What did your book actually cost?

The map’s prices come from rate cards, surveys and providers’ own pages. Yours come from your bank statement. Add what you spent and how long it took, and see straight away where you sit against the map’s cited ranges.

About three minutes. Rough amounts are fine, and every amount is optional except one.
Anonymous unless you tick a box below that needs your email.
Results are published on this page in aggregate once 100 writers have answered. Individual answers, names and emails are never published.

Your book

Is the book out?

Published Still in production

Which route?

Year it came out, or will

What kind of book?

Formats

Ebook Paperback Hardcover Audiobook

What you spent

US dollars, rough is fine. Put 0 if you did it yourself for free. Leave a line blank if it didn’t apply.

Developmental edit Big-picture notes on structure, plot or argument

Line or copy edit Sentence-level editing and consistency

Proofread Final check of the typeset pages

Cover design Designer, premade cover or illustration

Interior formatting or typesetting Including software you bought for it

ISBNs and barcodes

Publisher or package fees Hybrid, assisted or “partnership” publishing packages

Printing, proofs and author copies

Marketing and ads in the first year Ads, promotions, review services, launch costs

Audiobook production

Anything else Courses, coaching, legal, translation

Time and results

Months from finished draft to publication

Copies sold or downloaded in the first year

Would you take the same route again?

Yes No Not sure

One thing you wish you’d known before you started

Country

Stay in touch (optional)

Email me the results when they’re published Euwyn may email me one follow-up question about my answers I’m still working on a book and would like to hear from Hypercritica, the publishing company that maintains this map

Your numbers against the map

Thank you. You’re in the census.

Cost	You	The map’s cited range	Where you sit

Ranges are planning ranges from the map’s sources, not quotes. Spending above a range is not wrong by itself; it is worth knowing what the extra bought.

Know someone who published a book?

Every answer makes the results more useful for the next writer.

Check an offer Compare routes

How the census works

Answers are stored as one anonymous record each. An email is kept only if you tick a box that needs it, and only to do what you asked. Results are published here as ranges and medians by route once 100 writers have answered, with any group smaller than ten left out so no single answer can be picked out. Run by Euwyn Goh as part of Publishing Map. Questions or corrections: email Euwyn.