How Much Does It Cost To Publish A Children's Book

So yous're thinking about self publishing your children's volume, but y'all're a piffling worried about how much it will price you.

That'southward totally understandable. Y'all don't want to go too deep into the process and so realize that yous can't afford to finish.

What I'll exercise in this postal service is lay out the boilerplate costs to self publish a children's book, based on over a decade in the industry helping children'south book writers from idea to finished product.

I've guided a ton of writers through the process, so I can tell you verbal numbers on the loftier range (it's pretty high!) but also the more budget friendly route.

Let's start with a breakdown of what y'all will need to spend coin on.

Editing (yep, yous absolutely need an editor)
ISBN Number
Illustrations
Cover Blueprint
Formatting
Publishing

If you lot just want my free guide to how to write a children's book, then click that link.

Otherwise, go on reading to find out the range of prices for each of those categories, and and then some instance studies with total calculations at the end.

Developmental Editing

It would be best to get developmental editing. This is the type of editing where an editor gives y'all big picture feedback near your children'south book. Stuff similar:

Cut the first 2 paragraphs
You don't need the little brother in the story
Change the ending to 10 or Y
You need ane more event in the heart of the book

Pricing on the depression finish for developmental editing is nigh $250 USD.

On the upper terminate, I've seen one editor accuse as much as $800 for children's books under 1000 words.

I've got years and years of experience in the manufacture, and accept helped hundreds of authors from thought to published book, and my pricing starts at $450. My boilerplate is $525.

Developmental editors give you an essay that'southward often longer than your book itself, talking almost every part of your children's book, such as characters, plot, dialogue, pacing, beginning/endings, and everything else that you're doing well or that could be improved.

Working with a developmental editor is the best way to brand certain children actually enjoy your book (that matters, you know!).

Copy Editing

Just if you're completely happy with your story already, you would still demand a copy editor.

A copy editor volition notice all the fiddling pocket-size mistakes that you've made in your children's book.

I'thousand not talking about spelling errors or things that you could correct yourself. I'k talking nearly little mistakes that you could read the book multiple times and never always see. For instance:

comma usage
capitalization
actress spacing
missing words

When a writer tells me they don't need a copy editor, I chuckle to myself and then wait at their manuscript. Without neglect, I right between 10 – 30 mistakes, even in a very, very short book.

A children's volume copy editor is mostly cheaper than a developmental editor.

Pricing: On the depression end it would exist well-nigh $175 for a 1000-word book.

I wouldn't trust anyone charging less than that, because the talent level of copy editors varies dramatically. I've given tests to people moonlighting as "re-create editors" and they observe less than 30% of the mistakes I put in there. Just because you lot have an English language degree doesn't mean you can copy edit. Y'all have to know the Chicago Transmission of Style inside and out.

High end for copyediting a 1000-word book would exist more similar $300.

Usually, editors don't accuse less if the story is only 500 words, say. They take a minimum for the job.

ISBN Number

Practice you demand an ISBN number?

Honestly, it'southward best to have one and then you lot're non locked into a detail media ecosystem.

For example, if you self publish on Amazon, they will give yous a free ISBN number. Merely there is a catch. Yous tin can't use that ISBN number anywhere else — not Ingram Spark, not Barnes and Noble, not Apple Books.

And you can't switch later. Your volume will forever be locked into Amazon and y'all'll never be able to publish it anywhere else (Always).

But if you buy your own ISBN number, then you tin can publish beyond all these platforms and earn the virtually acquirement per book.

You can buy one from Bowker.

Buying a unmarried i is $125, which is rather expensive.

Buying a pack of ten is $295 USD.

You might be thinking: I only have one volume, and then I'll only buy one.

But surprise! Y'all need an ISBN for every format of your book. If you're planning on multiple versions, such as:

Hardback
Softcover
Sound
Ebook

Then you would actually need Iv ISBNS, one for each of those formats!

So I usually recommend that people buy the $295 pack. But if you're planning on publishing but a softcover children'southward book, so just pay the $125.

Very few children's books are audio books, though, because they are and so visual, and very few are ebooks either, so you ordinarily don't need to pay for ISBNs for those.

I would recommend Not paying for the bar code. There are websites that can create this bar lawmaking for free, once yous have your ISBN number. So don't both wasting money on that.

Illustrations

Illustrations are the biggest expense for your children'south book. And if you have money to spare, you should direct the majority of it hither, because investing in this role of the book will make the biggest difference.

Artist Friends: Gratuitous

I've seen a lot of children's book authors utilise a friend, and pay them either nothing or a nominal fee.

If you have a truly talented friend, this tin work out, but in general, I've seen the consequence hundreds of times and it ends up a disaster.

The trouble is that well-nigh artist friends haven't illustrated a children'southward book before, and so they don't know the genre well. Maybe they practise oil painting of landscapes, but it'south a very unlike skill to draw characters and actions and dialogue bubbles and sounds.

It's a little like asking your swimmer friend to run a marathon. Just because they're an athlete in 1 sport doesn't mean they can play other sports well.

Split Revenue

Authors always dream of splitting revenue with the illustrator. That way they don't have to pay anything upward front end.

But I don't know whatsoever illustrators who practice this.

Every illustrator would adopt all their money up front, and no backend acquirement. They don't want to work for months and months and then have your book sell 50 or 100 copies and they earned pennies per hour.

Illustrator Hacks: less than $1000

You don't want to pay less than $1000 dollars, considering usually you'll end up with cutting-and-paste illustrators.

These are illustrators who download pieces of pre-fabricated illustration and pre-made backgrounds, and they'll move them around so information technology vaguely resembles your story. What'due south more, you're not even getting original artwork that they made, but more of a Frankenstein book cobbled together from hundreds of other sources.

If yous wrote an original story, you need original artwork.

Can you hire someone like this?

Yes, but the illustrations are kind of dodgy. Information technology simply doesn't look good. If y'all set these books next to other cocky published books, information technology would exist obvious in a second that you lot hadn't hired the right illustrator.

Cheap Illustrators: $k – $1500

Sample example from a lower-stop illustrator

A deal basement price for illustrations is commonly $m – $1500.

This is unremarkably finding an illustrator working from abroad, in a 2d-world or third-globe country. You tin can detect these type of illustrators on sites like Upwork and Fiverr.

Wait at the case higher up. This blazon of analogy doesn't include much in the foreground or the background. The figures are simply fatigued. The dimensions are slightly off — the effigy to the right looks like he's floating rather than standing. The clouds are very uncomplicated and resemble i some other.

To save time the illustrator had them all wear the same type of shoe.

But if y'all just want to go your book out there, and tin can't beget much, this is probably the route you lot should get.

Skilled Illustrators: $two,500 – $3,500

If you want to work with a decently established artist who is talented and has washed children's books earlier, and resides in a first world country, then you're talking about $2500 – $3500.

I've worked with a number of illustrators who charge about this much. And they do solid work.

When yous become to this level of illustrator, they are often booked with other projects, and you might accept to await a calendar month or two. Also, they usually take 2 – three months to finish the task, because they're including a ton of detail and dazzler inside your artwork. So yous have to be more patient at this level, simply it's worth it.

Y'all can usually find these illustrators on sites like Upwork, but toggle the push button that says, "U.S. only."

Pro Illustrators: $5,000 – $12,000

At present, say you have some deep pockets and you want your children's book to wait super professional. I mean, someone volition think that it'southward published by a traditional publisher.

In that case, you're talking about due north of $v,000 per book. And information technology might take them 6 months or more than to create.

But you get real artwork, stuff that's good enough to hang on a wall. Details that are ornate and artistic. Images that accept your jiff abroad.

At this level, it's no longer a writer dictating to the illustrator what to draw, but more of a collaboration. They should bring every bit much creativity to the tabular array as you lot practise.

To find these type of illustrators, look at SCBWI's Illustrator Galleries. Some of these illustrators refuse to piece of work with self-published authors (they prefer publishers lone), but some are seeking freelance jobs.

Publisher-Level Illustrations

I have a friend who draws artwork for children's books, and he charges publishers $xxx,000 USD per book.

If you're a famous illustrator, you can go even more money than that — I've heard of deals as high equally $50,000 – $60,000 USD for a book.

Merely don't worry! You actually tin't hire these people. They work for publishers lonely and aren't interested in freelance piece of work.

They usually take 6 months to a year to draw a volume, and not only practice they get paid a adept amount of front, they get a percent of the profits as well (royalties). Normally the illustrator and the writer carve up royalties down the centre.

The muddy secret in the children's book industry is that illustrators get paid much more than the writers exercise.

Why are Illustrations so Expensive?

Say you walked upward to an artist and told them you wanted them to create 26 custom illustrations for you for $500.

It sounds crazy, doesn't information technology?

A children'south book requires either 13 ii-page spread artworks, or 26 pieces of artwork. That'south a ton of art!

And plus, if you desire revisions, that's even more work for them.

I mean, if you commissioned an artist to do a single piece of work of fine art for y'all, they would usually charge at least a couple hundred dollars, so to practise xiii large ones or 26 one-page ones is a ton of work.

Most illustrators usually spend at least two – vi months doing all this work, so it'southward not like they're making a ton per hour.

Pay per hr or per project?

Most of the illustrators on sites like Upwork and Fiverr pay per hour. This is piece of cake for them, because usually you lot dictate revisions to them as they become, and it all fits into their fee. Likewise, if you say you want them to add more detail, so you know it will simply toll a flake more than.

Commonly I ask up front: what is the boilerplate amount of time it takes yous to illustrate a children's volume?

And they'll say iv – 6 hours per 2-page spread, and I do the math and can calculate a roundish number for the price.

On the other hand, some illustrators offering a gear up cost for illustrations. My ain recommendation would be to specify how many revisions you become with a flat fee.

There is no right or wrong choice here. Information technology's more important to find the correct illustrator than to pick a particular method of billing.

Comprehend Pattern

I always recommend that the illustrator does the cover design as well.

And then if they're quoting you a toll for 13 full-folio spreads (this is 26 pages, which is standard for a children'south picture volume), then say: Could I pay you for 14 full page spreads and get yous to design the front end and back cover?

Don't forget — you lot need a front AND back cover design.

So lump this cost into the price for the illustrator.

If yous endeavor to hire someone else, there'south no guarantee they tin match your illustrator's style.

Lastly, brand certain that the cover design has different dimensions for different platforms. For instance, Ingram-Spark's paper weight is heavier than Amazon's newspaper weight, so that ways the embrace design needs unlike dimensions along the spine. Otherwise the colors of the spine will bleed over onto the front or the back cover.

Formatting

When I say formatting, I'm meaning interior volume blueprint.

Another word for this is Typesetting.

At present for a children's book, y'all want an illustrator who can add together text to the images. You don't desire to hire a separate person for that. So make sure when you hire your illustrator, you inquire: you lot'll incorporate the words onto the images, won't you?

Too ask whether they'll give you lot a ready-to-impress PDF. This means you want your illustrator to do the Title page, the Copyright folio, and add blank pages in the beginning and end.

Otherwise you lot'll need to rent someone to do this (probably for about $100 – $150, on Upwork or Fiverr), or figure out how to practice the PDF on your ain.

Publishing

Here's the good news nigh the publishing side: it's complimentary!

At least it'due south free if you choose to exercise all the heavy lifting.

Basically, once you have that PDF with the:

Text
Illustrations
Back matter and front matter (copyright page, title page)

Then you're ready to get!

The question at present is what sites you lot upload to. Barnes and Noble? Apple tree Books? Ingram Spark? Amazon? Draft2Digital? Smashwords? Lulu?

It starts to get confusing.

Now, some authors struggle to do all the legwork of everything I mentioned above. Information technology's understandable. It sounds so easy when I explicate it, but when you really start to motility through the process, you run into roadblocks and get dislocated and there are a hundred websites all saying slightly different things.

Starting time time authors can get lost in the weeds of formatting, ISBNs, hiring an illustrator, uploading to multiple platforms, etc.

So Bookfox offers a self-publishing assistance package, called Bookfox Press.

We take care of things like:

Finding your illustrator
Helping you through the illustration process
Getting your ISBN and barcodes
Making sure your cover is formatting correctly for different platforms
Uploading your book to multiple platforms and then you lot get maximum revenue

And many more things like that.

The pricing for this help is a apartment fee of $3500.

Click the Bookfox Press link and you lot can contact us and ask any additional questions.

Marketing

Marketing is a tricky one to estimate costs.

If you're driving to local schools to read your book, you have to calculate:

Gas costs
Pre-printing costs (you need to have books on manus, and usually you get these at an writer-discounted rate of half off)
To accept credit cards at local events, the credit card processor volition charge you iii.v%
Supporting materials: do you have a sign? Practise y'all need a boob for your performance? Do you want a headshot or informational brochure, in which case you lot would demand to budget for those printing costs?

Think about going to festivals and conferences.

Cost of airline ticket or driving
Cost of festival/conference entrance fee
Cost of renting a booth
Berth Tchotchkes (niggling giveaway items, like branded pencils or toys that resemble your books' character)

Almost children'southward volume authors set upward websites to help promote their book.

For example, look at kidscanclub.com, which helped create a community of kids around the bulletin of the children'south volume "Clementine Gets Unstuck."

Or look at Liz Somerville's website for her children'south book serial about Rocco the Buffalo.

Lots of authors create websites not only to assist market their volume, but also to help promote the values and lessons that their volume conveys. For case, if your book is anti-bullying, authors will prepare up an anti-bullying website where kids can sign up to pledge to stand up against bullying.

Patently the cost of website building varies widely. You can practice something on Wix for a few hundred dollars, or you can hire someone for a few g dollars. If there is interactivity, such as a community, or if the website needs to be accepting money to buy the volume, so the pricing goes up from at that place.

Hiring a Freelance Publicist

You could also hire a freelance publicist to aid you with marketing.

Simply I warn you — these people are expensive. I hear quotes all the time from $v,000 – $30,000.

Nonetheless, a publicist can open up doors that y'all tin can't even knock on. They can submit your proper name and book to radio stations, podcasts, telly shows, and magazines. When you hire a publicist, y'all're really hiring a rolodex of relationships. This is a person who is known in the manufacture, and then the gatekeepers of media will listen to them when they say: you should have this person on your evidence.

But a publicist can't aid you if your book isn't marketable. In other words, it really depends on the concept of your book. Some books are of the moment, capture a zeitgeist or a trend, and any publicist can movement copies.

Other books accept nothing to distinguish them, other than a nice story and nice characters — there is no demographic to target or any trendy topic they're addressing. In that case, the best publicist in the world would exist a waste of money considering they won't be able to help you sell a unmarried volume.

Case Studies

These are three real authors who published their books. I'one thousand going to utilise faux names, but these are real amounts for what they spent on their children's books.

Susan

Susan invests a good deal in her children'southward book.

Developmental Editing: $525

Copy Editing: $300

Illustration: $7,700

Publishing and Distribution: $2500

Marketing: $i,500

Total Cost to Publish a Children's Book: $12,525

Mark

Mark has a limited budget, so he tries to go along costs down.

Children's book grade: $149

Copy Editor: $200

ISBN: $0 (but publishes on Amazon)

Illustrator: $1500

Publishing: Amazon, so gratuitous

Total Cost to Publish a Children'due south Book: $1849

Amy

Amy has a medium size upkeep, and picks expenses wisely.

Developmental Editor: $450

Illustrator: $2500

ISBN: $125

Publishing: $1500

Marketing: $500

Total Cost to Publish a Children's Book: $5075

Hope that helps!

If you take any questions almost the process, please ask below in the comments!

Source: https://thejohnfox.com/2022/05/how-much-does-it-cost-to-self-publish-a-childrens-book/#:~:text=Pricing%20on%20the%20low%20end,my%20pricing%20starts%20at%20%24450.