The Economics of Self-Publishing: Budgeting, Book Pricing, and Investing in Success [ Webinar Transcript ]
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The following content comes from a free FriesenPress training session broadcast live on September 14, 2026 (edited for length and clarity). Register here to join us live on our next broadcast!
Welcome to the webinar, The Economics of Self-Publishing.
My name is Emily Perkins. I have been at FriesenPress for about 11 years now. We have worked in self-publishing with thousands of authors around the world for about 17 years. What we do here is assist authors with self-publishing their books. A lot of authors also work with us through the writing stage. Some need a bit of coaching from one of our book coaches.
I hope that the details I share with you today will help you learn a bit more about the economics of publishing: the costs and what needs to be considered from publishing all the way through to printing your book.
The Publishing Mindset Shift
You've been writing for a long time, now you have to start considering what you're going to do with your writing once you've finished it. You have to take your writing hat off and start looking at other details.
When you're looking at self-publishing a book, and wanting to be successful, there are a lot of things to consider. When people start looking at publishing, suddenly a lot of them are confused by the details of production costs, list price, royalties, distribution discounts, whether to use print-on-demand or bulk printing with a printing company, how to market their book, budget, returnability, and all kinds of details.
When you're writing, your primary metrics are emotional and creative. It's all about being in the storytelling area. Are the characters well-developed? Does it flow well? Am I achieving the goals of sending the message I want across to my readers?
When you're publishing, your metrics are different. You need to think like a business owner at this stage. What's my return on investment going to be? What are my unit production costs going to be? How do these decisions impact my profits? It can start to feel like running a small business, and it absolutely is when you self-publish. My goal today is to educate you and help you learn a little bit more about this so you can find the right approach for you.
When you choose to self-publish, you're not just creating a book, you're creating a product that you're going to bring to market. This is especially important when you are doing something beyond a legacy project for friends and family, something where you want to reach a wide market or tell your personal business story. It's really good to think about your goals for publishing. If you invest in the quality of your book, you are going to gain success immediately that way. You need to have a good-looking, quality book, a well-written book, and you need to know who your target market is and how you're going to reach them.
Evaluating Your Publishing Options
Working with a traditional publishing house is a very different approach, which we're also going to talk about later. We'll compare options in publishing: traditional publishing, do-it-yourself (DIY) self-publishing, or having an assisted self-publishing company like FriesenPress work with you.
Traditional publishing is a big goal for many, but a lot of authors don't recognize the true differences between these options. When you traditionally publish, you first have to find an agent. If you don't already have a publisher interested, you need to find a literary agent and present a really well-prepared manuscript. We have a lot of writers who work with us through editing and then approach traditional publishers or try to find an agent. You need an agent when you're looking at any large publishing house. In Canada, you don't necessarily have to have an agent for a traditional publisher, but you still need a well-put-together manuscript, a query letter, and to do the research to make sure you submit what they're looking for within their submission windows. It has to be a good fit. Small publishing houses often only work on one or two books a year, so that's an important aspect.
DIY self-publishing, in comparison, is very different. It is very much about doing it all on your own. You have to vet everybody you're working with and keep them on track. You have complete creative control and ownership, which is very different than traditional publishing, but it's a lot of legwork. You're paying out-of-pocket for every single step of the process: working with a book coach, an editor, a book designer, potentially an illustrator, getting your book designed, working out how you intend on distributing and publishing, and deciding if you're going to sell directly or publish through print-on-demand. There's a lot of work to do, and once published, you have to work on the marketing angle. DIY is hard, but it is a good fit for some authors. We work with many who have taken the DIY route and found they didn't have the success level they wanted, so they come to us with future books to produce something at a higher quality and get more traction in sales. You also need to have your own details worked out, like your ISBNs, to track your book in distribution. There are pros and cons to both options.
With assisted self-publishing, which is what we do at FriesenPress, our authors own their books and keep creative control. Essentially, they bring us their vision, and we do the heavy lifting to get their manuscript into book form and available for the world to buy. Different authors have different needs and goals. Overall, I am going to talk about what affects the cost of self-publishing with an assisted company, as well as printing options. At FriesenPress, we manage worldwide print-on-demand distribution for our authors as well as other print options. Most assisted or hybrid self-publishing companies offer print-on-demand, but most don't have other print options unless the author buys their files and walks away. Both DIY and assisted self-publishing give you creative control and ownership, but there is a trade-off in the financial investment, depending on whether you want to do it on your own or need a supportive approach.
Professional Publishing Costs
Now let's talk about professional publishing average costs when looking at an assisted company like ourselves. We've taken an example of a manuscript that is about 60,000 words with a total average investment of just over $6,000 CAD.
For a novel or manuscript of this length, a large portion of the cost goes into editing. Again, that's the first place you hit the quality level needed to be successful. You also need to consider cover design and interior layout design. A lot of people think they can design books, but remember, we really do judge books by their cover as well as their readability. You need a cover that makes people gravitate to the book. Many bookstores and readers nowadays are pushing back on AI-generated design work, for example, so it's really important to have a professionally designed cover, a clean interior layout, and an incredibly well-written book. The more editing you have, the higher quality your book will be in terms of readability, giving you a better chance of people enjoying it, coming back for your next book, or recommending it to others.
At FriesenPress, we start with an Editor's Manuscript Evaluation for every book we work on. It's included in our plans, and it's the first step in finding out what an editor would recommend for your book. Normally, a book will go through a substantive edit first. Best practice in publishing is to then have a secondary edit by another editor to proofread. Editing knocks out about 90% to 95% of the errors in a manuscript, and it's about a lot more than just typos or minor corrections, at times, it can be much deeper structural editing. For a manuscript of 60,000 words or less, when the investment is around $6,000, editing hits around the $2,700 mark.
Design for the cover and interior depends on word count versus the number of photographs or graphics. For a novel, you're looking at around $676 for cover design support as well as interior formatting and design.
Once you have all that put together, you're going to need marketing support. Most authors find the marketing angle of publishing to be the most daunting aspect. Marketing has to be done by the author, even if traditionally published, that's true about 90% of the time now. At FriesenPress, the best way to put it is that we teach you how to fish when it comes to marketing. We coach our authors, offer tools, and show them how to use those tools to reach their goals. The average cost for marketing support, from a book promotion plan to other foundational marketing services, usually sits around $1,750 CAD.
When it comes to printing, as I noted, we have print-on-demand distribution. This means when a book is purchased by a consumer, bookstore, or library in Canada, that's when it gets printed and shipped. We track those sales, report them to our authors, and pay out royalties or profits quarterly throughout the year. For authors trying to get into independent bookstores, do event signings, readings, or promotional events, they usually also need to consider an offset print run. You're usually looking to set aside about $950 for a small offset print run for a 60,000-word book. Print-on-demand is great to reach a wide global market, but if you're doing in-person events, it's good to buffer for an offset print run so you can sell books directly. Most authors need a mix of both.
Essential Publishing Services
Let's get deeper into professional editing. The three most important categories we'll discuss are editing, design, and marketing. Scrimping on editing is the number one reason I see authors fail. If you skip editing, not only does the book read poorly, but people will notice errors. They may say something to you, or they won't recommend your book to others because encountering continuous editing errors is jarring. It's crucial to consider a substantive edit initially to correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, story arc, and character development.
Because editing is so critical, we do an evaluation for every book we work on. You need to know what you're working on so we know how to help you create a great book. When authors scrimp on editing, they're often embarrassed later when they realize how many errors remain. It's very hard to edit your own work. You should do your best to self-edit before publishing, but professional editing is vital. A substantive edit for a 60,000-word manuscript sits around $2,700 CAD. If less editing is needed, such as a basic copy edit for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax polish, you're looking at around $1,626 CAD. Editing costs are charged by word count, though we offer publishing plans where editing is included.
As I mentioned, a professional editor knocks out about 90% to 95% of errors per round, so it's always good to consider a proofread by a secondary editor. A proofread is a lower-cost step (around $834 CAD) because most issues have already been addressed.
When we work on a manuscript at FriesenPress, we match the genre and book type to the most knowledgeable editor on our team. They check writing readability, flag potential liability issues, and check for copyright infringement. The Editor's Manuscript Evaluation is something we're offering today, you can enter to win a free one through the QR code shown later. Our editors are well-vetted in both stylized and line editing. If you go the DIY route, you'll have to vet your own editor to ensure high standards. If you go traditional, you won't have control over editing choices or the opportunity to review edits before they're finalized.
Now, regarding professional cover design: this is truly important. You may bring your vision to us, and while using AI-generated imagery can help clarify your concept, you should turn to a professional designer for the final product. We have a team of professional book designers and illustrators. The average cost for a solid book cover design is around $341 CAD, which creates files for softcover, hardcover, and ebook formats. Ebooks are essential, though less suited for highly illustrated books; they are great for academic works, romance, and books people travel with. It's best to offer a full range: softcover, hardcover, and ebook (and audiobooks depending on your goals). If you don't have a vision for your cover, I highly recommend visiting the library. Look in your book's genre, take your writer cap off, put your reader cap on, and see what you gravitate toward regarding trim size, cover design, imagery, and font. I recommend libraries over bookstores because you can freely take reference pictures.
Design on the back cover is equally crucial. The author bio and book synopsis shown on the back will also be used everywhere your book is listed for sale online. It needs to capture readers and encourage them to buy. Many authors have our team write or edit this for them.
Interior layout averages about $335 CAD for a 60,000-word novel. Layout includes adding chapter headings, formatting, and pagination. Design complexity increases if you have photographs, bullet points, lists, graphs, or footnotes, which will affect the design quote or the time a designer needs.
Professional marketing is also crucial. You could produce a high-quality book with wide distribution, but if you don't market it, it won't sell. Thousands of books are published daily, so yours must stand out. At FriesenPress, foundational marketing starts with a Book Promotion Plan (around $467 CAD, included in 3 out of 4 of our plans). It helps you define your target market, identify where your readers are, and decide whether to use social media or events.
Social media is a great way to reach a wide market for little to no cost. Our social media coaching services ($662 CAD) help authors set up and effectively use platforms tailored to their author brand.
An author website is also crucial, it acts as the hub for your socials, events, and sales links. Having a website builds your brand and gives you a professional landing page to share on business cards. Website creation services average around $612 CAD.
Book Pricing, Royalties & Returns
Regarding professional printing: quality starts at the design stage. A poorly printed or poorly designed book reflects badly on the author and deters readers. At FriesenPress, being a division of the largest printer in Canada allows us to ensure high print quality across options.
When pricing your book, you must consider the retail price, author royalty, and wholesale discount (what you give to retailers). While many self-publishing companies assign a retail price, FriesenPress allows authors to set their own with our guidance. Price depends on trim size, page count, and whether the interior is black-and-white, standard color, or premium color. With print-on-demand, the entire book must use one printing standard (you cannot mix 50 black-and-white pages with 20 premium color pages as you can in offset printing).
We offer two royalty structures:
Trade Discount: Focuses on bookstore accessibility. You give retailers a 55% discount, leaving 45% of profits split between the distribution pipeline and author. This results in a higher list price, but makes your book attractive to physical bookstores. It also pairs with returnability insurance, allowing bookstores to return unsold copies risk-free.
Short Discount: Tailored for direct sales, speaking engagements, or online sales rather than bookstores. The retailer receives a 40% discount, leaving 60% of profits for the author. This allows for a lower retail price and higher author royalties per copy.
Printing Strategies: Print-on-Demand vs. Offset
Print-on-demand has revolutionized self-publishing, allowing authors to publish without traditional gatekeepers. It works exceptionally well for novels and children's books, though high-color coffee table or photography books can become expensive.
Offset printing allows for a lower per-unit cost, making it ideal for bulk orders ($950–$1,000+ depending on quantity) needed for in-person events, speaking engagements, or specialty finishes like embossed covers. However, pure offset printing lacks built-in distribution, requiring you to handle inventory, shipping, and fulfillment yourself. Most authors benefit from a combination of print-on-demand for global distribution and offset printing for event sales.
Choosing a Publishing Partner & Next Steps
When choosing a publishing partner, ask questions: Where are they located? Do they evaluate your manuscript? Do they read your book? FriesenPress is 100% Canadian and employee-owned. We read every book we work with and handle production in-house rather than outsourcing overseas.
To prepare for your publishing journey:
Research books in your genre at libraries and bookstores.
Define your target reader and distribution goals.
Establish your budget. It is better to save until you can afford quality editing, design, and marketing than to rush and compromise quality.
Q/A Section
What is the minimum timeline between manuscript submission and book publication? How does FriesenPress ensure that a targeted publication date or month is met?
Emily: The timeline ranges depending on the amount of work we're doing on the book as well as the decisions being made by the author we're working with. It starts at about 4 to 6 months for a basic level plan. It can go all the way up to a year for the other end of the spectrum—you know, a book that's having a lot of editing done, a lot of marketing support tools and design work being put together. Same with an illustrated book if we're doing illustrations for the book, which has a much longer timeline generally than a book being done with an author that brings us their story and their illustrations. So our timelines run from about 4 months up to a year. And in comparison to traditional, it's much faster. Traditional average is about 2 or 3 years for publication generally.
Brian: Yeah, I think, too, we try to be really realistic about that as well when we're talking about the books. I know you get those kind of conversations all the time, and we don't want to set expectations that we can't match either. So that's something that we definitely cover.
What are some things that wouldn't apply to children's books that were covered here today in terms of anticipated costs, and where do things differ?
Emily: I would say the main cost, a big chunk of the cost, like I was saying for a manuscript, sits in the editing. When it comes to a children's picture book, a lot of the cost and a huge element of quality sits with the illustration aspect, because illustrations at a picture book level are partially telling the story. So I would say that touches on a big part of the cost when it comes to the illustrations: the level of detail work that needs to go into that illustration and the number of illustrations an author needs for their book. And that also has to match with the age group that the book is for.
How are editors matched to a project and what if the fit ends up not being ideal?
Emily: The evaluation is done by an editor that matches the genre of the book, as well as the conversations the consultant has had with the author on what their needs are as far as an editor. Although all of our editors are qualified, we definitely agree that we want them to be a good match with the genre and the content of the book. So we have a coordinator that looks at notes from the consultant as well as potentially notes from the author themselves as to what they're looking for and what questions they have for that editor.
I find that if the author doesn't think it's a good fit—it's happened to me maybe twice in 11 years of being here—it's usually identified at that evaluation stage if that's not a good fit editor-wise. But we work on all different book genres, and we have a wide range of professional editors that are very, very talented.
If I don't know how much editing the book needs, can you evaluate it and let me know among the tiers?
Emily: Yeah, having a good consultation call is important to get into what has been done to the manuscript before coming to us, what type of feedback you've gotten from others, colleagues, friends, family, and what different types of editing address. When an author isn't sure what their needs are or what their goals are, I think it's important to start at the Editor's Manuscript Evaluation level.
A lot of authors don't realize they can do that. They don't have to jump into publishing with both feet. They can pay to have an evaluation done, and they're not obligated to continue with us. But if they do, it's thrown the spotlight on the type of editing that is needed, and then we can look at the different plans, find the best fit, and deduct the evaluation that's been paid for that matches with the plan they choose. So the cost of the evaluation included in the plan they choose is then deducted and we start at the next stage. That's a really good fit for new authors or people that haven't had feedback or really aren't sure if they're ready to publish or what their needs are, because the editor will recommend the type of editing.
If you choose POD, what's the lead time for someone interested in purchasing that book, the fulfillment times?
Emily: The time for it really ranges at times. Like through COVID, the timeline went up fairly significantly. It's usually 48 hours from purchase to getting that book printed. But then you also have to consider the timeline for shipping of that book will depend on the retailer it's purchased from and what shipping methods that consumer has chosen. So it varies, but normally a book, once it's purchased in print-on-demand, is printed in about 48 hours from purchase.
How do you help ensure authors get paid from all the different channels where books are distributed?
Emily: We're tracking sales to report them through the ISBN number. There's a different ISBN number on each book format, so we know every time it was purchased. We report sales into the author's account, which an author sets up with us that they use through the publication time. Once they're published, they log into their account 24/7. They go into a financials area and see where their sales have been reported.
They're reported monthly. Amazon sales are reported every 45 days, and then once an author has accrued $25 or more within that quarter, Canadian authors set up their banking and we directly deposit their royalties. For others outside of Canada, a US check is sent to them. When it comes to an author that maybe hasn't accrued that much within that quarter, it tips over and continues to accrue, and then it gets paid out at that $25 or more. So we're doing all of this. This is called managed print-on-demand distribution, and we're tracking things through the ISBN numbers associated with each book.
Is there a possibility of POD even if you do an offset run? If I need to print copies for promotion, why not just put POD in the cost?
Emily: That's where, when you're ordering a print run through FriesenPress, we're going to work out where you are, the quantity, and what the best route is for that printing. Because yes, POD is the best option for small print runs. But at FriesenPress we have other options, especially for Canadian authors. So we might be able to do a print run that's at that size and not have to go to POD. There are other options, but it really depends on the quantity, and when the quantity does get high enough, that's when we will look into offset printing for you. We want to get you the best price for the quantity of books you need to buy and need to have printed.
You mentioned something to offset returns. Is that a feature or a service that's offered at FriesenPress?
Emily: It's called the Returns Management Program. It's included in two out of four of our main novel-type publishing plans. What it does is allow us to release the book as returnable. For example, a bookstore orders a number of copies, and say six months later they want to return some—they can. Those books come back, and the author loses their profit on those books that were returned, but they're not paying for those printed copies. Where if that author self-published DIY and went directly to Ingram, for example, and set their book as returnable, they're going to pay for the cost of those books being returned, like the printing costs for those books, as well as lose the royalties. Without returnability, though, you're not really accessing bookstores unless you're going consignment.
How does being an American author working with FriesenPress affect publishing options and are those challenges easy to navigate?
Emily: Great question. There's no problem for an American author working with a Canadian company. Our prices for anyone outside of Canada are in US dollars, and royalties are issued in US dollars. A lot of books can be printed in the US or in other parts of the world where they are purchased in print-on-demand. It's the other way around where there's more legwork for a Canadian working with a US company, because the IRS will block giving out royalties until forms have been completed and accepted. So there's no issue. We do work with authors around the world, not a problem. They just have to make sure that they can accept US checks for their banking, which is fine for an American. For people in other countries, they have to make sure they have a US account set up to be able to manage that. But yeah, there's no problem. We have print options in Canada and the US.
