Lesson 35

 
Lesson 35
Costs
Welcome back to another class. I hope everything is going your way with no setbacks, no-cost, and all free things are helping, like this class. I wanted to share with you some expenses that go with being an author.
We all should have the initial expense of roughly $2560.

This is broken down into a laptop, $800/a printer, $260/the Microsoft Word program, $200/the minimal Dragon program, $100/ and the cost of the Internet per year of $1200. Now we can write, save, print, and search the globe.
I’m going to start off the old-fashioned way with a paper tablet and a pen. One dollar for the tablet and fifty cents for a pen. Some of my classmates in college bought recording devices. Fifty dollars on up to $200. Other students had their smart phones to record. $110 per month. That’s a $100 plan, and ten dollars per month for a $400-$600 phone price. Now you can write, or record your story, then transfer your daily ramblings into your word file program and save.
The story grows as you do research and ask for suggestions from friends in your writing groups. Then comes the day when your story is complete. It is finished. You dotted all your ‘I s, and crossed all your T s.’ You are now ready for an independent editor. Hopefully no more than $3.00 per page, however long your book is. Some may charge up to five dollars per page. So let’s just say a cool $700. This is roughly 80,000 words with over 200 pages.
Now we’re off and running. We now need a cover. If you can’t find a stock photo that is free, but found a licensed photo that you can buy, you may find one as low as thirty dollars. Fiverr can provide an artist to do your concept for twenty-five dollars on up to $500 if you so choose.
The edit is complete and you made all the corrections. The cover turned out great. Next is your US copyright at $165, more or less. In two days the book is copyrighted and protected in your name, and is 100 percent your work. You are the proud owner of your work. You can almost put it on the market.
In order to sell your book anywhere it needs an ISBN. A code in order to find your book among the other millions of publications. Publishers, vanity, and Amazon all supply one for you, but some keep the rights to that number. Buying your own is expensive for only one book. I suggest buying a ten pack using up four per book if not more. $290 per ten, that’s twenty-nine dollars for each ISBN. The four books are hardcover, paperback, e-book, and audio book. If you want to be fancy, you could also have a slip jacket cover book, and there might be different kinds of e-books which may need a different number.
Whew, you are finally ready. You can now find a publisher, a vanity publisher, or market it yourself. If you want a traditional publishing company or want to find an agent, they are all free, but it will cost you in the long run. A traditional publisher will give you ten percent of the sale and keep ninety percent for themselves. An agent will take fifteen percent of your ten percent, and twenty-five percent of your ten percent if it sells outside the United States.
Vanity publishers get their money up front. Anywhere from 800 up to $15,000, and none of this money gets you any closer to a sale. Whichever way you decide, your book ends up available on the market. Every one of them ends up on Amazon and Kindle. It will be posted maybe in fourteen countries around the world, on websites. Posted on the Internet, again, doesn’t mean sales. All the marketing is up to the author. You need to push yourself and your own book, so somebody can make some money. Hopefully you.
To do this, you can buy advertising in order to help you spread the word, or find people who want to buy a book. Every social site will sell you ad space. Facebook has plans for twenty dollars per month, with about 6000 recipients. Google, sixty dollars per month, and Bookbub, twenty dollars per month for around 50,000 emails. They all say they are sent to book readers and it is very hard to stop the monthly automatic payment when you want to cancel your ad.
Amazon ads might be your best bet being that they want to make money by selling your books. Let’s move on. You have to promote yourself. You need to get out there and find a library, or store that will let you do a book signing. You buy 100 of your own books, $450 or less, we hope. You will need a table and chair to take with you, fifty dollars/posters and flyers to help draw them in, fifty dollars/trinket giveaways such as cards, pens, keychains, along with your book and website printed on them, $100. Oh, and don’t forget, an app on your phone so you can take credit cards. They charge a fee. Also you should buy a thank you gift for the store owner or manager, twenty-five dollars.
The last expense, and this is an option, to rent a limo that will pick you up and drop you off at the book signing. $200-$400. LOL
Can you think of anything else that I haven’t touched on yet? Please feel free to let me know. I will make more to pass along in the future posts. Thanks again for joining us today. Go out and have fun all week and enjoy wherever you may be. Until next week,
 
Happy Writing from rickkurtisbooks.com