How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish A Children's Book? 80 Authors Share Their Budgets

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One of the most common questions we get here at At Home Author is “How much does it cost to publish a children's book?” 

Of course, the first thing we always clarify is that if you are submitting to traditional publishers or agents, it won’t cost you a penny.  If a so-called “publisher” is asking you for money, that’s a vanity press.  Learn more about that here. 

But, if you want to SELF-PUBLISH a children’s picture book, then YOU are the publisher, and you are going to have to invest some money to create a quality product.  So, how much should you expect to invest? 

The real answer is…it depends on a lot of different factors…and there is a WIDE range.  I know authors who have self-published their book for just a few hundred dollars, and others who have spent thousands.  

But, let’s face it.  Sometimes you just want a ballpark figure.  A realistic estimate.  “It depends” is annoying. 

So, in an effort to give you some hard numbers, I surveyed 80+ authors who have self-published a children’s picture book in the past few years.  

How much does it cost to self publish a children's book?

This wasn’t a scientific study.  This was a Google form created out of frustration and the feeling that if I heard, “it depends” one more time, my head was going to explode. I shared it in various Facebook groups and self-publishing circles, and all the information was self-reported by the authors.  

Despite the lack of scientific rigor, I’ll share the results here, along with some important caveats and additional tips, in the hopes that if you are just starting out, this data might give you a better idea of how much it costs to self publish a children's book. 

I focused my questions on the most common big expenses for self-published authors - not every possible expense.  I started with editing because EDITING ALWAYS COMES FIRST!

Question #1: Editing Costs

The survey asked:

“How much did you pay, in total, for manuscript editing - developmental, line, and proofreading?” 

The results on this one were a little bit scary - at least to me.

I was SHOCKED to see that almost a quarter of the authors surveyed didn’t pay for editing - at all.  I’m hoping, maybe they traded services with a pro?  But in reality I’m betting most of that group simply had a teacher or writer friend who’s “really good with grammar” edit their manuscript for them.  

This hurts my editor heart!  So many authors simply don’t know what they don’t know and a professional editor can help you take a good idea and make sure it reaches its full potential.  More about that in the video below.

However, as you can see, most authors did have the good sense to hire a professional editor, and the most common cost was between $100-499.  I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable estimate from my experience, and WELL WORTH the investment. 

Question #2:  Illustration Costs

The survey asked:

“How much did you pay for the illustrations for your picture book?”

Professional illustrations are often the most expensive part of self-publishing a children’s picture book, so I was prepared for these numbers to be intimidating.  

I was surprised at how many people self-illustrated!  (Maybe that’s just because I can’t draw a stick figure.) Kudos to all you artists out there!

But for the most part this one came out about where I expected. 

I always tell clients to plan for illustrations to cost between $3,000-5,000, and that was the most common answer here.  Followed closely by $1,000-3,000.

Now, if you’re planning out your self-publishing budget, there’s a big difference between $1,000 and $5,000.  So what’s the difference? 

The main differences between $1,000 illustrations and $5,000 illustrations are likely to be one or more of these three things:

• the country where the illustrator lives

• the use of AI or clip art

• and/or the illustrator's level of experience and expertise.

If you're looking to save money, and you don’t mind converting currency and dealing with language or time zone barriers, then there are talented artists all over the world, and I say…go for it! 

But you definitely don't want to work with an illustrator who uses AI or clip art, and when it comes to an artist’s level of experience I would also be a bit more cautious.  

Especially for new authors, it’s often worth it to pay more to work with someone with experience who can help you understand not just the illustration process, but the publishing process as a whole.  I’ve seen many first time authors working with first time illustrators who end up making costly mistakes because neither of them have done it before.  That's not to say that you should never work with someone new! Everyone has to start somewhere! But paying more to work with an experienced professional, is probably worth it for newbies, in my opinion.  

Overall, I think the takeaway here is that you CAN get illustrations for around $1,000, but keep in mind that you often get what you pay for. 

Question #3: Formatting and Design Costs

The survey asked:

“How much did you pay for formatting and/or book design?  This includes formatting for print, interior page design and layout, ebook formatting, cover design, etc.”

I made a mistake on this one and forgot to include an option that read, “I did it myself!”  (Again, probably because I am not techie and people who can DIY things like this blow my mind.)  My bad there.  But here are the results.

This was pretty much what I expected, although the tie between the “over $1,000” category and the “Less than $100” category was interesting.  I’d love to put some of the books from those two categories side-by-side and see if I can tell the difference!

Another takeaway here is not to assume your illustrator can do all the design and formatting for you.  Many can, but not all.  So make sure you ask up front and plan accordingly. 

Question #4:  Printing Costs

I knew this one would have a wide range of answers due to the popularity of print-on-demand (POD) publishing.  And I didn’t want to ask authors to share their “total” printing costs because obviously that would depend on how many books were ordered. 

So, here was the question:

“How much did you pay up-front for printing?  (per book)  Please give the "landed" price, with costs for shipping, tariffs, etc. included.”

Again, this wasn’t a scientific study…so I wasn’t worried about these estimates being exact.  

As noted above, many authors are using print-on-demand, so that wasn’t surprising to me.  Print on demand services like KDP and IngramSpark are a great way to reduce costs when you’re just starting out.  But, take careful note of the cut that's kept by printer and how that will impact your profit per book.

While offset printing might provide lower cost per book, keep in mind that the lower the cost per book, the more copies you'll need to order from the printer, so the bigger the investment overall.  So, even though $2-4 per book sounds affordable, to get that price you’ll need to order thousands of copies up front.  🤑

I do think this chart is a good reminder that when it comes to business discussions that take place in Facebook groups, we have to keep in mind that profit margins are SO DIFFERENT for each author depending on their printing costs.  What works for one person may not work for another, so we have to be careful when giving advice. 

The Final Question

Of course, I wrapped things up with an open ended question #5 that read,

“Did you have any additional costs to publish your book?  Please list them here!”

Now, as I said, I knew I hadn’t included all the costs involved with self-publishing.  I just wanted to get a ballpark figure for the BIGGEST and MOST COMMON costs. 

But, the answers to this final question are a great reminder that the information above is NOT comprehensive, and there will ALWAYS be other costs you didn’t think about when you started!  Build some room into your budget for those surprises! 

Here are some of the things that were mentioned: 

• Marketing Costs - ads, publicists, website, etc.

• Event materials - tablecloths, tents, etc. 

• ISBN, copyright, and business registration fees

• Shipping supplies (to ship books to customers)

• Software (Procreate, Adobe, Publisher Rocket, etc.)

• Hardware (new laptop, Ipad, etc.)

• Courses and coaching

• Translations and audio book creation

One Concerning Comment

There was one comment on #5 that made me wish I had collected the author’s email addresses so I could reach out with advice.  

It read,

“You have to pay a consultant fee to self publish your book.”

If you are the person who wrote this, and you're reading this post, please know that this is absolutely NOT true!  The beauty of self-publishing is that you are in control and you don’t need anyone’s permission to access the self-publishing ecosystem.  You can do it all yourself! 

There are lots of people out there willing to help you along the way, and it’s well worth it to take a course, (like our Profitable Picture Books Course!) or book an hour or two with an expert to save yourself time and energy. 

But, it’s not required!

The Bottom Line

Sometimes instead of broad generalizations provided by Google, we just want to hear some actual numbers from real authors who've been there. I hope this post did that!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also want to check out our Author Success Stories - a series of blog posts where we interview self-published authors about their publishing experience and ask them to share real numbers about their investment and sales.

And if you’re looking for guidance on your self-publishing journey, come join At Home Author’s Profitable Picture Books Program.  We’ve helped hundreds of authors navigate their publishing journey without the overwhelm, and we’d love to help you too!