for booktrailers yet. I may be able to do them more cheaply. I am eager to do funny movies at xtranormal, but I have yet to think of anything funny. When I bought the Wix Pro account, I also received some Google Ad credits, and I’ll use those, but otherwise, I won’t buy advertising. Most of my promotion will be through giving out eARCs for review and, hopefully, doing blog tours.

Now, how much do I expect to make? The real answer is I HAVE NO CLUE. But that’s not business-like, so I’ll give you an OMAF.

I read that one can expect a sell-through rate of about .03% on an average list. I have a list of about 1000 people — that is how many people I can reasonably and reliably expect to tell about my book. If three out of every hundred who hear about it actually buy the book, I will sell thirty books.

Yes. Thirty. That’s how many books I expect to sell.

I will be making $1 (net) on each ebook and up to $2.74 (net) on each print book. So I expect to make between $30 and $150.

30 + -715 = -685

150 + -715 = -565

That leaves me in the red to the tune of $565 even in the best case sceneario, and out almost the full cost of my investment in the worst case.

Certain factors could improve this picture. I will do a blog tour, to try to tell more people about the book. And if readers like the book and start telling friends about it, that would be wonderful. I have no way of controlling word-of-mouth, besides trying to write as compelling fiction as I can, and packaging it as beautifully as I can afford. Even if I never earn out my advance (so to speak) I hope to give those who do read the book an enjoyable experience and a lovely object of art.

Another way I could do better is if I had a higher buy-in from my list. If I had a 1000 Fans of Tara Maya breathlessly awaiting the next drop of ink from my quill, I might be able to count on a buy-in rate of 20%. Two hundred books sold equals $200-$1000 net. Closer to break-even, but to really be sure, I would need both a bigger list AND higher buy-in. If I had 2000 people with 20%, that would mean $400 gross. A list of 5000 at 20% would mean $1000.

But a list by itself is not worth much. 5000 people with the expected rate of .03% still translates to 150 books sold, or $150-$750.