The following is an example of what you can expect to spend to bring a 300-page novel into print:
Typesetting— $ 400.00
Cover Layout— $ 400.00
ISBN—$ 125.00
Barcode—$20.00
Printing $ 650.00 (estimate for 100 books including shipping.)
Total Initial Investment—$1,595.00Typesetting and Cover Layout. Author provides Fisher King with a fully edited version of your manuscript as a Microsoft Word doc and the cover art; it will cost a total of $800. $400 for the typesetting and $400 for the cover designed with artwork provided by the author. The cost for the cover goes up if we have to hire an artist, but usually the author provides us with their own image or images.
ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. For authors and publishers, a single ISBN is the easiest way to enhance the discoverability of your book to readers. If you want to sell your book through major book retailers, wholesalers, distributors and multiple sales channels, you need an ISBN. ISBN registry for a single ISBN is $125.00 or you may purchase a block of 10 ISBNs for $275. (Obviously, if you plan to publish more than a single book, purchase the block of 10). We can provide you with information to order your ISBN.
A Barcode is necessary for making your books available for retail sale through standard transaction channels: retail bookstores and chains; online bookstores; wholesalers; and distributors. All of these channels require a standard bar code of your ISBN in order to process the sale of your books.
Printing. Estimated cost for 100 books will only be $650. That’s based on a printing cost of $5.50 per book plus shipping.
So, your initial investment for 100 books is $1,595. Let’s say you sell your first 100 books for $15 each, bringing you $1,500, less your initial investment of $1,595.00. You've nearly covered your cost and at this point, you're ready to reprint a 100 books, and you don’t have file production cost: that’s all done and paid for! So on the second batch of 100 books you bring in $1,500 – $650.00 (for printing) leaving you with a $850 profit. And so it goes, all your initial expenses have been returned to you, you've earned a small profit, and you’re in a position to print more books at your discretion and continue building a larger reader base.
A few important details:
$1,595 provides you with digital interior and cover files of your book, that you own, along with 100 books with your unique ISBN and Barcode. You never have to pay for files again and can send these files to any printer of your choice. The most important thing is, you own the files. A vanity publisher will probably charge you about $600-$800 to publish your book, but they build and own the files, and use their own ISBN, so when you want to order books, they will usually sell to you for a discount of 30-40% off of list, but they set the list price and you’ll probably be looking at a minimum list price of $18.95, so you pay the publishing fee and then pay $12.00 for each copy of your book plus the shipping. Say you pay $800 to get your novel published, then order 100 books at 40% off of list for $1,200 plus shipping, totaling $2,000. Vanity publishers count on an author ordering 100-200 books almost as soon as thier book has been published—that's where they make their money, and from files that you paid for. Anyway, at $2,000 to a vanity publisher, you’ve already spent more than your initial investment if you publish on your own—and you don’t own the production files. Bottom line, you get tangled up in the vanity publisher's web, you get branded with the vanity published stigma, and most booksellers won’t give you the time of day.
Also, another item of caution: vanity publishers are really good at offering all of these different publishing and promotional packages ranging from $600 on up to several thousand dollars. Well, if you’ve got money to throw away . . . listen, these packages are made of dreams, vanity publishers are selling dreams to authors, not promotional packages! They are appealing to a person’s wish for fame and fortune, but in the end, you’ll have just made a donation, or as I like to say, you will have paid a healthy ‘tuition’ towards a degree in higher learning—minus a diploma!
We understand that publishing your book isn’t all about the money, but you might find this information helpful. Becoming disillusioned with vanity publishers is how Fisher King Press was born. If you just want to see your book in print, maybe vanity publishing is the way to go? However, if you want to see your book in print with its own unique identity, so that it stands the chance of finding success in the marketplace . . . well then perhaps our services will appeal to you. If you have question and would like to visit on the phone sometime, just give us a call.
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