Spoiler alert, I don’t really think there’s anywhere to “skimp” in the publishing business, but not everything has to cost you money. Then again, there are pieces that will cost a pretty penny, pieces that are totally worth it. People should be paid, and paid fairly, for their time, effort, and expertise. I’m getting ahead of myself, though. Let’s first briefly discuss why you have to spend anything at all.

The business of publishing is not just finishing a first draft and calling it a day. It’s not even editing that first draft and calling it a day. The standard of quality by which books are measured is traditionally published books. If we as indie authors want to be seen as legitimate as trad publishing—which, yes, indie publishing is 100% legit—then we need to raise our game to the traditional publishers’ level.

A traditionally published, well-written, well-edited, well-designed book will have gone through multiple rounds of editing, one or more of which should have been done by a professional editor. It’ll have gone through cover design with a designer who knows, not just graphic design, but the book cover business and what type of book cover your book needs based on its genre, as well as current book cover trends.

I know, I know. I already sound like one of those downer people who says there’s only one right way to publish. Before you @ me, hear what I’m saying. There are multiple paths to publishing, which I’ll get into later. But I’m also saying there are some areas where it will really, really show if you don’t put in the effort.

Then again, these are just my opinions based on experience. So, ya know, take it or leave it. Right, let’s start at the beginning and work our way through the process.

Editing ~ Let me be up front. I did not pay for professional editing for my first couple of books. No prizes for working your way through my bibliography to try and figure out which ones, but enjoy the journey if you do 😊. At the beginning of my author journey, a friend of mine who’d done a course did my editing. Don’t get me wrong, my books are definitely way better for his help—like any good editor, he didn’t pull his punches. I don’t regret my decisions from then. It was what I knew and needed at the time, but I also know better now. My standards and professional game have both risen considerably^. We all live and learn.

^I cannot stress enough how much I didn’t know when I first got started in the indie world. It’s a huge reason why this blog exists.

Editing will likely be your biggest expense because it’s extremely time-consuming (time is money after all) and requires a lot of mental energy, focus, and expertise with both the genre and story structure. An editor isn’t just reading your book. They’re dissecting it, searching for themes and holes and ways to improve and typos. They’re making sure threads connect throughout the piece as a whole and listening to make sure character voices stay true to each character. So if you’re about to shell out a buttload of money for editing, how do you know that editor is going to be a good fit?

Get a sample edit. Most good editors will provide you with a short example (usually the first couple of pages in your manuscript) of their work so you can know what to expect. I can’t tell you what type of editor you’ll work best with, but I can tell you one thing to be prepared for: critique.

An editor’s primary job is to make your book better. A good editor will tell you when something doesn’t work. Now, a good editor will also tell you why and provide constructive feedback on how to make it better. But it’s still hard to hear that there’s a plot hole or a character doesn’t read as realistic. I get it, but we have to thicken our skins and know none of it’s personal. This is art, yes, but it’s also business. Editors are in the business to improve books, personal feelings aside.

Editor Recommendations

Sarina Langer ~ My own editor. You’ve heard me mention her here (a lot) before because she’s great. I wouldn’t trust her with my book babies if I didn’t think so. You can find her website here, as well as a great guest post she did on 10 Things You Need to Know Before Hiring an Editor.

Tamara Beard/Wrapped Up Writing ~ Tamara is a good friend of mine and a great editor. She’s particular about the craft and committed to quality as well as education. She also offers content writing for newsletters, blog posts, pitches to podcasts and bookstores, author bios, book blurbs, and more. You can find her website here.

Heather Hahn of Hattencross Steampunk Publishing ~ Heather is massively talented and super smart. She’s also one of the only people I know, besides my own editor, who does steampunk. You can connect with Heather here.

Sensitivity Readers ~ I feel like this is a thing that not a lot of people in the indie world know about. Sensitivity readers are people chosen to provide you with feedback on issues with which you do not have personal experience so that your representation of those characters and their experiences are accurate and respectful.

BECAUSE REPRESENTATION MATTERS!!!

For instance, I am white and straight, so if I’m trying to write a book with a black trans woman character, I need to hire sensitivity readers who can provide me with feedback regarding what it’s like to live that life. On the podcast Writing Excuses, when they discussed this very issue, one of the hosts talked about how when he wrote a character who grew up in the foster system. As he was working on that project, he spoke to a ton of people who both worked and grew up in that world. Keen-eyed readers may have also caught that I said you hire sensitivity readers.

Yes, you need to pay your sensitivity readers. No one is a better expert on what it’s like to walk in their shoes than them.

Cover Design ~ Lots of people think they should design their own covers. Some, generally those with a graphic design background, can. And others, yours truly included, maybe should not. I’m gonna use my own books as an example.

Spoiler alert. There’s a twist coming in this story.

So way back in the day, I, with my limited Photoshop skills, did my own book covers for both Skateboards, Magic, and Shamrocks and Heroes, Legends, and Villains. For Skateboards, I did it twice.

Seriously, I can’t stress enough that I made a ton of mistakes with those two books, but I also learned a lot. Here’s the first two covers for Skateboards:

And here’s the original cover for Heroes.

Now, for anyone out there who’s saying that these are fine or anything else equally kind, thank you. You are very nice. Do I think these covers are terrible? No. Do I think they’re good enough to go toe-to-toe with traditionally published book covers? Also no. So last year, I hired a graphic designer to give these two babies a facelift, and this is the result.

As of this writing, current book cover trends are veering toward more stylistic covers, thus the simplified design. The two designs are consistent while each maintaining their own personalities.

Here’s the thing, though.

My new cover designer? My older sister, who happens to have graphic design in her toolbelt of abilities. I paid her in coffee, but there’s another mini-twist to this too.

We now interrupt this blog entry for a squiffy-area caveat.

You might know people who have the skills to do the things mentioned in this list, people you can barter with. Bartering is by no means dead, but you need to understand a couple of things if you’re thinking of exploring this route.

Bartering requires equitable investment from both sides. That includes the time invested and lost from those times when your artist/sister presents you with a concept and you be like…

It was back to the drawing board after that, with more time and discussion required. It also may not sound like a lot when I say I paid my sister in coffee, but you don’t understand how much coffee she drinks—it’s enough to send a giraffe into caffeine rehab. This was every single cup over a period of time, whether we were out and getting it on the go or otherwise. It added up. Not as much as a a traditional cover design did, but we’re also not talking a mere ten bucks here. I also provide proofreading for her business’ newsletter in exchange for future services.

Bartering, like any exchange, requires specific terms of service to be outlined, understood, and agreed upon by all parties before work begins. Things can get messy real fast when money or services is changing hands, doubly so when the aforementioned, “Thanks, I hate it” scenario arises, because your designer can’t get that time back (and remember, time is money). Just because my cover designer is my sister doesn’t mean this went by the wayside. The parameters of our agreement were written out and agreed to in writing by all parties.

I’ve seen it too many times, y’all. Things getting really ugly because money is involved. Don’t trust that everyone understands verbal agreements, much less remembers all the details; put everything down clearly in writing.

Again, bartering doesn’t mean you should skimp on quality. As you would (or should) do when purchasing any service, ask to see examples of that person’s work first. If they refuse to provide examples, I don’t recommend working with that person. You need to have an idea of what to expect before work begins.

End of squiffy-area caveat.

A note on services like 99 Designs and Fiverr: True, these sites are mostly for simple graphic design like logo design, but I’ve heard some authors mention using them for cover design. I have… uncomfortable feelings about this. It takes time for every artist submitting a design to a project on one of these sites, a project they might well not be chosen for. That’s time that person could have spent working on a job that is actually paying them. Yes, I know there are other factors in play here, and some of those are valid. Like I said above, though, people should be paid for their time, effort, and expertise. These sites feel a bit like a workaround for that.

Cover Designer Recommendations

KM Robinson ~ KM is one of the most talented, driven people I know. Not only is she a social media marketing guru, but she also writes and does cover design. Just look at this gorgeous cover for her book, Sugarcoated. And she has premade covers for sale on her website with new ones coming out every day!

Platform House Publishing ~ I am incredibly fortunate to know Becky Wright of PHP. We’ve been Instagram friends for a long time, and I just hired them to create a 30-second teaser trailer for me—it looks AH-MAZE-ING! They are incredibly patient and hardworking and listen to what their clients want. You can find their website here and their Facebook page here.

Design for Writers ~ I haven’t used Design for writers myself, but I have several author friends who have used them and love them. And with cover design, the results speak for themselves in a lot of ways. Just have a look at their website to see what I mean.

Canva ~ If you’re really strapped (I get it, the struggle is real), then Canva has a pretty good platform for designing your own cover. It’s by no means totally easy, and there may be fees involved depending on the images you want to use—be sure to read their use terms very carefully. Not all use licenses are created equal, and copyright laws are legit. You can see a more in-depth review I wrote on using Canva in this entry about my favorite resources for images. And here’s the link for Canva.

Alpha, Beta, and ARC Readers ~ You should invest time and thought rather than money into this group, but first, a disclaimer.

Authors use these terms somewhat loosely, so how I define them might be different from what you’ve heard before. From my perspective, though, an Alpha reader is your first reader. They might even see your manuscript before your editor, depending on how you do it. Beta readers see your book around the time your editor does. And ARC (advance review copy) readers get the book when it’s pretty dang close to being done. Again, a lot of this depends on your process. My latest book, Across the Ice, went three rounds with my editor, so my alpha reader got it before my editor. Then betas and ARC readers were in between and during editing rounds.

Right, as I said, traditionally, these folks are not paid. They’re giving their time and feedback in exchange for getting first dibs on reading the book. Your alpha reader and beta readers should be carefully selected—no more than a handful for either. ARC readers, however, well, the more of them you can get the better. Mostly because many of them won’t leave reviews unless you or the person running your advance review team for you is keeping track of who is and isn’t leaving reviews, plus policing the readers who don’t review.

Your ISBN ~ This one is really simple, and I’ve discussed it multiple times in other blog entries. In the grand scheme of things, $100 isn’t much to have total control over your book’s ISBN—that is, the ability to use it anywhere. Amazon is like a bad boyfriend. It offers you a free ISBN as a control tactic. You can’t use it anywhere else, but, baby, it was free and at least you have one, right? Take control! Keep Amazon around for what it’s good for, but maintain your boundaries and independence.

Marketing ~ And this is where you can spend as much or as little as you want. Hooray, your book is published. You are a published author. The words even sound shiny. Go you! Now you have to market the thing.

Sorry, what?

Yeah, this is the part a lot of authors struggle with. As I’ve said many times on this blog, being an indie author means being an entrepreneur, and being an entrepreneur means you are now your own marketing department. The good news is, you can do any amount of marketing you like. The other bad news is you have to decide how much marketing you’d like to do.

There’s not enough time here to get into all the marketing avenues out there—ads, social media, newsletter swaps, book discount email lists, etc.—but as someone who’s put a lot of money into various marketing channels with limited success, let me just say, take it slow. Test the waters with a toe, see what happens. If things go well, try dipping in a wee bit more. And for goodness sake, don’t be like me. Record your data, all of it. Then use it based on what the data tells you. Record any changes you make to ad copy (including dates), test it against other ad copy in micro-tests, and compare the results. Tiny changes, not massive leaps, with close observation and precise record-keeping is the way to go.

Regarding free advertising like social media, I advise against just posting about your books all the time. I can’t speak for others, but I do not follow accounts that do this. I follow people with interesting things to say about a variety of topics, and “Buy my book! My book is great!” every single post gets old really fast.

Audiobooks ~ This one depends on your strategy. ACX offers a no-money-down path for creating your audiobooks. You just have to split your royalties with your narrator. After Amazon takes their cut. And you’re locked into your contract for seven years. And you’re only distributed to Audible/Amazon and Apple. But if you’re okay with that, then that might be the path for you.

For me personally, you all may remember this post I wrote about my experiences using both ACX and Findaway Voices. I prefer to go a wide route, which means eschewing ACX’s tempting offer (and I was genuinely tempted, despite the downfalls).

Other Things ~ I mentioned having someone wrangle your advance review team for you. This is often referred to as an author assistant. Again, people should be paid fairly for their time and effort.

When it comes to contests, I have feelings. The truth is, there are very few book contests that people have actually heard of, and most of those are for traditionally published books. I would be extremely wary of spending money on contests because, yes, it’s nice to say my book won XYZ prize, a lot of them are just a money pit.

So did I miss anything? Is there something else indie authors could spend money on that maybe they should or shouldn’t? Let us know in the comments below 👇.

Thanks for reading!

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Dana Fraedrich / www.wordsbydana.com participates in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, Audible.com, and others. This page contains affiliate links.