How Much Does It Cost to Publish a Book?

Professionally self-publishing a book costs $2,000–$15,000, depending on how much you outsource. Traditional publishing costs nothing upfront — but requires a literary agent, typically takes 2–3 years, and pays 10–15% royalties. Full-service publishing packages (everything handled for you) start around $3,895. Those are the honest numbers, based on the 4,850+ books our team has helped produce. Here’s where every dollar goes.

The three ways to publish — cost comparison

Line-item costs, service by service

Editing — $500 to $5,000. The largest and most important line item. Professional book editing runs roughly $0.018–$0.04 per word depending on depth: proofreading at the low end, copyediting in the middle, developmental editing at the top. For an 80,000-word manuscript that’s $1,500–$3,200 for a proper copyedit. This is the one service not to cut — unedited books earn the reviews that end sales.

Cover design — $300 to $1,500. A custom cover designed for your shelf category. Pre-made covers cost less ($100–$300) but you’ll see your cover on other books. Readers judge books by covers; retailers’ thumbnail grids are ruthless about it.

Interior formatting — $200 to $1,000. Print-ready PDF sized to your trim, plus a reflowable EPUB. Books with illustrations, tables, or footnotes sit at the top of the range.

ISBNs — $125–$150 each, and you need at least two. The print edition and the eBook edition each require their own ISBN, so budget $250–$300 from the start — plus around $25 for the print barcode. Whoever owns the ISBNs is the publisher of record — insist both are registered in your name, not your service provider’s.

Distribution setup — $0 to $500. Amazon KDP, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Press, Kobo, and Google Play are free to join; the cost is the labor of correct metadata, categories, and pricing across each platform — the difference between being findable and invisible.

What’s deliberately not on this list: marketing. Marketing is not part of publishing — it’s a separate, post-publication budget with its own strategy (Amazon ads, review campaigns, launch pricing). Be wary of “publishing packages” that blur the two to pad the price. When you’re ready for it, that’s our book marketing service.

What full-service publishing includes at 11GhostWriters — from $3,895

If you’d rather have one team handle production end to end, our publishing packages start from $3,895 flat. A typical full package includes:

• Custom cover design — three concepts to choose from, with revision rounds
• Interior design and formatting for print and eBook (illustrated editions: redesign and unification of up to 50 custom images, with full ownership and publishing rights transferred to you)
• Two ISBN assignments — print and eBook — registered in your name
• Multi-platform publishing: Amazon KDP, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Press, Kobo Writing Life, and Google Play Books
• 20 printed copies shipped to you, anywhere in the world
• Ongoing support for reprints and minor revisions

Typical delivery: 6–8 weeks from finished manuscript. You keep 100% of rights and royalties on every platform — we charge once for the work and never take a percentage of sales (it’s written into our terms). Explore the full service on our book publishing services page, or the local pages for New York and Boston.

Where authors waste money (and where not to save it)

After 4,850+ books, the pattern is consistent. Authors overspend on marketing before the product is right, on hardcover print runs nobody ordered, and on “publicity packages” with no measurable deliverable. They underspend on editing — the single strongest predictor of reviews and sustained sales — and on covers, the first thing every reader judges. If your budget forces a choice, fund the book itself first; marketing can always come after launch, but a bad first impression is permanent.