As a self-published author, you can publish a book for about $1,000 by doing the work yourself. But, in our experience, few people want to jump through the hurdles to make it happen and the endeavor quickly becomes overwhelming.
It takes work to:
Find an editor
Find a proofreader
Find someone to do cover art and design
Find someone to do book formatting layout
Buy and register an ISBN (and/or Library of Congress Number)
Each of these services costs varying amounts and can be a challenge to make all the connections. And, while you can do these things yourself, it really helps to have an objective third party’s input, experience, and expertise.
Salty Books Publishing, LLC offers a sort of general contractor-like partnership. We’ll do the leg work, logistics, and administrative pieces, and leave the writing to you. How much it costs, depends on which of our services you want to utilize.
You have a manuscript and want someone to be a general contractor to bring it to print.
In short here, the base price covers the consulting, logistics, and administrative services. You can recruit and hire anyone for the additional services—or do them yourself. If you want our help (or to make recommendations), we are happy to do that as well. But you will be billed on an a la carte basis only for the services you use.
Cost: base fee $1,000 ($500 upon signing agreement, and $500 upon acceptance of the final proof from the printer)
What’s included:
An ISBN / Library of Congress number/registration
An eBook
Logistical and administrative tasks (uploading the files, sharing royalty reports, and paying out royalties for sales)
Book formatting and layout
Basic cover art and book jacket design (additional costs may be incurred due to copyright of the images or cost of contracting an artist, but they will be quoted in advance--no surprises)
All rights, royalties, and sales are entirely yours
A la carte services, not included in the base fee:
Editor
Proofreader
Any additional cost for copyrights for images used within the book or on the cover
Webpage design
Social media help
Press releases and promotional assistance
Approximate costs for these services are difficult to estimate, as they can vary widely. We will do our best to provide options at a variety of price points. Everything is truly billed on an a la carte basis; you pay precisely what they charge—full transparency.
Payment for services
Payment is made in two equal installments: 50% at the beginning of the selected service(s) and 50% at the completion.
Distribution
Books will be distributed by and through Ingram, the largest book distributing company in the world.
If you prefer to work exclusively through KDP (Amazon), because you aren’t going to have books in bookstores, then we can also arrange that.