The $$ Cost of Self Publishing

image from pubaicdomainvectors.org

As a highschool and even college student, I thought self-publishing was free.  Sure, I’d have to pre-order books and there would be a cost to the physical copies (Amazon was not a thing), but it would be a tiny investment.  

And I wondered why people went the traditional publishing route where you’d need an agent and publisher.  It could take years of work shouting “notice me” before anyone picked up your novel… if anyone would pick up the novel.  Then,you’d have to share the money, and you’d share rights to your story.  These people, who don’t know it or love it like I do, might demand changes they don’t understand the implications of based on what they think readers want… do they know the readers or the trends… can they predict what will trend by the time my book prints?  

With self publishing superior in every way, I didn’t understand why traditional publishing even still existed.  But here’s part of the truth: self-publishing costs more time and money.  Believe it or not, those large publishing houses DO something, and today I wanted to talk about the dollar cost to self-publishing.  

1. Editing.  So some writers get around this cost by not editing.  I read a lot of Kindle Unlimited books and as a reader I CAN TELL when someone doesn’t edit, and it takes away from my enjoyment.  I DON’T want to diminish anyone’s story experience, so I edit.  

This was my first book, and I didn’t have a bottomless budget.  I skipped the substantial edit (justified this by saying my betas, my writers’ group, and my major in creative writing had enabled me to skip this step) and just did a copy edit.  This saved me $1,000-$1,500.  But it was a $1,000 investment right off the bat.  My editor, Kristy Gilbert was amazing.  After getting a copy edit from her, I could see the value for a substantial edit and I want to budget in the substantial edit for future books. 

A little insight into the editor’s pricing.  They charge by length of the work you want edited and how much work they believe it will be to bring your book up to par.  The more self editing you do (at least on the sample you send them) the lower your price point will be.  This is one of many reasons people suggest aggressive self editing BEFORE this point. 

2. Cover Art.  Again there’s debate on whether cover art is valuable.  Some writers make their own with stock images to varying degrees of success.  There is research that indicated a strong cover will help generate interest.  It’s like dating, you might learn someone is kind and funny through talking to them, but there’s something in their appearance that compels you to talk to them.  

Plus, a strong cover can make its money back in other ways.  T-shirts, book marks, mugs.  Slap that artwork on all over the place and sell it (assuming you own the rights to the art which most designers will arrange for you).

While I’m not selling any merch, my cover art is all over my social media and posts.  It’s quality and versatility has helped me edit Roxi into pics and otherwise promote my book.  

The art work can cost as little as $20 and as much as $2,000.  Check out Rocking Book Covers post on the price ranges for covers and what to expect to get for those price points. It helped me figure out where I wanted to go with pricing.   

For me, I chose a $500 “mid-range” option and I love the cover.  I think I will always want to work with J. Caleb Designs. He was amazing.

3. A copyright for your work.  Again, some people opt out but I recommend it because you can’t get your book in the Library of Congress (or any other library) without it and that was a major goal for me.  It’s $80 and a couple months of waiting.  

4. A website.  The overall cost varies I ended up with a $100-ish dollar option.  My team bought, set it up, and maintains it so I haven’t had to look at this.  

There was someone who offered to set up a website and take author photos for me and they priced it at about $700, so this element can be a big chunk of budget.

5. Author photos.  The professional picture that goes on your book jacket, website, or author profile.  While this can cost money to get professionally done. I have a Nikon D5600 (photography is a hobby of mine and fun fact: my Flickr account is the 3rd thing that comes up if you google my name) and a very cooperative husband.  For me this element was free, but it could run an author between $100-$500.

6. A social media management software.  I haven’t bought into a plan yet.  But it seems to be between $25-$120 a month depending on what you need and what you want to do.  I’m considering it, but I haven’t bought in yet.

7. Advertising the book. On Amazon, Facebook, or Twitter.  

8. A team to help promote your book.  I did some research on HOW to promote a self-published book and I’m blessed enough to have amazing friends and family who are helping me work through all the promotional stuff.  For me this has been free, but this could be a major budget consumer.  

9. Publishing the book.  I went the Amazon route, so I’ve only paid for proofs, but some people use an independent publisher where they have to pre-order the books and that can be $3,000 investment depending on how many books one orders and what the company charges.  

For me: I need to make $1,600 in sales before I break even.  At the current pricing model, it’s about 478 books to break even.  It’s more realistic for me to believe I published at a loss than to think I could sell 478 books.  Opening weekend I made about $40 and that felt like a lot of money to see back.  

Self-publishing is an uncertain investment into the future. I have decades to make back the original investment, but I needed to save up the original lump sum— which was enough to make a good down payment on car—so I could publish anything and start this journey.  So when you see that independently published book and think "man they went the easy route," remember there was a lot of effort and money that went to bringing their book to market and they must love what they do to take such a risk.

Talk to me.  Did you know about all these costs to publishing a book?  Are all these steps required?  Do you prefer traditional or self publishing?  Did I miss any steps?  What are the most important steps to publishing in your experience?

Check out my book Follow Me: Tattered Veils and if you're inclined please leave a review.  Every review really helps me.

Looking for more book goodness?  I launched a Youtube channel filled with recipes and excerpts from Follow Me: Tattered Veils.  Watching, liking and subscribing to this channel is a great free way to show support for my writing ^_^. 

I also have an ongoing podcast digging deeper into different elements of Follow Me: Tattered Veils.  Listening to and sharing these insights also helps me find an audience who's most interested in my book.

If You Like "The Jujene Institute" You Might like My Novel (spoilers for the game—not my novel)

This

The Institute Cover art for the documentary

VS

This

Follow Me: Tattered Veils wide image art work created by Jake @ J Caleb Designs

The Jujene Institute: An alternate game that sprung up in San Francisco in 2008.  The 2013 documentary “The Institute” (youtube trailer) provides some details.  

What did this experience share with Follow Me: Tattered Veils share? 

The past three weeks I've posted childhood stories that show I have experience creating fantastic narratives others find creditable.  While I love high magic with spells, curses and fantastic beasts, I love it even more when I think all of it could be hiding just around the corner.

The experience created by the Jujene Institute encouraged those participating to question the nature of reality.  The game created a realistic modern cult.  People started "playing" by visiting an indoctrination station in an office building.  People probably weren't certain if they'd just joined a cult or started playing a game.  The Institute left clues in other real world locations, had a radio station releasing the "truth" about the Jujene Institute (otherwise known as a faction that opposed the institute), and had a missing person subplot.  The missing person is a real person and we don’t know what happened to that person.  I bow to the superiority of this art installation.  

Follow Me: Tattered Veils attempts to do something similar on a smaller scale.  By using real locations, referencing traditional myths, and creating a seasonal sense of time, I hope to create a small pocket of reality where Follow Me: Tattered Veils can co-exist with the mundane world.  In Jess’ infinite budget, there’s an alternate reality game for Follow Me: Tattered Veils, one I can’t share with audiences without spoiling the book and its planned sequel.  Trust me, it’s epic. 

As the player’s in The Jejune Institute seek the truth. the missing woman, or enlightenment (depending on the player), Roxi seeks the same ambiguous something more for herself.  Like the game has multiple aims, Roxi’s goal shifts and changes throughout the book.  Hopefully readers enjoy the chase and conclusion.   

Have you ever heard of The Jujene Institute?  Is it a game/experience you would want to play?     If so consider picking up Follow Me: Tattered Veils when it releases in February.  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com for more details.

Head Hopping as Lazy

This post continues a discussion we began at the NAWG blog regarding 1st person and limited 3rd person narratives where the character narrating changes through out the book.  Feel free to check out that post or just start here!

Yes, head hopping, like any story telling device can be lazy.  Answer unlocked we can all go home now.  

But lazy how and to whom and what metrics can we use to verify? 

In my novel Follow Me: Tattered Veils, I have 3 chapters that are told from minor character’s perspectives.  Each of those chapters are HUGE moments in the book.  They may be my 3 favorite chapters.  

Still, in a 29 chapter book where all the other chapters are told from my protagonist’s or my antagonist’s view points, I had to ask myself “Are these 3 chapters lazy?  Are their other ways I could give the readers this information?” Or conversely “Should I add more split perspectives from minor characters to make these three chapters blend more?”

Since these chapters remain in the final book, it’s clear what my conclusions were, but I believe there’s a valid argument one could make for why these chapters were lazy.

1. I could have told all 3 of these chapters from either Roxi or Gerry’s perspective.  

• “Snares” wouldn’t have been as much of a gut punch, but it’s almost unchanged if I split the perspective between Roxi and Gerry.

• “Waiting, Waiting, and More Waiting” COULD be more tense with a split perspective between Roxi and Gerry.  On one side we’d have Roxi idle chit chat and waiting in line and the other is Gerry watching, waiting for his moment to hit Claire’s Facebook feed and get the group to come his way.  I would have lost the opportunity to redeem Alice or to make her more than a “mean girl” but I may have gained more story continuity.

• “After the Party” can be told from Roxi’s perspective, though it’s WHOLE POINT in the book would be lost.  The reason that chapter exists is because I want readers to see more of Conor and they get that from his take on the night, not from the events themselves—but people could argue that readers don’t need to know Conor.

2. OR I could have added more head hopping to make these chapters “fit” better. 

• The most obvious place to add split perspectives is in faeryworld.  One chapter Roxi’s journey and the next chapter check in on where another character is and how they’re handling their night.—I didn’t do this because I like the flow of Roxi’s journey for place to place without the breaks these chapters would create.  AND I wanted readers to be surprised with Roxi at what she encountered, not spoiled through someone else’s perspective. 

• I could have created mini-adventures for each character and created more “slice of life” in the middle sections—I was so busy pairing things down in this section, adding anything non-essential seemed terrible.

I stand by my literary decisions.  I love these chapters, but I 100% see where people might argue they are lazy.  

So yeah, even head hopping done well might be lazy.  There might be more interesting, more complex solutions to a story issue and one should explore them, but that’s not the same as choosing it.  I compare head hopping to a showing vs telling issue.  I think there are cases where telling just moves the story on to the good stuff faster and head hopping may do the same.  You don’t know any of that until you do both and see which works best for your story.  

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Truth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy. Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

Post Book Launch: Reflections

from publicdomainvectors.org

I had a bad cold rolling into the launch of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils.”  It kept me from being as active on social media as I’d planned.  It kept me from feeling either excited or nervous.  Most of me just wanted everything to be over.  It felt like a slow grind towards an inevitable conclusion.  I wasn’t even a little happy, and I don’t feel different now that we launched the book.  

The one bright side to my illness is I also don’t feel let down.  All this time I’ve been pushing for a strong release of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” and bracing for silence.  It’s been hard to stay so positive and strong while trying to keep expectations low.  Realistically, only my friends, family, and husband’s friends/family will read or buy this book.  And that stings because I’ve gone way out of my comfort zone to promote this book.  I’ve spent a lot of time and energy trying to be friendly and charming and trying to find the right audience to enjoy my book.  And I love “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” like it’s a living person and part of me feels like I’ve failed her.  I’m like that parent that couldn’t figure out how their kid’s skill set could land them a successful career… or I saw that potential, but I couldn’t steer the kid in the right direction.  

Now that I’m recovering from the cold, I feel like there’s all this lost time to make up for.  I’ve got all these posts on writing and goals I have for 2020, and I haven’t hit most of them.  I have to face it: I won’t meet a lot of my goals (writing and otherwise).  And it’s leaving me feeling desperate to make up for lost time.  

I’m anxious to write, and it’s been so long, the creative writing part of my brain feels rusty and misused.  

So now you want me.  When I was romping and playing in the background, shouting for you to stop and write, you didn’t have time or you felt too sick, but now you want me just to appear on demand.  Well, good luck.  

People talk about “recovering from the book launch” and I’m sitting here and laughing because I am literally recovering from being sick as much as the nerves of the launch and the pressure to be “on”.  But some things I’m trying to keep in mind as I move forward:

1. Be kind to me.  There’s stuff that’s fucked up this book and it’s too late to take it back.  I need to forgive myself for any missteps or things I didn’t do or know to do for this launch.  

2. Don’t linger.  I need to get up and move the fuck on.  I’ve got two major drafts I’m working on.  I have a novella I’d love to find a sensitivity beta reader for and I would love love love love love to self publish it.   I work a full-time job, I have a dog and a husband and I have all this work I want to do.  I can’t wallow in lost time.  And I can’t wait for my creative side to be ready, I might need to force it a little until I find my routine.

3.  The book is out and published.  Same way I didn’t wake up and have a complete novel ready to publish, I can’t expect people just come in to buy it.  It will be a war of attrition to make back the money spent or to get people to read and enjoy the book.  

4. It’s not 100% over.  I have a few more promotional blogs to write/publish.  AND starting March 15th I launch “Roxi’s Podcast” where I do a read along for “Follow Me: Tattered Veils.”  My intentions are to reward early adopters of this story with some further insight into the creation and meaning of the story AND to entice some readers who are on the fence.  My team and I pre-recorded most of the podcasts, but we have at least two or three more to record.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Truth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy. Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

If You Like "The O.A." You Might like My Novel (spoilers for the show—not my novel)

This

promotional imagery from The O.A. found via google

VS 

This

Follow Me: Tattered Veils wide image art work created by Jake @ J Caleb Designs

This is part of my Honest Comparison series.  Hopefully, it helps you decide if my novel might be something you'd enjoy reading.  Thanks for tuning in!.

The O.A. : A Netflix show featuring a female protagonist who disappeared years ago and when she resurfaces, the once blind woman can see.  Prairie, now referring to herself as the O.A. has been through something traumatic, but she won’t share with the FBI or her adopted family.  Instead, she recruits four highschool students and a teacher whom she tells her story to and asks they help her save four other captives she left behind.  Teeming with supernatural, scifi, and fantasy elements, the show is a slow burning mystery told at the survivor’s pace.

What does this series and Follow Me: Tattered Veils share? 

Follow Me: Tattered Veils and The O.A. season one share a slow burn full of tension.  Both stories unfold at the protagonist’s pace instead of the viewer’s desired speed or the speed the surrounding cast may prefer.  The O.A. and Roxi make readers wait for it, but the release is all the sweeter because of the building.

Both the O.A. and Roxi have spiritual and esoteric knowledge the world around them doesn’t value.  As their respective stories unfold, their knowledge gains value, and becomes the key to their ability to survive their situations.  

Both The O.A. and Roxi share stories of strife and survival against all odds.  Their antagonists have an insidious obsession with them and even when they break free of these men’s power, the men refuse to leave them alone.  Questions of stalking, possession, and the toxicity of the male gaze are rife in the narrative.

Lastly both stories use established myth as a connecting foundation.  Even though views consider these myths and not truths in their lives, the audiences' familiarity with the original myth helps to build credibility and a sense of realism to the experiences the O.A. and Roxi go through.  Like an urban legend one might debate the validity of because a cousin's friend once said something like that happened to them, these old myths help ground the fantastic and bring it into the realm of possible.   The O.A. uses angelic myths and after life experience stories to weave it’s narrative.  Follow Me: Tattered Veils uses a collection of Italian, Greek, and Irish mythology to grow its own story.

Did you love The O.A.?  Were any of these elements you loved?  If so consider picking up Follow Me: Tattered Veils.

Still unsure about purchasing my novel? Check out  Lost Girl Comparison and American Gods Comparison for more context.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

Need an introduction to Roxi Starr? Here's her performing an Imbolc ritual to help whet some appetites.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

And for updates please check out jessicadonegan.com and subscribe.

4 Ways I Use Sigils as a Writer

sigil for my word of the year "Manifest"

While sigils have different uses historically, here we’re considering them symbols that represent another word or phrase.  They embody a whole string of words or ideas in a more simplistic way.  

The writer in me loves dead languages, codes, and creating whole cloth new words/ideas.  It’s little wonder sigils have lasting appeal.  Today I will cover 4 ways I use sigils to help me write.   

1. I make sigils for my book titles (and working book titles) and it helps me get into the atmosphere of my books.  So “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” is a mouthful, and its acronym FMTV feels ugly, plus the TV reminds me of television and I HATE that.  So instead, I use a sigil for the book.  Since I created the sigil, something about its flow and design helps me feel more true to the contents of the book.  It looks like this:  

2. I make sigils for characters in my books.  I’m not an artist.  I make mediocre chibis sometimes, but nothing I’d share or want to represent my written ideas.  You can make a collection of lines that look cool with little skill or time.  So I collect the character’s name and defining traits and make a sigil from that, which represent the character in my outlines.  

3.  Sometimes I use sigils to refer to spoilers or different endings.  Here’s the paranoid writer in me.  I don’t like for people to see what I’m working on until I’m ready.  Sometimes I use sigils to further obscure what I’m working on in case there is a casual person looking over my shoulder (my husband and I KNOW he doesn’t care, but I don’t want him to read even a stray word).  But the symbols take on their own emotional resonance.  They can help color the events of a story with their curves and points before I even write the scene. 

4. Sigils can be motivational.  I made a sigil out of my writers’ goals for the year and I look at them/doodle them just whenever.  I reinforce those commitments and sometimes drives me back to them when I was clowning around.

Did you enjoy this post and want more sigil goodness?  Check out An Urban Fantasy Writer's Toolkit: Sigils. 

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Truth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy. Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

If You Like "American Gods" You Might like My Novel (mild spoilers for the book/show—not my novel)

This

Original American Gods book cover.

VS

This

Follow Me: Tattered Veils wide image art work created by Jake @ J Caleb Designs

This is part of my Honest Comparison series.  Hopefully, it helps you decide if my novel might be something you'd enjoy reading.  Thanks for tuning in!.

American Gods: is a novel by Neil Gaiman that's seeing a resurgence in popularity as a Starz TV show based on the book just finished its second season.  The basic premise Shadow, upon his release from prison, agrees to work as a bodyguard to Mr. Wednesday.  The two go on a road trip recruiting various associates of Mr. Wednesday.  A bunch of stuff happens that I would spoil if I went any further.  It’s a great supernatural/fantasy hybrid story that incorporates many kinds of storytelling.

What does this series and Follow Me: Tattered Veils share? 

One element both this story and mine have in common is that the magical/supernatural world intertwines with the mundane world readers know.  It’s happening next to us non-magical people and we’re just not looking at it.

In American Gods, gods and mythical creatures are just chilling on the human plane, working mundane jobs, and interacting with humans as they feel is best for their survival.  The inhuman beings in Follow Me: Tattered Veils are like that too.  They show up and bless or curse humans as they feel appropriate.  And just because the characters’ have ended the summoning or the ritual, doesn’t mean the beings they called have left.

American Gods uses real road trip landmarks as mystical energy centric places for gods and supernatural creatures to gather.  Since these places are real, readers can create their own American Gods style road trip if they desire, but it also helps to ground some more fantastic elements of the narrative in the real world.  I went to Rock City because of how it’s featured in American Gods and how I experienced that place was impacted by Gaiman’s description.  I’m aspiring to do the same for a few locations in Huntsville, Alabama.  

The characters in American Gods and Follow Me: Tattered Veils have critical flaws.  Sometimes the characters are down right unlikable.  What drives a reader to keep going is how interesting they are, it's a different type of charisma.  No one wants to sit down and have a beer with them, but they might be curious to see what the next move is anyway.  

While never intended for this use, American Gods comes up a lot in American pagan discussions.  There are a subset of polytheistic pagans in America who wonder what gods to honor.  We don't have ancient land gods like our European cousins (we do, they are Native American deities but there is a whole side discussion over whether we should/can honor these gods and which gods apply to which territory/how we would verify this info with the still living Native peoples).  I can't tell you how often "This is a bad land for gods," was quoted in a forum.  While not a religious or theological texts, American Gods creates a jumping off point to start discussing what it would mean if there were multiple gods, if those gods had limited powers, and if those gods had a fluctuating morality.  

Follow Me: Tattered Veils is a smaller, more personal story.  It doesn't discuss the nature of gods and how they may exist in a non native landscape.  Instead it tackles one woman modernizing an older practice to suit her lifestyle and it further tackles what happens when myths and legends are real and interacting with each other in the real world.  I don't expect it to be an intro to paganism, but I do think it may open a conversation up on many magic and legend based topics.

Did you love American Gods?    Have you read the book, watched the show, or both?  Do you like the book or the show better? Were any of these elements parts you loved?  If so consider picking up Follow Me: Tattered Veils when it releases in February.  Check out my website jessicadonegan.com for more details.

Haven't read American Gods yet but want to now?  Check it out at Amazon.  Looking for the show?  Look here.

Still undecided on whether you want to give my novel a chance? There's more stuff to help you! Check out:  Lost Girl Comparison and The O.A. Comparison.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Turth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

Need an introduction to Roxi Starr? Here's her performing an Imbolc ritual to help whet some appetites.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

And for updates please check out jessicadonegan.com and subscribe.