Publish your book for free
At Bookmundo, publishing your book doesn’t have to cost you anything. Our publishing platform is free to use, we’ll provide you with a digital storefront at no cost, and you can sell your book via our webshop and your own website or social media channels with high-profit margins. There are no obligatory purchases, and no contracts that limit your rights as an author; you’re free to pursue your publishing goals as you see fit.
And how does that work, exactly?
Because we use print-on-demand technology, each book ordered through us is printed separately, meaning we don’t need to maintain stock or storage space. This method allows you or your customers to order high-quality books without needing to adhere to a minimum order quantity; it doesn’t matter whether you want a single copy or a thousand, we’ll print and ship the order.
If a customer buys your book, the printing costs are covered by the retail price, meaning you don’t have to pay anything out of pocket before you start selling. You can also order your own books (something we recommend doing before publishing) at a heavily discounted rate. We take a commission for each sold copy, meaning that we don’t charge anything until you buy or sell books.
This is the cheapest way to publish a book by far, and if you opt for the basic process, it’s completely free. Nevertheless, if you have ambitions to make your book a financial success, then it’s likely you will incur some costs. We’ve outlined the most common (and worthwhile) ways to invest in the success of your book below.
The cost to publish a book vs. the cost to sell a book
Perhaps counterintuitively, these two things aren’t the same. Generally speaking, you don’t publish a book unless you’re planning on selling it. Depending on what your plans are, however, the way you choose to sell your book can have an impact on how much it costs to publish.
Selling your book via our webshop or the digital storefront we provide you with is free and straightforward. However, if you want to branch out to other sales channels such as Amazon, Kobo or Google Books, you’ll need an ISBN. An ISBN is an internationally recognized barcode for your book that allows your book to be identified by retailers and libraries. It costs £10.55 and can be purchased as part of the publishing process on Bookmundo (this is optional). Each edition of your book requires its own ISBN. As such, if you want to publish a digital version of your book, you’ll need a separate ISBN for your eBook.
Once you’ve bought an ISBN for your book, you can select a wide range of sales channels in the Pricing step. We’ll make sure your book is made available in your selected bookstores, and you’ll be able to monitor your sales from all active sales channels directly in your account. Check out our pricing calculator if you’re curious about what you can earn by selling your book via these sales channels.
Book printing costs: the lowest rates
While you technically don’t have to print a book to publish it, you’re going to want to print a proof copy at the very least, to make sure that the final version of your book lives up to your expectations. Again, this isn’t compulsory, Every serious author orders at least one proof copy before publishing their book to perform one final, extensive quality control. That’s why printing is often brought up when discussing the cost of publishing a book.
There are other good reasons to order a few copies of your book, however. You can send them to media outlets, influencers, and libraries, make your legal deposit or sell/give them away at book launches or other promotional events. You can even sell physical copies of your book directly to customers to make even more money, allowing you to pocket the difference. See our pricing calculator for more details.
As mentioned above, you can order copies of your own books on Bookmundo at attractive rates. Bulk discounts are also available starting from orders of 3 copies or more.
| 1 - 2 | 3 - 9 | 10 - 49 | 50 - 99 | 100 - 249 | 250 - 499 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
£7,49 Per book | £6,84 Per book | £6,31 Per book | £6,03 Per book | £5,78 Per book | £5,54 Per book |
Making the perfect book: hiring professionals
When choosing to self-publish your book, you can of course do everything yourself if keeping costs down is important to you. However, if you have big plans for your writing career and want to maximise your chances of breaking through to the mainstream, you need to make sure your book is perfect.
You can hire professional service providers to help you achieve this via our platform. They’ll be able to assist you with editing, layouts, cover design, formatting eBooks, and even marketing. These services do cost money of course, so it’s up to you to decide if you think it’s worth hiring a professional to help with your book.
Boosting your sales with marketing
Do you want to maximise your book sales? Then you’ll need to spend some time developing and executing a marketing plan. Your book won’t sell itself, and while you can undertake some marketing efforts without spending anything but time, your exertions will bear more fruit if you fertilise them with a little money.
It doesn’t have to get complicated; a book launch party is a great way to get the ball rolling for instance. Sending out review copies, printing promotional materials, running a few ads or doing giveaways on social media are fairly inexpensive ways to create a buzz.
Once you’ve published your book on our platform, you’ll be able to access some useful promotional tools to get started. For example, you’ll be able to create and post content on various social media channels (including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn) directly from your Bookmundo account!
Royalties: payments and taxes
As soon as your book is sold, you’ll start making money. You’ll be able to review your sales and earned royalties in your account, under ‘sales overview’. We pay out royalties monthly, as long as the amount exceeds £10. We’ll take care of any tax payments related to the actual sale, but if your book sales end up generating significant income, you’ll need to include this in your tax statements. If you get to this stage, keep in mind that the money you’ve invested in the success of your book could potentially be tax-deductible; this may include any books you’ve bought to resell, any services you’ve bought to improve your book, promotional material etc.
So what does it actually cost to publish your book?
In conclusion, it’s entirely possible to publish your book for free; you’ll be doing everything yourself, and selling via your digital storefront, our webshop, and directly via social media or in person. Your margins will be at their highest this way.
However, in most cases, you will likely incur some costs, depending on what your goals are. For example, we strongly recommend ordering a proof copy of your book before publishing, to make sure it looks the way you want it to and that there are no typos or other mistakes you missed while working on your book. Furthermore, if you’re serious about your writing career, it’s likely you’ll need an editor or other professionals to consistently ensure the level of quality readers are used to when buying books.
The good thing is that you alone decide how much you want to invest in your book, and we encourage you to approach publication the way that works best for you.