I started writing my litRPG book Original Enchantment in September 2020. I didn’t have any big dreams at the time. I just wanted a creative outlet during the Covid lockdown. It wasn’t long before I started having fun with it. Before I knew it, four months had passed and I had the first draft done.

Then the doubt settled in. Sure, I enjoyed writing, but was I ready to do all the things necessary to self-publish? Was my book even good enough to justify the effort and expense? Was I hesitating to hedge against disappointment? I reached out to some fellow litRPG nerds who helped me come up with a strategy: Post it for free to get edits and feedback before you publish it to the world. Test the waters, so to speak. If it flopped, I could conclude that I didn’t hack it as a writer without wasting a bunch of money figuring that out.

It didn’t flop. The page on Royal Road garnered a modest following, good reviews, and helpful feedback, everything I had hoped for. Sort of. I should have been elated, but I had mixed feelings. This meant my book would probably do fine, but it also meant I didn’t have any excuses. Now I had to publish.

It took a month of work, a lot of Googling, and more than a few missteps. Here’s were the costs I incurred along the way.

The unavoidable costs of self-publishing

If you’re like I was and just starting out, let me start by confirming a few suspicions.

• Yes, you need good cover art. The whole “judge a book by its cover” thing is very real. You don’t necessarily need hand-drawn artwork, though. I paid a very talented artist on Fiverr ~$150 for mine as well as some related promotional graphics. It turned out beautifully and was worth every penny. I plan to work with her again. I may even spring for the nicer package next time.
• Yes, you need professional formatting. Again, Fiverr to the rescue. I paid a skilled book designer ~$90 for the Word doc I needed for Kindle and the PDF I needed for paperback. Same story as above; I plan to work with him again.
• Yes, you need professional editing. Here is where I messed up. I had friends and fans read the book cover to cover and assured myself there weren’t any mistakes. I didn’t see the ones I’d missed until the book was in print in my hands and beyond further editing. To my credit, there weren’t many, but I don’t plan to do without the next time around.
• Yes, you need an ARC (advanced release copy) squad. A genuinely great book may eventually gain traction and garner an audience, but solid social proof will make things happen much faster. I paid ~$70 buying author copies for a select group of friends and families who agreed to review the book on Amazon in exchange for a free copy in advance. Accept early that promotion costs money and that this sort of promotion returns better than most.
• DIY if you have the knowhow. I came into this with one big advantage: I’m a professional web developer and I used to do online marketing, so setting up a website and paid advertising was a piece of cake. If you’ve got the skills to do anything on this list, use them. You’ll save money and enjoy greater control over that part of your self-publishing.

All told, I spent ~$700 publishing my book before I ever saw a penny. From what I can tell, this is on the conservative side of things. More experienced authors habitually spend several thousand.

The avoidable costs of self-publishing

You will probably waste money on things you don’t need. Of the $700 I spent, almost $100 of it could’ve been avoided if I’d known better.

• I wasted money on a Patreon setup I could’ve easily done myself. (~$20)
• I had to go back and ask for promotional assets I should’ve gotten initially. (~$15)
• I goofed on the calls to action at the end of my book and had to pay for extra formatting work after the fact. (~$15)
• I sent all the author copies to myself and had to re-mail them to my ARC squad. Personal notes and signatures are nice and all, but I could’ve saved the postage since I get to see most of those people in person from time to time. (~$40)
• I didn’t realize it can take Amazon a while to approve a book and mail author copies, so most of my ARC squad didn’t get a copy until close to or after the publication date. (This didn’t cost dollars, but it was definitely an opportunity cost not having those reviews up on day one.)

Is KDP Select worth it?

Yes, at least in the monetary sense. I would have preferred to keep the free version of my book up on Royal Road. They were my first audience after all (not including my wife who had to hear the book as it was being written). My end goal was to make a real attempt at the whole author thing, though, so it was a necessary evil.

How much of a difference did it make? In the first week after the book’s release, I sold 85 copies (79 Kindle and 6 paperback) for a commission of ~$260. In contrast, I got ~130,000 pages read on Kindle Unlimited for a commission of ~$520, double the commission from book sales. That doesn’t even account for the broader reach or the greater number of reviews I received.

It’s just my one anecdote so it’s hardly conclusive, but going exclusive on KDP Select tripled my commission. So yes, I’d say it’s worth it.

The real payoff

I’m an author now. Not just someone who likes to write. Not just someone who has gotten some positive feedback from their work. A professional making money in the business by selling my creative work. Sure, the money is nice, but there’s a feeling of validation to it all. I used to think I was good enough; now I know I am.

That’s where I’ll leave off. If you’re thinking about self-publishing, in or out of the litRPG space, factor that intangible feeling into your consideration. Self-publishing is a daunting and potentially expensive challenge. Maybe it’ll be a long time before you recoup the cost. Maybe you never will. But it’s hard to accomplish anything worthwhile without some risk, and the personal reward of pulling it off isn’t something you can express in dollars and cents.