Pretend this is one of those middle school word problems … Ready? Good. Here we go …
To write a book, you need only pen and paper—access to a word processor is nice, but it is not necessary. Oh, snap. I forgot, momentarily, about The Diving Bell and the Butterfly—“written” not by hand but by mind and sheer determination. Let’s for the sake of this post and my middle school word problem, assume no one else will achieve such an impressive feat and agree that a pen and paper are needed to write a book for most. OK? OK. Moving on.
Most people write about 10 words a line and a college ruled piece of paper has 33 lines. It is, therefore, safe to assume that one sheet has around 330 words on it … keep reading, I am going somewhere with this …
The average mainstream adult fiction novel is around 75,000 words, which means you need 227 pieces of paper assuming you are only writing on one side. The price of a package of paper is about $4 and it comes with 250 sheets so you are allowed 23 pages of mistakes.
The price for a container of 24 pre-sharpened pencils—I like pencils—is $1. Oh, and a pencil sharpener is $9, yes, you are splurging for the electronic kind.
So … how much did it cost to write your book? Anyone??
The good news is, it’s less than a takeout pizza, but now for the bad news. Unless you have a super high-limit credit card or a whole bunch of cash to toss toward your yet unsubstantiated dreams, you are going to have to pick and choose from a number of essential elements that can make or break your novel’s publishing success … and if you are lucky enough to choose them all, then you have a much larger budget for discretionary spending than most writers because bottom line, if you do the requisite marketing for your book, you will need a solid $7,000 (and that’s ultra conservative) to invest and if you don’t believe me, do the research yourself—I’m telling you, half of that will go to editing alone and you still need a jacket, social media, sample book copies, and more editing not to mention a Kirkus review … the list goes on.
Of course, you could write that book, price it right, have success and your initial investment of … wait for it … drum roll … for those who didn’t complete the word problem … $14 will be well spent, even less if you use a computer, which, I suppose most everyone does.
Just a little math fun and something to think about for all you writers out there trying to write your first book and trying to maneuver your way through the ins and outs of the indie publishing world.
Cover image created with Google AI.
DISCLAIMER: I’m a writer and an editor. And I try my best to make sure every post is articulate and free from errors. However, being that I edit my own work—and it’s next to impossible to properly edit your own work—I admit, occasionally there may be an error or two I miss. But doing so doesn’t make me an idiot so don’t be mean. Just smile, pat yourself on the back for finding an error and be glad you’re not the only one who makes mistakes sometimes … xoxox
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