Do you have a brilliant story and insufficient budget to turn it into a book? Well, that’s a problem for most deserving writers out there. Unfortunately, some have a dull story with a ton of publishing budget and vice versa. So, when you are on a tight budget but have a brilliant idea, you need to find the cheapest ways to self-publish a book when you’re on a budget.
Running from publisher to publisher is hazardous and costly at the same time. You can still opt for publishing houses or sites with enough budget. But when the budget is tight, you should go for self-publishing.
Going digital to Publish Your Idea Into a Book:
Some writers have brilliant imaginations and great ideas but are bad at putting them into words. In that case, you may use some apps to take help from professional websites.
Keeping the idea of budget in mind, some websites have been built if you are in to self-publishing your book at the most reasonable price. They provide complete assistance in a budget you would not regret spending.
The KDP Publishing:
One of the most popular ways to self-publish a book is through amazon direct kindle publishing. The amazon kindle platform serves some excellent services offering extensive formatting and designs for free. In addition, you earn a great royalty on every sale and can set or change the value of your book at any time.
Publish through Publish Drive
Another unique platform is the publish drive to self-publish your book. They only take a monthly subscription fee of 100 dollars and won’t take any commissions on sales further. In addition, they will create excellent access to sell your books on platforms like Amazon, Google, etc.
Publish through Apple Books
Apple books also let you self-publish your books, allowing you to earn 70 percent royalty. These books will be available on all Apple devices.
Apple books have their formatting and need to be accepted to be published. They provide extensive guidelines for formatting, and the acceptance process might take days to weeks. You can decide whether you want to publish your book for rent or only for sale.
Some Other Ways to Narrow Down the Cost.
Well, the platforms mentioned above were where you could sell your books digitally. Most people write out of passion, but it is also a great way of passive income. Writing a book is one of the best options to invest in passive income. Whether you want to sell your books digitally or make them available in the market, some great ways make this process much cheaper. Let’s give it a read.
Basic Proofreading
Every content needs basic proofreading. If you want to self-publish, keep a minimum budget for essential proofreading. Your manuscript may range from 10,000 to 90,000 words. For misspelled words, capitalization should not become a barrier.
Budget for Styling or Formatting
After you have finished the basic proofreading, you should save some pennies for formatting or styling. Formatting or styling refers to your text’s font style and color. Different platforms have different guidelines for that.
One of the cheapest ways to format your book is by hiring a capable freelancer from Upwork or Fiverr.
Spend on the Outlook
Don’t judge a book by its cover, but people definitely will. An attractive book cover already has the attention of the readers. The outlook of your book matters a lot in case readers get chosen.
You can design the cover for free using different apps or sites or take professional help from a designer. Of course, you can always go for free but remember spending a few bucks can be rewarding too.
Selection of Binding
To lower the printing expense, you can go for the paperback option. The most expensive option is the hardcore binding without the cover jacket. On the other hand, you should select the binding of your book concerning the type of your book.
A Big Go for Critics
Before you publish your books in the market, you should go for beta readers. Spending a few dollars on the critics can improve the quality of your book to a great level. Sites like Wattpad and Bibliocrunch are great beta readers.
Such beta readers read your content carefully and supervise significant improvements. Spending only 25 to 50 dollars will bring great feedback to your draft. After you have made the necessary improvements to your manuscript, your book is ready to be introduced.
Promotion at Best
The last but not the least option is hitting the promotional activities. If you don’t advertise your book, be sure it will not do good enough. If you don’t promote, how will readers know about your book’s presence?
While you invest in marketing, you need to keep a broad mindset that your return would not be as much as you spend on advertising. Well, to be cheap, in that case, you can start social media marketing all by yourself. You can try building a website and target to drag the audience from social media channels. Then, you can run attractive social media campaigns on your book. This is how you can attract a lot of audiences.
Final thoughts
Self-publishing has given a great source of inspiration to new writers. In addition, self-publishing gives great royalty to authors other than traditional ones.
Nothing is free, and you can not always expect to gain rewards at the lowest price.
But you can surely hit on great ideas by spending wisely, even on a tight budget. So above were some of the cheapest ways to self-publish a book when you are on a tight budget. I hope it was a great help for the self-publishers.
