Books are an expensive investment

I assume you've stumbled on this article by complete accident, and unless you're a family member or a friend, you have no idea why you're reading this. Perhaps you Googled "How expensive is writing a book?" and ended up here, or maybe "How to make a book cheaply." These are good questions, and although I'm inexperienced, I will do my best to answer them.

First things first. How expensive is it to actually write a book? Well, that's going to depend on how much of the overall work you're willing to do. Before I answer your question, I need to explain the steps that go into actually writing a book. I know writing a book sounds straightforward, all you have to do is.. Just.. Write a book, but unfortunately that's not true. You need to write the book, or first draft, and then go through it and cut out any unnecessary parts of the book (I know you love the scene where the the group meets a unicorn and they chase it through the wildflowers before it dances away, but does it really contribute to the story?). Then, do it again. It sounds silly, but that's the only way to ensure a clear, concise story. Afterwards you need people to actually read your book, or rather, manuscript. These people are going to be your "Alpha Readers" and they are absolutely indispensable and also where your first cost comes in. There are sites to find free alpha readers, or maybe you have friends who will do it for you, and if so, fantastic! But if not, you can expect to spend some money on hiring at least one alpha reader -- the cost will vary, but I paid ~$80. Then, and you're going to hate me for saying this, you need to go through your book again and make changes based on what your alpha readers told you. The next step is awfully similar to the previous step, but then you need to get "Beta Readers" which will do the same thing as the alpha readers, except they'll be more focused on finding faulty plot points rather than an overall view the alphas will give; fortunately beta readers cost about the same.

Okay, I'm sure you're tired of me explaining that you need to write, and rewrite you book six times rather than getting into the cost, but I promise we're getting there! The next steps are where the costs start chipping away at you. So you've got a pretty well thought out manuscript with a majority of the continuity errors addressed and no plot holes to be seen, now you need a grammar check -- time to hire a proofreader to find all of those pesky spelling issues that you've missed. Generally they price based on the number of words, but my book The Dragon and The Rogue (~140k words) cost me ~$1000. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but the package I bought included consistency overviews, structural edits, line edits, reviews and critiques, so you could get off cheaper if need be; but afterwards you have a thoroughly written book that is ready for the masses to read! Except, now you need to actually put it in book form.

Rather than going into detail for another three paragraphs about the services, I'll summarize a bit. Here's the next few things you'll need to do: Get your ISBN numbers, I'm no expert on these because they're assigned for very specific markets and you need one for each type of book you plan to publish (eBook, 6x9 paperback, etc); I wanted both to go to all markets so I paid $130 per for $260 total for ISBNs. Then, get your book typeset, it will have to be typeset for each size and format you plan to publish (eBook, 6x9 paperback, etc) and the price will vary on length but a lot of providers will have package dealers -- 140k words ended up being ~$250 for eBook and 6x9 paperback.  This next one is fun, the cover! You need artwork for each format of the book, so these have a wide range of pricing, but I paid ~$250 for eBook and paperback.

Okay, okay, now you have your book. It's typeset, you have the ISBNs so you can sell them, you have the artwork, everything is done. Now you have a choice; you can either print some test copies known as ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) and get it proofed one more time for typos, the overarching story, any typesetting problems, etc or you can risk it and go ahead and publish. I recommend getting ARCs made simply because the typesetter could have made a mistake but also those copies would be worth a ton if your book gets big since there are very few ever printed or sold for any book. Still, it's another cost, you can probably guess you'll be paying ~$200 to get 10 of them printed and then if there are any corrections, you may have to pay one of your former partners more to fix it (such as the typesetter). The other option is to risk it and go ahead and publish it, there are costs associated with self publishing but since most everything has been done already, these should be minimal and limited to fees the publisher site gives you.

Now, I know most of you gave up or skipped to this part, so here's a TL;DR on cost breakdown:
• Writing/Rewriting (free, unless you use a ghostwriter)
• Alpha/Beta Readers (free if you dig online, but otherwise ~$80)
• Proofreading (~$1000)
• ISBNs (Ranges for markets and how many formats you're publishing, but one all-access ISBN is $130)
• Typesetting (~$250)
• ARC copies and changes (Varies, but ~$200 for 10)
• Publishing (Subject to fees by the specific site you go through, such as IngramSpark)

TOTAL: $1660
Please note these prices are based specifically on a fantasy book with 140k words, yours are subject to varying prices depending on who you purchase services through, your book size, amount of words, genre, etc.

How could you make this cheaper? There are a few cost cutting choices. The first and foremost is simply to get your book published by an actual publisher. If they take your book, they'll provide all of these services on their own. That option is more of a dream for most people, so the average person needs to cut costs elsewhere. Alpha and Beta readers you can find through Facebook groups or forums if you look hard enough, there are even some Discord servers dedicated to offering these services, the only downside is they may not be as thorough as a paid reader. Proofreading you could technically do with AI, or find a cheaper proofreader, but this is definitely a service I wouldn't skimp on if possible and shorter books will be far cheaper (such as children's books). ISBNs you're kind of stuck on, but if you're willing to temporarily publish to only one format or cut out some markets, you could get them as low as $30 I believe. Typesetting is one of those things you could do yourself with InDesign and a YouTube video if you have the time and energy to spend, and in some cases this is better because you can be your own quality control and set it up however you want it to be, and since you can technically skip ARC copies if you absolutely have to, that can be free. Of course, every cut means a lower quality product, so I would set a budget and allocate your funds in whatever you deem most important.

Now, I paid for plenty of extra stuff for my book (Songs, maps, music publishing services, logos, website stuff, etc) so my total was closer to $4000-$5000. How and why did I pay so much to make a book, knowing that it's not likely to sell at all? Because A) I won money from MrBeast (thanks Jimmy for the $10k!) and B) I wanted my kids to grow up seeing that you can do anything, no matter how out of reach it is, with just a little bit of help.

I hope you, whoever you are, enjoyed reading this massive spiel of useless and poorly thought out information. If you want more, feel free to subscribe and/or follow me on social media! (Not that I really post there)