Costs of Self-Publishing a Children's Book
Did you know children’s books can cost up to $10,000, if not more?
Yes, this is an investment. Not just in the story, but in the kids who will one day read the story.
I won’t say I am an expert at children’s book writing, but I do know numbers and numbers don’t lie. After taking April Cox’s course, connecting with phenomenal illustrators and editors, I learned writing a children's book is an investment.
If you’re an author, I know I’m missing way more costs, but I wanted to show the basics. What are some costs you weren’t expecting and how do you plan to get creative?
Self-publishing differs from traditional publishing. Traditional publishing offers advances to authors to pay for editing, creative direction, illustrations, formatting, and distribution. Self-published authors pay these costs upfront. So why in the world would we pay for publishing? Well, there are a lot of reject piles at different literary agents.
My first book Set Your Truth Free is in a few. So instead of waiting for approval. I thought why not put my work out there. I did. We scored #22 on Amazon New Releases and Top 100 in our categories! For a book with no marketing plan, I’d say that was pretty good.
What do you think?
Self-publishing allows you to publish faster, have 100% creative control, and publish when you desire. You still have the heavy lifting of marketing and author platform, but you get to do it on your terms. Once the book is published, you watch the royalties roll in. Yes your first book may not be a bestseller, but you collect royalties anytime your book is sold. So I did the heavy lifting in the beginning and my book will forever bein print!
I took Lisa Ferland’s Crowdfunding for Author’s course in hopes of crowdfunding my project. $10K is quite an investment so my plan is to get help from my community. Lisa has helped dozens of authors run successful crowdfunding campaigns for their books babies. You can sign up too!
I also took April Cox’s Author Workgroup, I connected with 40 other children’s authors and I am now in the illustration phase of my first children’s book. Y’all, this book sat on my shelf collecting dust. And now, it will soon be in your hands. If you want to join April’s WorkGroup, I highly recommend it. She has an upcoming workgroup starting on Tuesday. She can get your book published in 12 weeks.
Thanks to my conversation with famed author Peter H. Reynolds, author of The Word Collector, I joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Check out the RT!
As you can see self-publishing costs add up but writing the story is priceless :) Happy Writing!
Are you writing a children’s book? If so, how has your journey been? How can I support you?