The A & A Printing Self Publishing Guide
Thanks for reading our how to self publishing guide. The questions in our guide will help you choose the right partner in self publishing your book. Click the button below to go to the next question and answer. If you missed one click the back button to see the previous step.
1) How much does it cost per book?
While every printer is different, and some are much more expensive than others, the books unit price is usually determined the same way. The standard way to calculate price is based on the quantity, page count, and size of the book. Print On Demand places will charge a high unit price while doing 1 at a time. While it won’t break the bank to spend 6.00 to order 1 book at a time, the end goal should not be to print and sell 1 book at a time as you go. Your unit price will, or should, decrease as the quantity increases. I recommend that an author should at least start with 50-100 books. That quantity should get the unit price to where you make a decent profit on each sale, but also don’t over commit to printing thousands of books just to get a dramatically lower unit cost. While it is great to get 1000 books at roughly 1.00 per book, that will do you little good if you only sell 100 books in a year. On the flip side, if you sell your first 100 books in a week, it is a good idea to look to print a larger quantity the second time on a reprint. This will not only lower the initial unit price, but will save you money over time. It is much cheaper to print 500 books once than it is to print 100 books 5 times. The 3 standard book sizes are 5.5 x 8.5, 6×9, and 8.5 x 11. For most books, 5.5 x 8.5 is the standard recommended size. It is best for author financially, as well as being easiest to handle by the reader. 6×9 is fine as well, and is not much more. 8.5 x 11 is only recommended for text books, children’s books, or manuals. This size can cost almost double the other 2 options. My advice is to set the file up this way from the beginning which will make it easier to convert your book to a print ready P.D.F. More on that later.