The Self-Publishing Budget Kit

What your book will cost to print and narrate, from the one number you already have: the page count a printer bills, a list price worked back from the royalty you want, every editing quote as a rate per word, narration at your narrator's own pace, and where a royalty share breaks even

iPotane's page count estimator is its most used tool, and it divides a word count by the words on a page. That counts running text. The book a printer bills also carries every chapter's part-empty last page, the blank pages before chapters that open on the right, and the front and back matter. Our audiobook length calculator assumes a typical narration pace, and editors quote per word or per a page that is usually not ours. Each tool answers its own question; none of them adds up a budget. The Self-Publishing Budget Kit does, in seven steps. On a 90,000-word novel in 28 chapters, the estimator's 328 pages become 368 printed pages, and a list price set from 328 pays $2.52 a copy instead of the $3.00 it was priced for. The kit prices each layout on its printed count, works the list price floor back from your royalty and plugs it back in, turns a per-page editing quote into a rate per word, prices narration from a timed audition (144 words a minute makes the example book 10h 25m, $2,605 at $250 an hour), and finds the 1,303 sales where a royalty share stops being cheaper than a fee up front. Every figure is computed from our own calculators, and every rate is an example: the kit names no printer or platform and quotes no current price, royalty rate or contract term. Half a page per chapter end is a labelled rule of thumb, the sales to repay a cost are arithmetic rather than a forecast, and it is not legal advice. Included: 24 printable pages with seven steps, a manuscript sheet, a layout and price sheet, a quote sheet, a budget sheet, a words-to-pages-and-hours table and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked from the word count you enter in our calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the pack, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Whole Book Rule: running text plus chapter ends, blank pages before right-hand openings and front and back matter, rounded up to a whole sheet
• The Sample Page Rule: words a page measured from three sample pages, and each layout priced on its printed count
• The Floor Rule: the lowest list price that pays your royalty, worked back from print cost, rounded up and plugged back in
• The Page Definition Rule: what a page means in an editing quote, and every quote as a rate per word
• The Narrator's Pace Rule: finished hours from a timed audition, and the fee they set
• The Break-Even Rule: the sales at which a royalty share stops being cheaper than a fee up front
• The One Count Rule: a budget run from one final word count, with the sales that repay each line
• Four working pages: a manuscript sheet, a layout and price sheet, a quote sheet and a budget sheet
• A words-to-pages-and-hours table (four page densities, manuscript pages, three narration paces) and a quickstart
• A personalised sheet worked from the word count, words a page and narration pace you enter in our calculators

The pack picks up where the free page count estimator leaves off. The estimator counts pages of running text; the pack adds each chapter’s part-empty last page, the blank pages before right-hand chapter openings and the front and back matter to reach the page count a printer bills, then works the list price floor back from the royalty you want. It turns editing quotes per page into a rate per word, prices narration from your narrator’s own pace with the audiobook length calculator, and finds where a royalty share breaks even against a fee up front. Every rate in it is an example; it names no printer or platform, predicts no sales, and is not legal advice.