Cost of self-publishing

[zoefoster]

Spam.

[Quoth]

It's somewhere between zero and huge depending on how much you do (or can do) yourself. Then there is marketing, somewhere between zero and huge depending on how much you do (or can do) yourself.

There many are better articles. Also of course it doesn't mention that once you have the metadata, blurb, cover and content as an epub, there is zero additional cost to ebook publishing almost everywhere else.

Self publishing on paper involves also paying production cost and shipping for a proof when you have the final cover wrap image (size of spine depends on paper thickness and number of pages) and print ready PDF.

It's not a very good guide. It can't at all be described as perfect.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's not a very good guide. It can't at all be described as perfect.

The person who described it that way is apparently the one who wrote the guide!

[The Old Man]

I self published on Amazon. Used a 2007 version of Word to write it, Calibre to convert to epub, Amazon created the cover and published the small religious critique. It didn’t cost me a nickel. Sold half a dozen copies��

[theducks]

1) Ya gotta know your Limitations. Do what you are good at. Get help with the rest.
(And for goodness sake, get more than one set of eyes on the work and ask for constructive criticism. IMHO there is no excuse for wrong words or bad regional spelling. A Yes man does you no favor. )

2) e-books are not Print Books. The versions (layout) may need to differ for a number of technical / $$ reasons .

3) Web page HTML are different beasts.
A brilliant Web designer will probably be a disaster with EPUB . KISS whenever possible (at least till you are established). It needs to work on many devices that all have their limits and quirks.

Can an Author make great e-books? Absolutely (some even hang around here ).

[Quoth]

All true.
Also some great authors can't use a wordprocessor properly.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Quoth

All true.
Also some great authors can't use a wordprocessor properly.

Those should use Notepad (a simple Text editor) and get the words paragraphs down in a file (s). then let a Pro format from there.
Calibre can turn a TXT file into a very simple compatible EPUB (no styles). A Pro can whip that into shape fairly quickly (assumes a basic novel)
Basic markup adds the ability to convey italic or other special text needs.

[Quoth]

Basic markup was probably invented in the 19th C. Certainly used by typists before personal computing.

Originally Posted by theducks

Those should use Notepad (a simple Text editor) and get the words paragraphs down in a file (s). then let a Pro format from there.

They won't. Most want latest MS Word or if on Apple, Pages.
Or even Scrivener.

OTOH allegedly GRR Martin uses Wordstar (I've used it on CP/M and MS-DOS and later incompatible programs from same company). Also Wordperfect and MS Word both on DOS.




Word and Writer both recognise basic markup of imported or copy/pasted plain text.

I used to teach wordprocessing and I bet Hitch has seen scarier MSS from Word than I have.

Then there was the secretary that used only one file on her PC. She just kept adding letters to it and would select the part to print

[GrannyGrump]

I have seen the obverse of Quoth's example.
Years ago, a secretary here was sent to a 10-day training seminar to learn to use Microsoft Office.

Some time later, I was updating our Operating Instructions -- hundreds of pages.
She had saved each page to a separate file.

Oh my...

She had never grasped how to insert a page break.

[ZGottlieb]

Self-publishing was not free, especially when I overpaid for an editor. The harshest criticism is on the book's editing.

[Pierre Lawrence]

You might consider ChatGPT/Bard for editing next time. That would seem to be a legitimate use of AI.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Pierre Lawrence

You might consider ChatGPT/Bard for editing next time. That would seem to be a legitimate use of AI.

Worthless and you are feeding Open AI/Microsoft or Google a copy of the book to "train" the LLM.

Besides an edit or cover is cheap compared to marketing.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Worthless and you are feeding Open AI/Microsoft or Google a copy of the book to "train" the LLM. [...]

According to what I've read, better grammar is one of the give-aways of using an AI to cheat on essays. And unless you intend to keep the book secret, chances are these omnipresent AIs are going to have access to the text anyway, so you may as well get some benefit out of it.

[Quoth]

Editing is a lot more than grammar and specific characters may have distinctive "grammar" even apart from dialect in dialogue.

There are different levels of edit. The lowest is punctuation, wrong word/typo (discus, discuss, broach, brooch, place, palace, he and she, where, were), missing repeats that are valid (removed by over enthusiastic grammar check) such as in in, that that etc.

Next level is structure of phrases such as comma reduction by swapping phrases, commas used instead of semicolon, period or joining word.

Top and most expensive is developmental edits. Also related is errors of internal logical consistency (stuff inherently impossible even in SF or Fantasy setting never mind regular fiction) which at simplest level is car colour or eye colour different in different places. A name spelled correctly but inconsistently. Major plot holes or important character / event issues unresolved.

Even dedicated grammar checkers in best programs are not much better than over 30 years ago.

Don't believe the hype. Also using a tool ONLY available in the so called Cloud (=someone else's server connected by Internet) is a huge issue. There is a reason some people don't use Alexa, Chrome Books, Ring, Nest or such apart from paranoia.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by gmw

According to what I've read, better grammar is one of the give-aways of using an AI to cheat on essays.

No, different from the writer's usual grammar. Not necessarily better. See also "author's voice" which isn't quite the same thing.

There is not even any such thing as a perfectly correct grammar. There are valid variations apart from Country or Ethnic background of author.