This is a question I get asked all the time, so I thought it’d be a good idea to take potential writers through what it really costs, and not just in terms of the money you will have to pay someone to do the essential production components you’ll need to get done, but all the costs involved.

In the next series of Blogs I’m going to cover five key areas of the cost of writing, publishing and selling your book. Some are financial others are not. Most of this is really common sense, but if you’ve never written or published a book before you don’t really have any concept of the process, time commitment, timeframe or actual money you’re going to need to spend.

There are three significant costs you’re going to be up for.

1. Opportunity cost
2. Production, marketing and selling costs
3. Privacy costs

Most self-publishing websites don’t explore the concept of opportunity cost, they’re too focused on selling you their production, marketing and selling services. There’s nothing wrong with that as you’re going to need some of these services. That said, how are you going to know how to assess what the offers are, what the quality of the service is like and how to best take advantage of it?

Separately, most self-publishing sites completely ignore the opportunity and privacy costs you need to think about.

It’s one thing to talk about wanting to write and sell a book, it’s a completely different matter to plan to give up a significant amount of your time to write your book and a certain degree of your privacy to market and sell it.

If you haven’t thought through these two ‘cost’s before you start writing you might never finish or, worse still, you might finish your book and never publish it.

So, the next five Blogs are all about the REAL costs of writing, publishing and selling your book.

I believe it’s essential that you think through these thoroughly BEFORE you leap in and self-publish. If you don’t it’d be abit scuba diving if you’ve never done it before.

I’m a scuba diver so that’s why I’m using this analogy.

You wouldn’t suddenly decide that you wanted to scuba dive, grab some equipment from a shop, head off down to the local beach, jump in and expect to enjoy the experience let alone come out alive.

Writing, publishing and selling your book is the same. You need to think and plan, research, learn and execute (write), gain confidence so you can tell others about what you’ve done, understand more deeply about your equipment and develop new skills and then tell the world – because scuba diving like writing a successful book is simply something worth sharing.

Over the nest five weeks I’ll share the five REAL costs of writing, publishing and selling your book.

1. Thinking and planning time

2. Writing time

3. Building a brand presence time

4. The production components of your book

5. Marketing and selling your book

 I’d be really keen to get your feedback, thoughts and recommendations. It’s a creative process after all. Email me at jaqui@globalstories.com.au