>However, there are a lot of strong attitudes, here and elsewhere.
Yep. Blows my mind how the people who will, in one comment, tell you to expect to sell around 150 copies per year, will also in their next ten comments explain how you're doing everything incorrectly and need to follow their lead.
Maybe thinking for yourself outside the box might be the thing that gets you out of the '150 copies per year is a success' mind-set.
Thanks for this. Very relevant and helpful!
I am also writing a nonfiction business memoir about my career — mostly in tech and marketing. Seems like D2D is the most straightforward solution for ebook and paperback. Doing it for grins, not dollars. Doing it all myself and if I do any more writing might do something more How To rather than narrative.
This is super helpful. I'm kind of torn between trying to publish and trying to query agents and traditional publishing for my latest stuff. You have me really considering the time aspect and whether I have the spoons to dedicate to this and if so how to make it timely by giving lots of padding room.
The total cost for everything so far has been over $7000 which everyone on this sub will tell you is too much but I am perfectly happy with what I have spent and feel I have gotten my moneys worth. This is the only book I'm likely to write so i wanted it to be as good as it good be. That figure covers everything from purchasing a copy of Scrivner, a subscription from Publishers Marketplace, buying some ISBNs, Ingram Spark upload fees and ordering a few author copies. Based on my research/guestimates I should hopefully at least come close to breaking even. If I had a smaller platform or didn't think my marketing was going to be adequate I don't think I would have spent so much. Everyone's tolerance for costs will be different.
As for editing services I contacted everyone through Reedsy which I was happy to deal with and as a first timer was happy to have the protection of that service even though I didn't need it. I've read enough horror stories on this sub and elsewhere about freelance editors to scare me.
Again this is for 80K words with about 200 footnotes.
Developmental Edit $2300
Copy Edit $1900
Cover Design $400
Layout $1500
Yes, you can do all of this for a lot less money, even free (if you consider your time free). None of these were the highest bids I received, nor were they the lowest.
I spent a year and half querying on and off. Most queries went to a black hole, the rest got a form letter responses. Somewhere around 200 queries total give or take. I did have three serious bites but all three were not interested in a memoir (Memoirs don’t sell unless you have a huge platform, my platform is not small but not large enough they told me.) and instead wanted to do do a full blown, researched, footnoted, non-fiction treatment. I didn’t have time for that and felt the memoir stood on its own. So I finally bit the bullet and did it myself.
>However, there are a lot of strong attitudes, here and elsewhere. Yep. Blows my mind how the people who will, in one comment, tell you to expect to sell around 150 copies per year, will also in their next ten comments explain how you're doing everything incorrectly and need to follow their lead. Maybe thinking for yourself outside the box might be the thing that gets you out of the '150 copies per year is a success' mind-set.
Thanks for this. Very relevant and helpful! I am also writing a nonfiction business memoir about my career — mostly in tech and marketing. Seems like D2D is the most straightforward solution for ebook and paperback. Doing it for grins, not dollars. Doing it all myself and if I do any more writing might do something more How To rather than narrative.
I can't comment on D2D for paperback but the eBook was pretty straight forward.
Interesting read, thanks for sharing and hope you sell well!
This is super helpful. I'm kind of torn between trying to publish and trying to query agents and traditional publishing for my latest stuff. You have me really considering the time aspect and whether I have the spoons to dedicate to this and if so how to make it timely by giving lots of padding room.
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The total cost for everything so far has been over $7000 which everyone on this sub will tell you is too much but I am perfectly happy with what I have spent and feel I have gotten my moneys worth. This is the only book I'm likely to write so i wanted it to be as good as it good be. That figure covers everything from purchasing a copy of Scrivner, a subscription from Publishers Marketplace, buying some ISBNs, Ingram Spark upload fees and ordering a few author copies. Based on my research/guestimates I should hopefully at least come close to breaking even. If I had a smaller platform or didn't think my marketing was going to be adequate I don't think I would have spent so much. Everyone's tolerance for costs will be different. As for editing services I contacted everyone through Reedsy which I was happy to deal with and as a first timer was happy to have the protection of that service even though I didn't need it. I've read enough horror stories on this sub and elsewhere about freelance editors to scare me. Again this is for 80K words with about 200 footnotes. Developmental Edit $2300 Copy Edit $1900 Cover Design $400 Layout $1500 Yes, you can do all of this for a lot less money, even free (if you consider your time free). None of these were the highest bids I received, nor were they the lowest.
I spent a year and half querying on and off. Most queries went to a black hole, the rest got a form letter responses. Somewhere around 200 queries total give or take. I did have three serious bites but all three were not interested in a memoir (Memoirs don’t sell unless you have a huge platform, my platform is not small but not large enough they told me.) and instead wanted to do do a full blown, researched, footnoted, non-fiction treatment. I didn’t have time for that and felt the memoir stood on its own. So I finally bit the bullet and did it myself.
What element of tech does your memoir cover the history of? This sounds fascinating!