Not Mine., But a must read for Authors

The article below is almost entirely pulled from Author Victor Peter's Facebook Post. I really cannot tell if he is for or against AI , but his posts make an interesting read so I'm following him now. This posy is the WHY that indie authors more and more are turning to AI help and apps like WordCrafter.Pro.

I don't have $15K to produce a book. And one of the snarkier replies to the post below was "This is why I'm going traditional publishing". Cool. So you can afford an agent who actually gets you a contract. How much do you pay them until you get this contract? Most traditional publishing gets you a set amount in advance to live on while you finish the work.

What most authors don't seem to get that this stipend, much like the music industries contracts HAVE TO BE PAID BACK! Before you get any money from your book sales evevery dime the publisher spends on you, the list of costs shown below plus distribution and printing. Currently, per-book royalties typically range from $1 to $3 for paperbacks and $2 to $5 for hardcovers on a paperback cost of $16-$18 and Hardbounds in the $20-$35 range. So you have to live off that stipend ( or the next contracts) until the book is profitable. And get this...some contracts (ALWAYS read the fine print) can BILL the author if the book does not meet sales goals by a specific time frame.

Ouch.

My current costs (As an Author) Are:

Gemini API Key $20 at a time, maybe $40/mo now (mostly nanobanana)

OpenRouter API Key $20 at a time, maybe $150/mo now

Web Hosting is technically free (see below)

Memberships and subscriptions - ~$100/mo

WordCrafter.Pro is doing most of the rest

I use a lot more than a lot of the rest of you for developmental and testing reasons

Various tech stack items: Currently about $300/mo scaling upwards as we get more wcp users

Claude Max plan at $100

additional API keys for testing - about $100/mo

Web Hosting - $150/ year - I used to host websites for others. Virtually unlimited plan now.

Google Drive - $160/yer 5tb Ai plan now

Advertising - $100/mo (needs to be more)

Memberships - $150 a month (needs to drop)

******

https://www.facebook.com/victorpeterauthor/posts/pfbid02tHFSchCF2cDJZsA1dLg25QxsfSLGge42cg32ejEAKFGFvdkSuSkwJ3wFjTfhDGVpl

𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞:

Let’s talk about the cost of writing and publishing a book.

Because apparently books just fall out of the sky, perfectly edited, beautifully formatted, with a cover, a blurb, marketing, ads, reviews, and a tiny angel blowing a trumpet over the Amazon algorithm.

Sadly, no.

If an author hired people to do everything involved in getting a novel ready, here is a rough list of what might be needed:

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭:

• Writing the book

• Developmental editing

• Line editing

• Copy editing

• Proofreading

• Beta readers / ARC setup

• Final logic pass

• Final polish pass

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭:

• Cover design

• Paperback wraparound cover

• Ebook formatting

• Paperback formatting

• Blurb writing

• Category and keyword research

• Uploading and publishing

• ISBN / copyright stuff, depending where you live

𝐓𝐡𝐞 “𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐭” 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭:

• Website

• Mailing list

• Newsletter setup

• Promo graphics

• Amazon ads

• Facebook ads

• Book promo sites

• Review services / ARC platforms

• Marketing consultation

• Therapy after checking sales numbers

And now the fun part.

If you hired all of that out, a single novel could easily cost something like this:

Developmental edit: $2,000–$4,000

Line/copy edit: $1,500–$3,000

Proofreading: $800–$1,500

Cover design: $500–$1,200

Formatting: $150–$500

Blurb help: $100–$500

ARC/review setup: $50–$500

Website / mailing list setup: $300–$1,500

Marketing / ads / promo testing: $500–$5,000+

So depending how far you go, one book can easily cost:

𝐋𝐨𝐰 𝐞𝐧𝐝: $3,000–$5,000

𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞: $6,000–$10,000

𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐝: $15,000+

And that does not include the author’s time.

Which is hilarious.

Because writing the book only takes months of your life, destroys your sleep schedule, makes you question your talent, your sanity, your punctuation, your plot, your ending, your cover, your pricing, your blurb, your ads, your existence, and whether coffee should legally be classified as medical equipment.

But sure.

Other than that, it’s free.

This is also why indie authors sometimes do a lot themselves.

Writing. Editing. Covers. Formatting. Marketing. Ads. Social media. Complaining quietly into coffee.

Not because we think we are experts at everything.

Because if we paid for everything, each book would require a small business loan and possibly the sale of one kidney.

And then, after all that, someone still comes along and says:

“Why is the ebook $4.99?”

Because apparently the correct price for months of work is somewhere between free and “how dare you.”

Anyway…

That’s today’s cheerful little peek behind the curtain.

Books are expensive to make.