The cost to design and produce a simply formatted 100 page novel (including cover, bar codes, etc) is usually under $900. This assumes cover design and layout will take 3 to 5 hours and inside text design and layout will take another 3 to 4 hours (both at $95/hr). In some cases we’ve found that we’ve been able to complete some very straight-forward books requiring no changes for less than $500.
For a 400 page book, the cost would be under $1200.
Additional book production costs are incurred by adding headings, sub-headings, bulleted text, charts, tables, callouts, sidebars, index, footnotes, endnotes, appendices, etc.
We’ve found that preparation and placement of illustrations and photographs with captions may add about $10-$25 per image. Photo scanning (if required) would add about $5 per photo. Image clean-up and adjustments, if required, would add further to the cost as we bill by time at 15 minute increments.
Low image resolution is often a stumbling block in the production of a quality book. Most photos are now taken with smartphones or digital cameras set at the medium to low camera default, which is usually set for photos to be sent to friends and family over the internet. Photos for a printed book must be of a higher resolution. For a further explanation of required photo resolution, see our Graphics, illustrations and photo information.
We receive, and can work with manuscripts and book material in various stages of preparedness. Keep your manuscript simple. The closer your material is to the simple electronic manuscript guidelines, the easier it will be for your book designer and less costly for the author. It is important that you read through our Manuscript preparation information.
If you’re not sure how to prepare your manuscript, talk with us before spending much time on it. By seeing your manuscript and cover material, we’ll be able to determine whether it is ready for production, or whether there is more you could do in order to make it easier for us and less costly for you. It will also allow us to give you a more precise estimate.
If you are familiar with the efficient use of MS Word paragraph styles, then it is possible to set up your manuscript in such a way that the time we would spend formatting. The time spent can be significantly reduced for books with a more complex layout. See our web page about how to work with MS Word Styles.
Index, footnotes and endnotes can be prepared either before the manuscript is submitted for design, or after the final book layout is completed. Review our information on Indexing.
When we receive your final text manuscript — preferably as one single file, with photo files supplied separately via SMASH, we will make it ready for processing in the page layout program that we use called Adobe InDesign. Removal of extra spaces, extra paragraph returns and so on is quite straight-forward, but dealing with a manuscript that has had substantial formatting done to it may require some extra time. Please keep it simple.
Cover design cost will also depend on how much time we spend on it. If you supply us with all the cover text material and the images, the cost may be as little as $95. If we need to make substantial changes to the image, the cost rises as we charge by the time required in 15 minute increments. By searching through stock photo sites such as http://www.bigstockphoto.com/ for images from which we could choose, you could reduce your costs considerably). If original photography, original artwork or custom illustrations are required, costs will increase accordingly. In our cost estimate, we’ll assume you will provide photos or illustrations that require little modification.
Cover and interior design are influenced by the subject matter of your book, writing style and tone of the writing, as well as the intended audience. Our collaboration as we review and discuss the material will all play a part in the way the book will ultimately look.
In most cases, initial book page designs will be sent to you for your critique and approval, then upon approval and before formatting begins, a deposit of about 1/3 the estimated cost will be requested.
When you receive your first complete draft of the book design, it is expected that you will go through it carefully and very likely find that there will be changes you want to make. Very seldom is a first draft presented requiring no author alterations, so in our cost estimating we assume that you will ask for up to fifty changes or so to be made. Based on time, the cost to make changes is about $0.75 per change. There is also a minimum 15 minute charge every time the book document needs to be opened and new .pdf’s produced. It is quite easy for us to make changes to the document, but costs can add up so we strongly urge you to have your final manuscript editorially as close to perfect as possible before embarking on the book design aspect.
Note: Book editing and proofreading are among the services we offer.
During the book design production process, you will receive .pdf files, first for approval of design, then for proofing. Detailed billing reports will be sent on a regular basis. It would be unusual, but if, for some reason, production costs appear to be heading higher than our initial upper estimate, we will let you know as soon as it begins to become apparent.
When completed, you will receive high resolution print-ready text and cover .pdf files. They will have been prepared to your printer’s specifications (for Amazon KDP, Lightning Source, IngamSparks or whoever you engage to print your books). You may also have any of the source files used to create your book. You retain complete copyright over all materials. We are a partner and collaborator with you on your project which you own outright.
If you would like to have an e-book as well as a print book, this is something that should be discussed early on as some e-books require special attention during the book design and layout process, particularly if there are graphics, illustrations or photos involved. It’s best to know this ahead of time.
This additional work plus the time to convert the files for Amazon Kindle and other e-book readers would add approximately another $125 for novels and books with a simple layout, or PDF e-book format up to $450 for more complex books with headings, sub-headings, and photos etc.
For more information on the differences between print and e-book production, please review E-book production
The overall cost to bring your book to the completed book design that is ready for printing will depend on the time it takes to do it. We can provide a more precise estimate once we have reviewed all your material. The manuscript you can send as an email attachment, and the larger image files you can send via SMASH.