If You Want to Publish, You Need to Pay

My least favorite writing myth: "You should not have to pay to get published."

Sure, if you've been picked up by a traditional publisher. However, for the rest of us, that's a pipe dream. The rest of us are going to have to pay to get published unless we have all of the right skills.

Could You Run a Restaurant?

Let's consider a restaurant for a moment. I know the analogy doesn't quite fit, but let's look at the cost of a plate of food: The idea here is there are a lot of costs involved in making that food that most people don't think about, same as when you publish a book.

If we were to look solely at the cost of the ingredients, most restaurant menus would cost a third of the price, sometimes less. But that's because the restaurant isn't paying just for the ingredients: The restaurant has to allow for operating costs as well. That is, it has to allow for:

• The electricity that powers the lights, freezer, and any number of appliances.
• The wages of the people working.
• The gas that they use for water heaters and some ovens.
• Cleaning supplies and cleaning services.
• Elimination of waste generated.
• Any potential emergencies.
• Future equipment buys.
• Miscellaneous supplies.

Sure, there are other costs, but you get the point: When a patron buys a meal at a restaurant, they aren't paying for just the meal; they're paying to help run the restaurant. All of those costs need to be allowed for when pricing the meal; this is why you keep hearing that a meal needs to be priced at least three times the cost of its ingredients.

Now Apply to Your Writing

The same base logic needs to apply when you're writing: You need to allow for more than the price of printing the book; you need to allow for editing, layout, book covers, even marketing. If you're serious, you should even have an accountant who would point out that you can get a deduction for all of that.

So even if you go print-on-demand, you have a lot of costs you need to allow for when you price your book. Unless you're an expert graphic designer, editor, and marketer, you're going to need to pay for some sort of service, and I've seen some of your covers, your grammar, and your ideas on marketing; only a few of you should rely on your "skills".

If you sell via crowdfunding or conventions, you need to allow for that as well.

So if you honestly think that you can pay nothing and still publish, well, that just doesn't work out unless you've got a traditional publisher backing you. And even then you may have costs to deal with (such as marketing or transportation). So the idea that you can get your book published without paying someone something flies in the face of reality.