"How I Self-Published My Book for $1,360"

From 2008-2017, I wrote a blog called Smart, Pretty & Awkward. One day in May 2012, I got an email from a fellow blogger introducing herself and saying hi. That one email turned into us meeting up in person, and that turned into over 13 years of friendship. I am so pleased today to welcome one of my very best friends, Jen Glantz, to Beck on Tech.

Jen recently published a book about falling in love and getting married, Finally the Bride. Today she is here to share the tools and their costs that she used to self-publish this wonderful book.

So please welcome one of the most special people in my life to Beck on Tech!

"How I Self-Published My Book for $1,360" by Jen Glantz 

There's a lot of power in being able to write a book and publish it on your own. It opens the door for anyone in the world to get their story out there.

I've written three books, and "Finally the Bride" is the first book I published on my own.In full transparency, here's exactly how I self-published the book for $1,360 (using money I earned from my other books' sales). You can do it for less money, but I wanted the book to look and feel top-notch and professional.Here's the breakdown:

• Reedsy: Used this platform to write the book. It generates PDFs of the book so you can get a feel of how it will look. Cost: $0

• Fiverr: I hired a book cover designer who did the cover art, the spine, and the back of the book. He also gave me a lot of images to use for promotion. Cost: $200

• Callie Walker (Editor/Proofreader): Worth every penny to have another set of eyes on the book. Hard to calculate the exact cost because she proofread my chapters as I wrote them over the years. Cost: ~$400

• Ines Monnet (Book formatter): Made the book look legit and beautiful inside. Cost: ~ $465

• Bowker: Got my ISBN numbers here. This helps with distribution. Cost: $295, for 10 ISBN numbers -- so will have these for future books too. You can get free ISBN numbers via Amazon KDP publishing but the book has limited distribution if you go that route.

• Amazon KDP Publishing : I used this service to publish and print the book. So easy to use. Cost: $0 -- but they take a % of every book sold.

Also, if you're wondering how to market your self-published book, the best way to spread the word and get sales is by doing podcasts and getting mentions in Substacks. Build relationships with relevant podcast/newsletters creators now even before your book is live. Find Substack creators who are in your genre or niche here.

Have questions? Feel free to say hello here. You can learn about my books here and eyeball what I'm currently working on here.

Thank you so much for sharing these insights, Jen! Always thrilled to be in your orbit. And you can buy Jen’s funny, heartfelt book Finally the Bride here!

-Molly Beck

P.S. This Week’s Sponsor is Tech UP!