Bottom Line
If you’re considering self-publishing, deciding whether to handle the process on your own or use a self-publishing firm is strictly cost/benefit driven. Self-publishing firms actually deliver very little in terms of marketing or marketing support: No one will care about your book like you care, and no one will put more effort into marketing your book than you will. (Sadly, a tremendous amount of fluff is built into the typical “marketing services” offered by self-publishing firms.)
But self-publishing firms are convenient and do make the process easier, and for some people are the right way to go.
Here’s an example. Say you spend $1,000 on book design (I picked a round number.) You get an ISBN number for $275. (Actually you get ten for that price, so you can write nine more books without spending more on ISBN numbers.) Then you get 5,000 hardcover books printed and spend a total of $12,000, including overs and shipping costs.
Rounding off we’ll assume your cost per unit is $2.60. Not bad.
Now say you have a cover price of $24.99. Assuming no marketing costs and no loss on shipping costs (just to make the math easy) and you make over $22 in profit per unit sold. Sell 600 books and you break even. The rest is gravy.
Or maybe you want softcover books. The design costs are basically the same, and the ISBN cost is the same. Produce 5,000 books and you'll spend a total of about $9,500 (rounding up) for a unit cost of $1.90.
Assuming a cover price of $16.95 and break-even shipping and you make $15.05 per unit; sell about 640 books and you break even. It takes a few more units to break even compared to producing hardcover books, but at the same time your investment is about 25% lower. (Again, I left marketing costs out.)
So: Compare your costs, potential profit, etc. if you manage the process versus what you get by using a self-publishing provider. While they will make the design and production process easier, you will also give up some control... and they can’t do anything for you that you can’t do for yourself.
Content aside, selling a lot of books is based on effective marketing. Don't assume anyone will work hard to market your book.
And keep in mind self-publishing providers make their money up front; profits on books sold is incremental gain. A self-publishing firm certainly hopes you sell a lot of books since they'll keep a percentage of the revenue, but unlike a traditional publisher they make their money on the front end.
You can’t blame them: If you think about the business model it makes better sense for a self-publishing firm to focus on acquiring more authors than on selling books on behalf of those authors.
That's what I would do if I were in their shoes: I can't predict which books will sell and generate downstream revenue, but if you send me a check to provide self-publishing services, I get paid up front with no risk.
Traditional publishers only make money if books sell. Self-publishing providers make money when authors contract for services; they make money even if no books are sold. Book sales are like the icing on a self-publishing service provider’s cake.
So what should you do? Everyone’s situation is different, so I can’t answer that for you—but now, maybe you can.
