In my last post I answered the question “How much does it cost to self-publish a book?” My answer ranged from $0 to thousands of dollars.
The question that usually follows this answer is: How can I self-publish my book at rock bottom prices?
The answer is: long hours of work
This is quickly followed by: “Who gets to do all that work?”
The answer is: the author
Honestly, if you don’t want to pay someone to format your book, then learn how to do it yourself. It’s not rocket science. If you don’t want to pay your editor double the fee, learn how to edit your work, so when they get the manuscript they don’t spend hours correcting punctuation, capitalisation and basic grammar. If you don’t want to pay someone to upload your eBooks to distributors, then learn the ropes.
All of this learning takes time, but it’s free. It’s available on the Internet somewhere. Your job is to find it, harvest what you need and commit as much as you can to memory. What you can’t remember, save in a file for future reference.
The more you can learn and do by yourself, the lower your production price will be to self-publish your book.
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To learn more about hiring Diane Tibert as your self-publishing consultant, check out this page Self-publishing Consultant .
Very true, Diane. But the last pass edit still ought to be by an editor. I think mine ms be ready for my editor later tonight. Phew! 🙂
I agree, Yvonne. No one can do the final edit themselves, but it certainly cuts the price in half if the editor receives a very clean edited-by-the-writer copy. Also, the more you work with an editor, the better editor you become. After several experiences I know I can’t do the final edit myself, but I receive less recommendations now than I did three years ago.
Thanks for the comment, Yvonne.
I’ve added a few words to that ‘editor sentence’ to clarify what I meant.