You want to be an author. You’re working desperately on your manuscript. You’re writing everyday.
Yet you’re staring at your email, and wondering why you’re not hearing back from publishers. You start to lose hope. You wonder if this is just a stupid venture that is a waste of time.
You wonder if you should just shelf your manuscript.
You laugh at it.
You’re afraid to tell people that you’re writing a book, for fear that they would ask you who’s going to publish it, and then you’re caught and thinking,
umm, no one.
True storyÂ
In February 2022, 4 months after leaving my full-time job in October 2021, I committed $10,000 towards publishing a book. It was supposed to be a memoir style book on my experiences being unemployed, and to help young people to find jobs they love.
It might have been the most stupid thing I’d done. There was no certainty of income, and I was investing a big part of my savings into this venture.
This was a hybrid publishing arrangement with Candid Creations.
If you’re not familiar in the differences between the various arrangements, here’s a table.
I can personally attest towards trying all of them.
| Â | Self-publishing | Hybrid publishing | Traditional Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | You bear all the costs, but expect it to start at around $6000. $3000 for laying it out, and another $3000 for printing at least 500 copies of it. |
Gutenhag, starts from $8000 for printing 500 copies, with developmental editing, copyediting Candid Creation starts from $10,000 for 500 copies, with editorial support |
Varies, but expect it to start at around $3000 for smaller publishers like Armour Publishing, Write Editions, Ethos Books (not Penguin Random House) who might want you to cover some of their costs |
| Layout and design | You support yourself and the easiest way is to find a publisher |
Gutenhag provides cover design, and layout of the pages within Candid Creation will give you a layout artist, an editor, and a graphic artist to design your cover and internal graphics |
The publisher will be responsible for layouts and graphics |
| Writing | You could write it yourself Or you could pay a ghostwriter like me to write it at $13,000 (no joke!) |
Do it yourself (DIY) Pay a ghostwriter |
Do it yourself (DIY) Pay a ghostwriter, but publishers prefer that you tell them upfront that you will be using a ghostwriter |
Why do you want to write and get published?
If you think you can get rich from writing, you may die trying.
Writing, at least for me, hasn’t been the most profitable way to get rich.
Knowing your reasons would help. Kok Hwa, of Candid Creation, once shared a few reasons why you might want to write:
- To raise your credibility on the subject
- To become a subject matter expert
- To build your own credibility as a writer
- To make money.
When I started my third book on career advice for young adults, I was 27. I had also been out of a job for the last 4 months, and didn’t seem like an expert.
But with the publishing of the book,
The last point might not be the most feasible, especially when you’re first starting out. Knowing this would help you to be less disappointed upon publishing your book.
The process
If you look at the book writing process, it may look like a huge task. But break it down, and you would find that it’s a lot simpler.
Where are you now in the process?Â
It’s vital to know where you are now in the book publishing process before you know what you need to move forward. In our experience working with clients, we realise they are often found at a few common stages.
Below, we share what you need at each stage.Â
Before your book is fully formed, you need a ‘book architect’
Imagine the book you’re writing as a tower. You will need an architect to help with the building of that tower. What writers often don’t realise is 3 things:
- It’s not the idea that counts, but how the idea is structured for people to understand, that matters more in how readable the book is
- For example, why do people enjoy James Clear’s ‘Atomic Habits’ so much, even though the ideas have been said in many different forms? Because it is well structured, and easily understood.
- It’s not just the writing that matters, but the progressive development of the idea that determines the book’s positioning in the market
- In ‘Vault’, the initial idea for the book was to base it on my own personal narrative of finding (and not getting) jobs.
- Kok Hwa, the publisher at Candid, convinced me to further develop the idea along the more common framework of the Employee Lifecycle, and to also improve it by interviewing people to add further credibility to the book.
- Publishers, after seeing many different manuscripts over the years, have the gut instinct in seeing where a book will and will not work.
- Publishing a book, really isn’t about the manuscript.
- It’s why you often see on the shelves books that make you go ‘Huh? This could be published? This seems so bad!’
- There are multiple people involved in bringing a book to life, and in Singapore, that includes the writer, the editor, and the publisher (minimally). You can do everything yourself, but you may end up doing your own book a disservice and not giving it the legs to run as far as possible.
How much money are you willing to invest?
If you want to write a book, have the money to invest in the process. It’s not going to come cheap.
Of course we all wish that we could be published by Penguin, but if they don’t want you, do you then drop your dream of being an author?
No.
You can spend on a hybrid publisher like Candid Creation, that will bring your book from idea to print.
Just be prepared to spend $10000 though.
Here, I will share the 3 books I’ve written, and how much they have cost me.
| Book | Format | Costs |
|---|---|---|
| One Day at a Time (2020) | Printed cards | Totalled $2550, which included $1500 to print 500 copies with a Singaporean printer like Win-Win Printers, and then $1050 for the graphic designer |
| Becoming Better (2021) | Ebook |
$5850 for the graphic designer (Valerie Chua) and layout I didn’t eventually print it because I ran out of a budget. |
| Vault! (2023) | Book |
Candid Creation Publishing quoted me $11,500 for printing 500 copies of 192 pages, and included editing, design, and layout |
I would say that you should set aside at least $10,000.
Having gone through the hybrid publishing process, I realised that was the most important point for me in my career as a writer. I needed an editor to refine my work, to tell me what was good, what was not as good, and to grow me as a writer.
But you might wonder, is it worth paying that much money? After all you could manage it yourself, getting the
- Designer
- Layout artist
- Editor
- Printer
I liked the fact that there was also a publisher like Kok Hwa that connected me with reputable media outlets, to help me to raise awareness of my book.
He also managed the timeline well, pushing me all the way to the finish, especially when I was close to giving up.
You might think that you can manage yourself well on your own, but wait till you look at your 46,000 word manuscript, and suddenly get struck by self-doubt about whether anyone (including your mother) would even want to read it.
The hybrid publishing way might be the way to go, if you’re not experienced in writing
Writing a book is not the same as writing your university essays. It calls for a far more diverse skillset in terms of:
- Product
- Your book is your product, and you need to know just what makes a good book.
- Market awareness
- You need to learn what the market wants to buy in terms of books.
- Communication
- Telling a good story, making good arguments, and recognising what brings the reader from problem to solution, is vital.
- Sales and marketing
- Writing is not enough. Selling is necessary.
- Work capacity
- Without a doubt, you need to work very hard to write a book.
- Systemisation
- Having a system where you write daily, whether you like it or not, is necessary.
Don’t underestimate writing. There’s a reason why many say they want to write books, but never manage to do it.
If you can’t write (or don’t have the time to), hire a ghost writer
Ever heard of the book “Spare“, by Prince Harry?
That bestseller was written by J. R. Moehringer, an American journalist.
Hiring a ghostwriter might not be the easiest thing to do.
Especially if you think that only you can adequately capture what you want to say.
Nope.
Not true.
Good ghostwriters spend loads of time with their subjects.
They become a fly on the wall as they observe their daily lives.
I’m one example.
Recently, I was asked to ghostwrite the book for a CEO of a Singaporean company.
Its not been the easiest project.
It’s meant that I’ve had to observe him talking to his staff, and partners.
I’ve also had multiple interviews with him.
You might think that you can’t afford it.
That may be true, especially when it can start from about $13,000 for a good ghostwriter.
So why use a ghostwriter?
Because unless you’re a writer writer, you will find it terribly hard to insert time to write a book in the middle of your full-time job.
Make no mistake.
Writing a book can be a part-time hobby.
But you will see it languishing in the doldrums, hardly ever moving.
A professional ghost writer can move it from start to finish much better.
Publishing a book may not be for you, but for the reader
Ultimately, if you believe you have a story to share, it’s worth going the distance to share it.
Writing a book isn’t just for you. It’s for the readers you eventually write it for.
Your advice on book publishing is helpful except for the costings. You can get layouts done through sites like Fiverr or freelancer.com for a few hundred. There’s also POD – print on demand afterwards for getting the physical copy out versus the more expensive, larger print runs needed by offset litho type printing option. My context: I’ve had 2 hardcopy books published and distributed commercially without needing to invest my own money, and a 3rd self published. A 4th will be out in a month, and costing (most likely) less than $7000, including layout, cover designs, and offset printing on sustainable paper stock for 2000 copies. I have sold about 25,000 copies of all my books in total. I hope you might want to update this useful blog article with those cost-effective options I mentioned. All the best
Hey Dave, thanks so much for this helpful comment. Will definitely consider that. But why I chose to use Singaporean artists is because (rightly or wrongly) I thought they would be more reliable to what I wanted to do. And the first illustrator I worked with really did get my style.
Hi Dave and John, I’m looking to self-publish children’s books (target 3-5 year olds) which admittedly requires less editing since the sentences are short and straight to the point. Design and graphics will be done by me and/or my sister on Canva, and for printing we will probably be doing it on AliBaba. Are there any steps aside from getting ISBN and sending 2 copies to NLB to consider? Oh, it will also be in a mother tongue language instead of English.
Hi Keidi, kudos to you for wanting to publish a children’s book. Certainly a worthwhile endeavour. I think those are good steps, you can also drop me an email if you need at John@liveyoungandwell.com if you’ve more questions. Hope this helps!