Once you have completed your book and have decided that self-publishing is the route you want to take, make sure that you have your book professionally edited. Even if you are a good editor and proofreader on your own, it is useful to have another set of eyes look at your text to catch any errors that you might have missed. In addition, a good editor can help you to improve the quality of your writing. The cheapest way to get your book edited is to ask a friend, but you can also seek professional help for editing. The website Elance provides opportunities for writers to find editors looking for jobs, and the prices can vary based on the editor's skills. Some editors ask for $15 an hour, while others go all the way of to $50. The Independent Editors Group provides editing services and have worked with major authors such as John Updike. They do not provide information about pricing on their website.
It's also important to put thought into your book design, particularly cover design, which can affect your ability to sell copies. You can make your own designs using Adobe Photoshop and other image manipulating programs but remember not to infringe on copyright by using images without permission. The best option is to use your own photographs or images. You can also opt to use the creative services offered by some print-on-demand and self-printing companies. Lulu.com, iUniverse and Xlibris all provide some kind of design consultation within their paid packages. In addition, Createspace offers design packages for authors starting at $169.
Since most self-published books do not get distribution to bookstores, you will need to do your own marketing. Aim for marketing yourself in at least five different markets so that if one doesn't work, you can still have a steady stream of self-promotion through another market. Free marketing is your first option. Use social websites such as Twitter and Tumblr to advertise your book and find readers. For a fee, you can use Facebook advertising, which allows you to set your own budget for your advertising campaign. Google adwords also allows you to advertise your book through Google search words at a price that you set. Another good option is to send your book as a free review copy to bloggers and book reviewers in local newspapers. This can get you some buzz, though it's difficult to guarantee that your book will actually be chosen for review.
There are several options for getting your self-published book out into the world in a book form or an e-book form. The cheapest options is in publishing a pdf of your book as-is without any professional design, and in many cases, you can publish your book completely for free. Scribd offers authors the opportunity to directly upload their documents and share them for free or for sale. Scribd provides step-by-step instructions for how authors can upload their documents for free and sell them as-is as a downloadable pdf. Lulu.com also offers a completely free option for writers to upload a PDF and sell as-is without any additional fees. Lulu also offers paid packages which provide design, editing and marketing services. Prices for these services vary from around $700 and up. iUniverse offers authors publishing packages from $600 and up, while Xlibris offers programs from $500 dollars and up.