Hellooo, everybody! I'm not gonna lie to you, self-publishing can get really expensive.
And because of this, a lot of writers cut all the wrong corners. They skip the edit, they design
their book cover themselves, they format the book on Microsoft Word. Don't do this shit.
There's actually a ton of ways to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars during the publishing
process, while still releasing a professional quality book. And wouldn’t you know it,
that's exactly what we're talking about today. I'm breaking down the ten easiest ways to save
a buttload of money, while self-publishing your book. In the past, I've covered self-publishing
resources that are cheap, but today I'm going to be focusing on overall practices that
you can implement that will save you money. I'm talking about the difference between spending $800
on cover art versus $35 on cover art. Spending $5,000 on a book event versus spending
$0 on a book event. These are all tips and tricks that I wish I learned sooner,
but I'm happy to spread the love now. It's all widely accessible. Anyone can do these things, and
I'm breaking it down for you right now. Let's get into it.
(The sound of a pen scratching. LOGO.)
Before we get started, a huge thank you to GetCovers for sponsoring today's video.
GetCovers is a go to book cover design company for authors who are either just starting their self-publishing
career, or maybe can't afford a super expensive book cover design, which is something a lot of
writers can relate to. What I love about GetCovers is they provide both affordable and very high
quality book cover designs. The price range for a cover is, wait for it, between $10 to $35. That's
right, 10 to 35 bucks depending on the delivery time and the stock photos used. All packages
include an unlimited number of free revisions, and a 100% refund if you don't like the result.
On top of that the delivery process is super fast. You can get your book cover in one to three days
depending on the package. I'm telling you guys if you want beautiful high quality covers at an
insanely low price, GetCovers is the way to go. They work with all fiction and nonfiction genres,
and they even provide marketing material for all book promotion, logo design and branding. I've
got them linked below. Definitely check them out. Save some money and get yourself a stunning cover.
Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays, and if you wanna be
alerted as SOON as I upload, ring that bell. The Savior's Champion and The Savior’s Sister
are available in ebook, paperback, hardback, and audiobooks. So if you like award winning
dark fantasy romance, definitely check this series out. It means the world to me,
I will love you forever. I got them linked below. Now I am breaking down ten easy ways to save a
shitload of money while self-publishing your book. Self-publishing doesn't have to be expensive
and these tips will save both your wallet and your sanity. Number One (1): Editor packages. If you've
been in this gig for a while then you already know that hiring a professional editor is a must. You
also know that there are four types of edits you need to seek out. The developmental edit,
which tackles your book on a plot and story basis. The line edit, which focuses on paragraph and
sentence level issues. The copy edit, which is all about grammar and punctuation. And the proofread,
which is a final check to make sure there aren't any lingering typos. Not only can this process be
overwhelming, but it can be super expensive. “Do I need to hire four different editors?” Fortunately,
it doesn't have to be this way as many editors offer packages. This means the editor will offer
two types of edit in one package. Usually its developmental plus line edit, or line plus copy
edit. That means you are getting two services for a potentially cheaper price. All in all, if you're
looking to save some money during the edit, check for editor packages. The professional edit will go
by quicker and your wallet will thank you. Number Two (2): Virtual events. It used to be an industry
expectation to host book signings at bookstores, or to pay for booths at different conferences.
These days not so much. Yes, book signings and cons are still a thing, but between COVID and the
rise of the online bookish community, a lot more events are happening virtually. This is a huge
benefit to both traditional and indie writers because it saves us a ton of money. For starters,
buying a booth at a conference is expensive, it can easily cost thousands of dollars.
Book signings are also tricky because you have to buy a bulk of books to sign, but there's
no guarantee that people are actually going to purchase them. With virtual events you can host
them for free and people from all over the world can attend. The more popular virtual events these
days are live streams where one or more author gets together to play games, answer questions,
and interact with their audience. And of course there are virtual book signings,
typically with a virtual signing people pre order signed copies via the author's website,
then they tune in to the live stream where the author signs these copies and answers questions.
This is a brilliant idea because you don't end up with a ton of extra inventory. You are only buying
the books that people have already paid for. Virtual events have totally changed the game for
authors and saved us a ton of money. Number Three (3) Cover art. I meet a lot of writers who insist
on designing their own cover art because hiring a cover artist is just too expensive. You know
what else is expensive? Publishing a book that no one will read because your cover fucking sucks.
That's the risk of designing your own cover. Unless you yourself are a professional cover
designer the odds are you are not going to be able to produce a cover that is eye-catching
to readers. And if it is eye-catching, it's probably for all the wrong reasons. Fortunately,
professional cover art doesn't have to be expensive. In fact, as self-publishing grows,
cover art prices have begun to decrease. As I mentioned earlier, GetCovers is an obvious way
to get high quality cover art and save money. They have a portfolio of super professional
looking covers, and their prices range from $10 to $35. I know everyone's budget is different but $35
on the high end for book cover is a fucking steal! And you're getting a professional design
not something you whipped up on GIMP hoping for the best. Bottom line, cover art is not
something you wanna do yourself and hiring a pro can definitely be affordable. Number
Four (4): Collaboration. This is particularly relevant during major publication events like
the cover reveal or a book release. It's very common for writers to incentivize readers to
get involved in their release, and handing out prizes is one of those incentives. But buying a
buttload of prizes can be expensive. The great way to create prizes for readers on the cheap,
is to collaborate with other authors. Wrangle a group of author buddies who are willing to donate
signed copies of their books to one another in return for promotion and returning the favor.
Basically your friend donates a signed copy of her book to your cover reveal, you do the same to her
cover reveal. This is a great way to collect a stack of amazing books to give away without
breaking the bank. Plus, you're supporting fellow authors, your spreading the word about them, and
you're helping them out when it's their turn. It's a money saver and a pretty nice thing to do. On a
similar note, Number Five (5): Digital incentives. If you've been researching self-publishing you've
probably heard of real magnets or cookies. This is a free product you give away to readers as
incentive for their participation. You can give away a cookie if someone joins your newsletter, or
preorders your book. A lot of writers are hesitant to create these incentives because they think it's
going to be expensive, but reader magnets can be insanely cheap, even free, especially if you
utilize digital incentives. A digital incentive is a free ebook or PDF that you send to your readers.
And because it's digital it reduces the cost significantly. No shipping costs, no production
cost, no cost of materials—that right there is a huge money saver. Take for example, my newsletter
incentive which is a free behind the scenes short story from The Savior’s Sister titled Great Love.
It’s a short story so it was relatively quick to write, and because it's so short,
it only cost me $35 to have it edited. Now say we choose an affordable cover source like GetCovers,
we would likely land a $10 cover Altogether, we're looking at $45 to create this reader magnet.
$45 to incentivize thousands of readers to join my mailing list, or to preorder my book,
or whatever event I am trying to promote. In my opinion, digital incentives are absolutely
the way to go. They're fast, they're easy, and they're cheap. Number Six (6): Self-formatting.
Many moons ago, indie writers had two options when it came to formatting their book. Do it themselves
via Microsoft Word, which was a fucking nightmare. Or pay a professional, which is a very long,
slow and expensive process. Fortunately, times have changed. Now you can format your book
yourself using professional easy to use software. These programs are specifically built for people
who don't want to pull their hair out during the process, but still want a professional looking
format. Two of the most popular programs are Atticus and Vellum. I personally prefer
Vellum and you can get the software for $200 to $250. I have it linked to the description below.
For this flat rate you can format as many books as you want, as quickly as you want to,
and it is a huge money saver over time. Number Seven (7): Writing groups. This may sound cheesy,
but hear me out. My debut novel was by far my most expensive publication. That's because
when I worked on that book, I did it alone. I didn't have any writer friends. I didn't have
any networking resources. I was completely alone. Sure I made some great decisions, but I also made
a lot of mistakes that could’ve been avoided if I had writer friends. And most of those mistakes
cost hundreds of dollars. This is why I encourage all writers to join a community. Join a writing
group, I host one over on Patreon. I've got it linked below, it's SUPER active. Ask questions,
give and receive advice, make friends. When you start developing close ties,
create a group chat with like minded writers where you can share resources. Because of the writing
community I learned about self-formatting, the proper editing steps, mailing list tips,
and automated marketing. These tips not only upped my professionalism, but saved me so much money.
If you are not involved in the community it's time to start. Number Eight (8): Coupons and
promo codes. There are a lot of unexpected fees that pop up during the publishing process.
If you're publishing through IngramSpark, you're gonna pay a fee of either $25 to $49.
If you wanna create book swag, which some readers are gonna expect during a book release,
that's gonna cost you as well. And of course there are tons of publishing resources to purchase,
and those things add up real fast. Before I pay for anything, I check for promo codes. IngramSpark
offers promo codes constantly. They either reduce the price by 50% or eliminate the fee completely.
If you're getting bookmarks, postcards, or stickers through a platform like Vistaprint,
check their sale and promo section. They shuffled their promotions typically on a bi-weekly basis.
So if you keep up with our sales, you'll never have to pay full price. When it comes to
publishing resources, I always check for affiliate codes. Affiliate codes are special discounts that
influencers offer in return for a small commission from the seller. I have a ton of affiliate codes
in the description of all of my videos. By using affiliate codes, I can get a lot of publishing
resources at a discount. I have gotten planners at a discount. I have gotten cover art at a discount.
I have gotten all of my analytics marketing at a discount. Check for coupons, they're out there,
and they're plentiful. I very rarely have to pay full price for any step of the publishing
process. Number Nine (9): Book ISBNs. One of the most dreaded parts of the publishing process is
buying the books ISBN, for the sole reason that they're expensive as fuck. A single ISBN on Bowker
can cost $125! Yes, seriously. The problem is a lot of writers go into the ISBN purchasing process
very conservatively, they see the $125 price tag and think “Well I only need one anyway,
so I'll just buy that one and move on.” Except you DON'T only need one. Even if you're publishing one book.
You need an ISBN for every format of the book. One for the ebook, one for the paperback,
and one for the hardback. That means if you buy three individual ISBNs you're looking at $375!
Holy shit! On the flip side, you can buy a bulk of ten ISBNs at Bowker for $295. That's almost
$100 cheaper for over three times the ISBNs. Not only do you have enough ISBNs for this book,
but if you decide to publish in the future you got some ISBNs ready to go. And Number Ten (10):
The slow way is the fast and cheap way. This is not a dig at rapid release, nor am I telling you
to spend ten years publishing your book. But the number one most expensive mistake writers make
when it comes to the publishing process is releasing their book too soon. They're eager
to get their book out so they release it hella quick style, only to realize after the fact
that there were a lot of mistakes made, and they gotta redo it all over again. That's expensive.
Sometimes writers publish a book, only to realize that their cover doesn't fit the market. Now it's
normal for authors to update their cover art a few years after it's been released. That's
just a marketing tactic. But if an author is changing their cover right after the release,
you know they fucked up. Lucky for them, now they have to pay for two covers when they only
should’ve needed one. Sometimes authors release a book without editing, realize that it's garbage,
then they pull the entire release and rewrite the entire book from scratch. A new editor, a new
copyright, a new cover, a new everything can cost thousands of dollars. Not to mention every time
you update your books format on IngramSpark, you have to pay a fee. I'm telling you for the love of
God, take your time. Do your research. Make sure your cover is right for your target audience.
Make sure you hired a qualified editor, and that you're using a quality formatting software. As we
already covered, all of these steps can be super cheap, but it's gonna be really expensive if you
have to do them over again. So that's all I got for you today. A huge thank you to GetCovers for
sponsoring today's video. Like I said if you want high quality on trend covers that don't break the
bank, GetCovers is perfect for you. You can get a professional cover in one to three days for $10
to $35, a fraction of what competitors charge. If you wanna check ‘em out, they're linked below.
Definitely get on it. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays, and
if you wanna be alerted as SOON as I upload, ring that bell. The Savior's Champion and The Savior’s Sister
are available in ebook, paperback, hardback and audiobook. Definitely check out this dark
fantasy romance series. I poured my heart into it. It means the world to me, and my readers mean the
world to me. So get on that train, it's linked below! And be sure to follow me on social media.
I'm on Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook and BookBub. And of course you can tweet me @JennaMoreci! Bye!
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