If you’ve been following my other posts, you should have a pretty good idea of my process for writing and publishing a book. That’s all good to know, even if you have a process that differs from mine.

What you don’t know yet, is how the financial side of all this works out, because let’s face it, the world revolves around money, and when you create works of art for income, you have to look at the business of this, too.

Buckle up, because this is going to be full of numbers, and if you’re not comfortable with that, then it might take a few reads to get familiar with this. Keep in mind that these numbers can vary depending on you, who you hire, and other factors.

Hard and Soft Costs

First, let’s distinguish between hard and soft costs. What do I mean by a hard cost? Well, this is any cost that you actually have to shell out cash for. This is going to be for people you hire to edit your book, or costs to print copies of your book—things that actually require money in the bank to honor.

Soft costs are those incurred by you spending your time working on them. Let’s face it, time is money, and even though you aren’t paying yourself to write, your time spent on that book does come at a cost. After all, you could be spending that time working a part-time job, or doing something else. Your time is worth something.

There is one other cost that we should probably consider, though I don’t think I’ll be able to put a number on everyone’s situation perfectly, but it something you can factor in the back of your mind, and that is Overhead costs. This includes things that I’ll assume you already have, like a computer, and the software needed to write your books. It includes the electricity to run your office, even if it’s a home office. 

The Breakdown

Overhead: If I write $0 here, it’s because I’m assuming you already own this and can use it, rather than buying new.

Computer- $0

Word processing software- $0

Adobe creative suite- $60/month or $720/yr

Electricity- $0 (judge whether or not you’d be using similar power when not writing)

Educational books- $50/yr (I recommend reading as much as you can about your craft)

Overhead subtotal = $720/yr

Hard costs of 1 book. (Assume it is a 100,000 word book. Adjust yours accordingly)

AI subscription- $0 (because you shouldn’t be using this to write your book!)

Copy edit- $4000 ($.03 to $.05 per word, depending on who you hire)

Proof edit- $2000 (this is about half the cost of a copy edit, if you hire someone)

Print proofreading manuscript- $40 (I like to do this for my proof editing)

Print proofreading manuscript again- $40 (because you missed stuff in your first proof edit)

Cover art- $500-$750

Hire Voiceover artist $1600 (optional but highly recommended)

ISBN numbers- $75 (buy in bulk and you get them for cheap)

Copyright submission- $45

Print review copy of book- $25 (includes shipping)

Print final copy of books- $100 (assuming you order a few copies for family/friends)

Subtotal Hard costs of making a book = $8425

Soft Costs of 1 book: (assuming you write 800 words/day or 2 hours/day, 5 days a week and your time is worth $25/hr)

1^st Draft- $1250 (aprox 1 month) rough draft

2^nd draft- $1250 (aprox 1 month) plot fixing draft

3^rd draft- $625 (a couple weeks) early polishing draft

4^th draft- $1250 (approx 1 month) after getting it back from copy edit)

5^th draft- $625 (a couple weeks) revising and polishing

6^th draft- $625 (a couple weeks) polishing draft

7^th draft- $625 (a couple weeks) proof editing (if done by you)

8^th draft- $625 (a couple weeks) proof editing again (because you will have missed stuff)

Other drafts – we’ll assume you’re good now, but I’ve done up to 12 drafts before.

Finding voiceover, Listening to, and noting edits for audiobook- $300

Organizing in Indesign- $200

Assembling cover art in photoshop- $200

Submitting manuscript to the Copyright office and the Library of Congress- $50

Filling out forms for ISBN numbers, Print on Demand, and Audiobook metadata- $100

Subtotal of soft costs = $7725

Assume that on this schedule you are writing two books per year. I assume this, because if you’re just starting out, you’re probably doing this all part time, and not full time, so this might be all the time you can afford to write your books.

Total costs (hard and soft + overhead) = $33020

Writing Books is Not Free From Costs

Thats a lot of money. Even if you only include the hard costs, that can add up pretty quickly.

If you’re like most of us, and just starting out, it’s easy to ignore the costs of our time, and focus on the hard costs. This is fine in the beginning, especially if you have a more steady income. But don’t shortchange your time spent writing either. Especially as you start doing more of it.

We haven’t even talked about the costs of marketing your book yet. Because making a profit on $33k worth of books in a given year won’t happen until you can start selling your books.

A lot of this work will also involve soft costs and hard costs. But I worry that I’ve overwhelmed you with the sheer cost of writing a book. So let’s save the marketing discussion for next time.

Check out the video I made for this topic. As I often do, I put a fun skit in there too: https://youtu.be/io0AgEhRxQQ