Why the #^@% are books so expensive?

Every author you've ever known is absolutely raking in the cash. Just kidding.

Being a writer is rarely lucrative enough to be a full-time job. Most of the authors you love have a 9-to-5 and squeeze writing and publishing into evenings, weekends, and the wee hours when they should be sleeping but have been possessed by the spirit of a character.

So why are books so expensive for readers?

How book pricing works for indie authors

I can't speak for traditionally published books, but I can give a little insight into the pricing for an indie book. The most popular print-on-demand services for indie books are IngramSpark and Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), so I'll break those two down.

For a 350-page, 6.14"x9.21" hardcover with no bells or whistles, let's say this author wants to set their price at an accessible $19.99. What will that earn them?

IngramSpark Pricing

IngramSpark's base royalty (if the author sold the book through a link on their own website and had it fulfilled by IngramSpark) only takes out printing and shipping costs. So the book priced at $19.99 would net the author an estimated $7.54. Not bad!

But in order to be distributed to retailers, the author must offer a discount. Typically, brick-and-mortar stores won't carry a book unless it's offered to them at a 55% discount, which nets our author... -$3.45 on that sale. They'll have to increase their list price to $27.99 to break even on retailer hardcover sales, at which point they're earning $0.07 per book.

Amazon's KDP Pricing

KDP pays authors 60% of their list price, minus printing costs. So if the book was listed at $19.99, the author's portion of that would be an estimated $0.39 in the U.S. store.

Special fun note if an author publishes through Amazon or allows returns in IngramSpark (which is required for brick-and-mortar stores & some online retailers): If a retailer or reader returns a book, Amazon and IngramSpark do not just take back the royalty they paid the author, but the entire purchase price. So the author above earned $0.39 on a hardback book sale, but if it's returned, they must pay Amazon $19.99. 😱

What are the costs for an indie author?

Those luxurious royalties aren't pure profit, though. Since indie authors publish and market their books themselves, they incur those costs, too. All of these costs are optional, depending on the skillset and expectations of the author, but a high-quality book usually requires some combination of these.

Editing Costs

Editing costs vary from about $10-$50 per 1,000 words, depending on two main things whether you're asking for proofreading, developmental editing, or line editing; and how experienced the editor is in editing and in your genre/market. Typically, a book also goes through several rounds of edits. But one round of line edits from a mid-experience editor for a 100k-word book could run an author about $2,000.

Layout Design Costs

To do their own layout design at a professional level, authors will need formatting software, which starts at around $150 and goes up from there. Established book layout services typically start at $400 and increase. Freelance designers will vary wildly in quality and price, but could be expected to fall in the same range. Bonuses like illustrated maps, chapter header art, and endpage art start in the $100s and can stack up quickly.

Cover Design Costs

Many indie authors design their own covers with Canva Pro, which is relatively inexpensive at $120/year. However, hiring an illustrator and/or cover designer can be as accessible as purchasing premade book covers and just customizing them with your title and name for somewhere between $50-$150 or as expensive as several thousand dollars for custom illustration and a higher-end designer.

Promotional Art Costs

This is a lot of art, right? But in addition to the cover, many authors commission character portraits, scene illustrations, and even videos like book trailers to promote and market their book. Price and quality will vary wildly depending on the chosen artist, but we can assume at least a couple hundred dollars on commissioned art.

Advertising Costs

Authors can sell books entirely organically, but advertising gives a boost. Most indie authors who do have Amazon, Google, or Meta ads typically have a budget of a few dollars a day. Ads on book-specific publication sites, newsletter features, promotional partnerships, etc. will typically start at a couple hundred dollars.

Influencer Marketing Costs

Booktok sells a lot of books. But getting an influencer talking about one book in particular may be as inexpensive as shipping them a free copy of the book, it may require a PR box with tailored promotional items in addition to the book, or it may require a paid partnership with the influencer, depending on the size of their following and how they manage their content schedule. Multiply times the number of people you want to promote it!

Review Costs

To generate reviews, authors often send ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) to readers in exchange for their agreeing to leave an honest review. Many indie authors distribute these through Bookfunnel, which costs between $20-250 a year depending on how large an author's distribution is. Some use NetGalley, which costs $550 for a six-month listing and can significantly expand the reach of ARCs. In addition, reviews from trusted review services like Kirkus or Publishers Weekly cost authors $400+ each.

ISBN Purchasing Costs

While Amazon or IngramSpark will provide an ISBN for free, using their ISBNs locks an author into only using their services. An ISBN purchased from Bowker ($295 for a set of ten, and one is needed for each edition of the book) can be published anywhere.

It ain't cheap to put a book out, y'all! The silver lining of this cost list is that you as a reader know that every time you purchase a book, you're not only supporting an author but a whole ecosystem of creators who've made that book possible.

Want to support this author? Sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know when A King's Trust preorders open!