Bethany, I really appreciate your transparency in this video! I self-published my debut novel The Frequency in June. I spent close to £3K on my cover and editing, and likely another £500 on marketing and advanced copies. It's my first novel so was happy to pay it, but it's not cost effective in the long term. It's definitely made me think about where I could potentially cut costs in the future.
Hey I just wanted to say as a new indie author, I find your videos (especially ones like these) really encouraging and I'm so excited for your newest book!
I've never read any of Bethany's books but I've been a long time TH-cam fan as I prepare to start my own indie author career. I've just purchased this novella on Amazon UK. Hopefully it gets me in to the full series as I've been interested in reading it for a while and I think it will give me a lot of inspiration for the villian in my own series. :)
I was talking to my littlest yesterday (seven years old) and she asked me who you were because she saw your image frozen on the screen because I have been watching a TH-cam video. I said oh that's my friend Bethany. Excited to call you friend! So excited for you Bethany! I can't wait to read it! So proud to be one of your patrons and watch you grow as an author!
@@BethanyAtazadeh You mentioned setting up the paperback/hardback on IS with a dummy file but my understanding (from their warning messages) is that your content will ONLY be updated for future orders and that any existing orders will get the copy of the book as it existed at the time they purchased it. So don't you have to have the final book uploaded before taking preorders? Otherwise, all preorders would get the wrong version...
Bethany, I always learn soooooooo much from you! You're the very first person I started to watch on TH-cam, and when my book is complete, I'm sending you one!!! When I was a second grade teacher and told the principal I was pregnant, she said that she always loves to see how teachers transform (new ideas, new methods, a new kind of empathy etc..) after they've had their first child. Your baby is going to open up so many new and amazing perspectives, ideas, and basically a whole new world that you're going to be able to draw from as a successful author. I'm excited for you to experience this!!! xo
Man, you're a very smart person. Swapping skills!!! I would have never gotten that idea!!! You're amazing, Bethany and I know you'll keep growing... From Evelyn's number to the secret garden.. you have done an amazing job! I love how strong and amazing you're. Well, from your vlog I came to know that you were having a hard time due to pregnancy and I felt so bad for you (I hope you're doing well now), but your strength is what I admire the most and the fact that you didn't stop after all the hurdles. You're super cool and I can't wait to see you grow even more ❤️
Congrats! I hope you have a great release for the Secret Gift! And no, not paying for editing isn't always a bad thing. If you swap as you did or if someone knows a person with the right skillset and gets it done for free, does not mean the book will be of lesser quality. I've read tons of books both indie or traditionally published work that wasn't quality work even though they had editors to fix punctuation and grammar issues.
Congrats! I've been toying with the idea of publishing novellas but wasn't quite sure what that would look like financially so this was nice to see. Even if I were to hire a professional editor the cost would be lower anyway because ya know, fewer words. This was super encouraging! Thank you and I can't wait to get my copy in the mail!!
Yay, thank you! I'm so glad it was helpful! And yes, an editor would be MUCH cheaper because the word count would be about half as much or less, which is also very nice haha. :) Yayyy happy reading!!
Thanks for sharing! That far along in your author journey, it seems like a safe risk skip the professional editing as part of self-pub. Obviously, newer authors need those skilled eyes on their work. I'd be interested to see if your readers mention a difference in the editing quality after reviews start to come in. My guess: Probably not. Good luck on the book launch and subbed!
Thank you for this, love how honest you are, I estimated that my marketing budget will cost if I include Good reads, Facebook ads, the book marketing expert, the editing cost, it's going to cost me at least around 3k, now if I exclude the marketing expert out it will leave me at 2k, but the reasons that I want the book marketing expert is because I want to do an amazing book campaign and I don't want to mess this up, so I rather close my eyes and shell out that extra few 1000 dollars then trying to do everything my self and screw my first book launch up.
Yayyy thank you so much Abbey! And that's awesome, I just did a video on writing short stories recently! I'll paste the link to it for you here: th-cam.com/video/Fw_V6F1eXyM/w-d-xo.html
I'm not very computer savvy and I want to know how I publish a book with my own cover designs that I've drawn myself with some of my own illustrations on the interior of the book? Do I have to need a scanner?
Please review your usage of “there is/there’s.” You tend to use that construction for both singular and plural subjects. For example: “There is others….” “There is other types of editors….” There’re/there are should be used for plural subjects. I enjoy your videos. Keep them coming. -Chip
Clicked SO fast. Congratulations on the new book! You're a superhero to do all that while pregnant. I was basically a potato in my third trimester haha. Your videos are always super informative and it's appreciated!
Haha thank you so much! :D I'm so glad you liked it! I'm just about to enter the third trimester now and can definitely feel myself slowing down, so I relate to that!
I have and they have more options than amazon idk if their customer service has gotten any better after their website upgrade but their books are better than Amazon's. It's where I publish my paperbacks.
Their GLobal distribution fees are insane though. They take 50% of the list price plus a share from your royalties. But I will still publish my hardcover through them because I want a dust jacket :)
I work at Amazon Air and every time I empty an Infinity bag, I wonder if any of your books are in there. It's great to see that you got to publish the last-ish book in TSK series. Sorry I've not been here in a while. Working and mom life are just hard.
This was really interesting. I didn't realise you could arrange for tours of your books, I'll be making a note of them in case I need them in future. Fingers crossed you make all your money back from this in release week 😁
Yeah there are a bunch of Instagram tours (and probably other social media too :) Just always make sure to look at how credible they are when you research the companies out there, some of them aren't so great but others are awesome! :)
Short answer, I pick one haha! :) And longer answer, I use a method where I figure out how long each stage of my process will take me to determine the soonest possible date, which is a freebie I give to everyone who signs up for my author newsletter if you're curious! www.bethanyatazadeh.com/contact
A bachelors degree, plus some training in the Chicago Manual of Style, plus obviously all my experience working with professional editors on my past 10 books, which I would consider the best training for authors because if you pay attention a good editor will help you learn how to spot your own personal weaknesses.
Do you happen to know for sure if BNpress allows for pre-orders specifically? I know you can sell paperback and hardcover but I’m not sure if they allow for pre-orders. I’ve only ordered personal copies from them so I don’t know for sure!
Why do you use both IngrinSpark and KDP? Wouldn’ It make sens just to use KDP services since theirs are cheaper? By the way thanks for sharing all these infos with us. I really appreciate it.
Can you estimate how much time you spent writing and editing the story, and let us know what the ROI is with that included into the total cost? Assume say $10 an hour for your time?
Hi Bethany, I have written 2 books. One is 47,000 words the other is 51,000 words. Are my books too long? And I need to hire a cover designer? Thanks for enlightening us, love your personality!
Well, my books are usually 70,000-90,000 in the young adult genre, so no, yours aren't too long lol. It depends on the genre, so research what the standard word count is, but keep in mind it's just an average. And yes you need a cover designer!
Lulu proof copies are pretty pricey compared to KDP (but it may be because their quality is marginally better 🤣) happy release day btw! And thank you so much for these cost videos-they’re super helpful!!
The amount you spent was amazing. I'm getting my 3rd edited right now. I do a full edit and it's $478. That's with a discount. Normally it's over $700. Which is cheap compared to other prices I've seen. The quality isn't cheap though. I used Ingramsparts with my first book. It was free to upload because it was in 2020. But I couldn't use it after that because I can't pay a fee if I had to revise it for whatever reason. I have not made my money back like you have. Writing is the easy part, editing and marketing isn't.
Would it be cost effective for you to put book 1 in KDP? I'm learning that KDP doesn't make as much as I was led to believe but was wondering if it was different since you have a series out.
Well they're already in KDP, that's the publishing on demand company I use. But if you mean Kindle Unlimited (KDP's exclusive ebook program), then I personally don't love it, but other authors do. :) It all depends on your goals/books/etc, everyone is different.
All great info!! Thank you for sharing this with us. It’s all so helpful to know. #sojuicy Can’t wait for your next video and see the stats for The Secret Gift!
WOW! Stay safe Bethany, please try not to get too excited as YOUR REAL CONTENTS AND YOUR TRUE RELEASE WILL BE UPON YOU EARLY, i.e. 👶. CONGRATS ON YOUR CONTENTS AND WHEN YOUR CONTENTS RELEASES, i.e. your 👶. Congrats about your new book, THE SECRET GIFT. REMEMBER, HOWEVER, THAT YOUR REAL SECRET GIFT IS YOUR TRUE CONTENTS. i.e. your 👶.
Have you read The Secret Gift?? I can't wait to hear what you think of Jezebel's story! :D
Bethany, I really appreciate your transparency in this video! I self-published my debut novel The Frequency in June. I spent close to £3K on my cover and editing, and likely another £500 on marketing and advanced copies. It's my first novel so was happy to pay it, but it's not cost effective in the long term. It's definitely made me think about where I could potentially cut costs in the future.
Hey I just wanted to say as a new indie author, I find your videos (especially ones like these) really encouraging and I'm so excited for your newest book!
Yay I'm so happy to hear that, thank you! :D
I've never read any of Bethany's books but I've been a long time TH-cam fan as I prepare to start my own indie author career. I've just purchased this novella on Amazon UK. Hopefully it gets me in to the full series as I've been interested in reading it for a while and I think it will give me a lot of inspiration for the villian in my own series. :)
Yay happy reading and hope you enjoy! :D
I was talking to my littlest yesterday (seven years old) and she asked me who you were because she saw your image frozen on the screen because I have been watching a TH-cam video. I said oh that's my friend Bethany. Excited to call you friend! So excited for you Bethany! I can't wait to read it! So proud to be one of your patrons and watch you grow as an author!
The timing is perfect. I've just finished The Enchanted Crown yesterday.
Yayyy!! :D I'm so excited to hear what you think of this story!
Got kindle's notification of "an author you've read before has a new book out" before even seeing this. Gotta love their free promo :)
Woohoo! I love hearing that!! :D
@@BethanyAtazadeh You mentioned setting up the paperback/hardback on IS with a dummy file but my understanding (from their warning messages) is that your content will ONLY be updated for future orders and that any existing orders will get the copy of the book as it existed at the time they purchased it. So don't you have to have the final book uploaded before taking preorders? Otherwise, all preorders would get the wrong version...
Bethany, I always learn soooooooo much from you! You're the very first person I started to watch on TH-cam, and when my book is complete, I'm sending you one!!! When I was a second grade teacher and told the principal I was pregnant, she said that she always loves to see how teachers transform (new ideas, new methods, a new kind of empathy etc..) after they've had their first child. Your baby is going to open up so many new and amazing perspectives, ideas, and basically a whole new world that you're going to be able to draw from as a successful author. I'm excited for you to experience this!!! xo
Man, you're a very smart person. Swapping skills!!! I would have never gotten that idea!!! You're amazing, Bethany and I know you'll keep growing... From Evelyn's number to the secret garden.. you have done an amazing job!
I love how strong and amazing you're. Well, from your vlog I came to know that you were having a hard time due to pregnancy and I felt so bad for you (I hope you're doing well now), but your strength is what I admire the most and the fact that you didn't stop after all the hurdles. You're super cool and I can't wait to see you grow even more ❤️
Thank you so much!
Congrats!
I hope you have a great release for the Secret Gift!
And no, not paying for editing isn't always a bad thing. If you swap as you did or if someone knows a person with the right skillset and gets it done for free, does not mean the book will be of lesser quality.
I've read tons of books both indie or traditionally published work that wasn't quality work even though they had editors to fix punctuation and grammar issues.
Thank you so much! And that's a very good point!
This just shows the benefits of building up your own skills and taking the time to build good professional relationships with others in the business.
Love this! I need to follow your lead on keeping a better budget when I publish!
You're always teaching us about the business, and doing in it in a positive manner. Kudo's for your success.
You and your friend exchanged goods and services, so you ladies did what they call Bartered…I love that!!
Congrats! I've been toying with the idea of publishing novellas but wasn't quite sure what that would look like financially so this was nice to see. Even if I were to hire a professional editor the cost would be lower anyway because ya know, fewer words. This was super encouraging! Thank you and I can't wait to get my copy in the mail!!
Yay, thank you! I'm so glad it was helpful! And yes, an editor would be MUCH cheaper because the word count would be about half as much or less, which is also very nice haha. :) Yayyy happy reading!!
Thanks for sharing! That far along in your author journey, it seems like a safe risk skip the professional editing as part of self-pub. Obviously, newer authors need those skilled eyes on their work. I'd be interested to see if your readers mention a difference in the editing quality after reviews start to come in. My guess: Probably not. Good luck on the book launch and subbed!
Thank you for this, love how honest you are, I estimated that my marketing budget will cost if I include Good reads, Facebook ads, the book marketing expert, the editing cost, it's going to cost me at least around 3k, now if I exclude the marketing expert out it will leave me at 2k, but the reasons that I want the book marketing expert is because I want to do an amazing book campaign and I don't want to mess this up, so I rather close my eyes and shell out that extra few 1000 dollars then trying to do everything my self and screw my first book launch up.
When you find another publishing company you should definitely do a video on it. Probably title it “Why I chose ____ as my publishing option”
I definitely will when I get to that point!
Congratulations on the release of your new book, Bethany!
Yay thank you!
@@BethanyAtazadeh You're welcome!
Congratulations on your release! I am about to start writing a novella for a reader magnet, any info on writing a novella is so helpful!
Yayyy thank you so much Abbey! And that's awesome, I just did a video on writing short stories recently! I'll paste the link to it for you here: th-cam.com/video/Fw_V6F1eXyM/w-d-xo.html
Which character would you say is most like you is the stolen kingdom series?
Hey Bethany you look amazing without make up, you are a natural beauty.
Another cool video, so much information to take in.
I agree
I'm watching this video Mar. 2023. Thanks for your tips and your honesty on the details! Best success!
Glad it was helpful!
I'm not very computer savvy and I want to know how I publish a book with my own cover designs that I've drawn myself with some of my own illustrations on the interior of the book? Do I have to need a scanner?
Congratulations on your new book!!
Please review your usage of “there is/there’s.” You tend to use that construction for both singular and plural subjects. For example:
“There is others….”
“There is other types of editors….”
There’re/there are should be used for plural subjects.
I enjoy your videos. Keep them coming.
-Chip
Clicked SO fast. Congratulations on the new book! You're a superhero to do all that while pregnant. I was basically a potato in my third trimester haha. Your videos are always super informative and it's appreciated!
Haha thank you so much! :D I'm so glad you liked it! I'm just about to enter the third trimester now and can definitely feel myself slowing down, so I relate to that!
Question - what about making back the time you spent writing the book - like an average hourly pay?
When you get your proof copy from KDP, do you have to have a cover?
lulu does a good job, i have ordered books from them before (BUT HAVE NOT PUBLISHED BY THEM, so, be aware)
I have and they have more options than amazon idk if their customer service has gotten any better after their website upgrade but their books are better than Amazon's. It's where I publish my paperbacks.
that's good to know, thank you both!
Their GLobal distribution fees are insane though. They take 50% of the list price plus a share from your royalties. But I will still publish my hardcover through them because I want a dust jacket :)
I work at Amazon Air and every time I empty an Infinity bag, I wonder if any of your books are in there. It's great to see that you got to publish the last-ish book in TSK series. Sorry I've not been here in a while. Working and mom life are just hard.
Haha that's so cool! If you ever see one that'd be so fun! :D
Congratulations and thank you for sharing! 🥰
Amazon KDP now has at publishing options for paperback and hardback.
They've always had paperback, but yes the hardcover is new, you should check out my video series on that! th-cam.com/video/Pk22SiX3VAM/w-d-xo.html
This was really interesting. I didn't realise you could arrange for tours of your books, I'll be making a note of them in case I need them in future. Fingers crossed you make all your money back from this in release week 😁
Yeah there are a bunch of Instagram tours (and probably other social media too :) Just always make sure to look at how credible they are when you research the companies out there, some of them aren't so great but others are awesome! :)
Since you are self-published, how do you decide the release date of your book?
Short answer, I pick one haha! :) And longer answer, I use a method where I figure out how long each stage of my process will take me to determine the soonest possible date, which is a freebie I give to everyone who signs up for my author newsletter if you're curious! www.bethanyatazadeh.com/contact
What editorial training do you have?
A bachelors degree, plus some training in the Chicago Manual of Style, plus obviously all my experience working with professional editors on my past 10 books, which I would consider the best training for authors because if you pay attention a good editor will help you learn how to spot your own personal weaknesses.
Do you happen to know for sure if BNpress allows for pre-orders specifically? I know you can sell paperback and hardcover but I’m not sure if they allow for pre-orders. I’ve only ordered personal copies from them so I don’t know for sure!
No I don't, sorry! I only know people suggest them to me all the time, but unfortunately I have no experience on the selling side, sorry!
Well done!!! 🎉
Why do you use both IngrinSpark and KDP?
Wouldn’ It make sens just to use KDP services since theirs are cheaper?
By the way thanks for sharing all these infos with us. I really appreciate it.
It would! But KDP doesn't currently have a preorder option for physical books, and Ingramspark does. That's pretty much the only reason
Can you estimate how much time you spent writing and editing the story, and let us know what the ROI is with that included into the total cost? Assume say $10 an hour for your time?
Happy Release Day! Congratulations!
Thank you so much!
Hi Bethany, I have written 2 books. One is 47,000 words the other is 51,000 words. Are my books too long? And I need to hire a cover designer? Thanks for enlightening us, love your personality!
Well, my books are usually 70,000-90,000 in the young adult genre, so no, yours aren't too long lol. It depends on the genre, so research what the standard word count is, but keep in mind it's just an average. And yes you need a cover designer!
Loved this video!!
Love these videos! Thank you for sharing 😃
So glad you liked it, thank you! :D
Lulu proof copies are pretty pricey compared to KDP (but it may be because their quality is marginally better 🤣) happy release day btw! And thank you so much for these cost videos-they’re super helpful!!
Good to know! And thank you so much, so glad the videos are helpful! :D
Great video. Very inspiring!
When you find a new publishing company please let us know the ins and outs of it!
Will do!
Happy Release Day! I'd give my right arm to publish a book at that price! Great video as usual, love your content!
Thank you so much!! :D
Thank you for sharing!
The amount you spent was amazing. I'm getting my 3rd edited right now. I do a full edit and it's $478. That's with a discount. Normally it's over $700. Which is cheap compared to other prices I've seen. The quality isn't cheap though.
I used Ingramsparts with my first book. It was free to upload because it was in 2020. But I couldn't use it after that because I can't pay a fee if I had to revise it for whatever reason.
I have not made my money back like you have. Writing is the easy part, editing and marketing isn't.
Would it be cost effective for you to put book 1 in KDP? I'm learning that KDP doesn't make as much as I was led to believe but was wondering if it was different since you have a series out.
Well they're already in KDP, that's the publishing on demand company I use. But if you mean Kindle Unlimited (KDP's exclusive ebook program), then I personally don't love it, but other authors do. :) It all depends on your goals/books/etc, everyone is different.
Congratulations 🎉 just got email last night ill be reading the first chapter tomorrow,
yayyy! Thanks Emily, and I hope you enjoy the story! :D
I think that for some of us it is a relief to find out that self pub does not have to cost thousands of dollars.
oh my gosh yes, absolutely! So glad it was encouraging! :)
I have been doing this for 38 years. Started from bottom
Happy release day!
🎉 Thank you so much!!
All great info!! Thank you for sharing this with us. It’s all so helpful to know. #sojuicy Can’t wait for your next video and see the stats for The Secret Gift!
you're beautiful. congrats!!! Congrats on the book release too.
Cool! I enjoy your videos.
Glad you like them!
@@BethanyAtazadeh thank you for putting out great content!
So how do publishers make money if authors don’t want to pay? Just curious
Off of their cut of the profits.
Thank you.
You're welcome!
WOW! Stay safe Bethany, please try not to get too excited as YOUR REAL CONTENTS AND YOUR TRUE RELEASE WILL BE UPON YOU EARLY, i.e. 👶.
CONGRATS ON YOUR CONTENTS AND WHEN YOUR CONTENTS RELEASES, i.e. your 👶.
Congrats about your new book, THE SECRET GIFT.
REMEMBER, HOWEVER, THAT YOUR REAL SECRET GIFT IS YOUR TRUE CONTENTS. i.e. your 👶.
What’s your Snapchat?