Books
How do you fund a book and self publish it?
Budget editing, the cover, layout and the print run, set a goal your readers can fill, and offer signed copies and dedications. No publisher needed.
Short answer
Price what turns a manuscript into a book in readers' hands: editing, proofreading, the cover, layout, the print run and postage. Set a goal that covers it, and offer rewards a reader values, like the ebook before publication, a signed first edition or their name in the acknowledgements. Launch with the draft finished and a chapter people can read. If the goal is met you claim the funds and pay the printer; if not, every backer takes their pledge back.
Key facts
- No publisher and no company needed: sign up with email or Google, with no approval queue.
- One campaign for one book: a story, a goal, a deadline and up to five reward tiers.
- Backers get copies and extras, never a share of sales or any financial return.
- All or nothing: pledges wait in escrow until the deadline.
- Readers who share your link can earn up to 18.5% of each pledge they bring in, the share you set.
What does it cost to self publish a book?
Editing and printing are the big lines. The rest is smaller, but it adds up.
- Editing: a structural edit, then a copy edit.
- Proofreading: a last read for typos, on the laid out pages.
- Cover: the design, plus an illustration or a photo if you need one.
- Layout: setting the text for print, and again for the ebook.
- Printing: priced per copy, and cheaper per copy as the run grows.
- ISBN and barcode: if you want the book sold in bookshops.
- Postage: books are heavy, so every copy you send has a real cost.
Ask the printer for prices at two or three run sizes. That one quote tells you how much a bigger campaign saves on each copy.
How big should the goal be?
Enough to print and send every copy you promise, with a margin. Say a novel of about 250 pages:
Editing $800; proofreading $300; cover $400; layout $300; 300 copies at $5 each, $1,500; mailers and postage $600. That is $3,900, so a goal of about $4,200 leaves room for fees.
Check it the other way round too: $4,200 is 140 readers pledging $30 on average. The print run is the line you can move. Budget the goal for a small run, and order more copies once you see how many backers you have.
What rewards work for a book?
The book first, then the things that make a copy personal:
- The ebook before the print edition ships.
- A signed first edition.
- A dedication written to the backer inside the cover.
- Their name in the acknowledgements.
- Two copies, one to give away.
- A reading or a video call with their book club.
- A character named after them, for the top tier.
The ebook costs almost nothing to deliver, so make it the entry tier, at $10 or above. Every printed tier carries postage, so price it in. The reward tier planner shows what each tier leaves you after costs.
Does the book need to be finished first?
Close to it. Backers are paying for a book they'll hold soon, so a finished draft makes the promise believable and the delivery date honest.
Put the first chapter, or a few pages, in the campaign story so people can read your voice. Set the deadline before the printer needs paying, and count the editing, printing and posting weeks when you promise a delivery month. How to write a crowdfunding pitch helps with the story itself.
Who backs a self published book?
Readers who already know you or your subject. A local history finds its town; a cookbook finds the people who cook from your posts; a novel finds the readers of your newsletter.
Ask your mailing list, your writing group, your local bookshop and the library. Then switch on the share reward: you set it from nothing up to 18.5% of each pledge, paid by the program to whoever shared the link, in the same transaction. A book club that posts it earns from the copies it brings.
What does CoFunders charge?
Writing and previewing a campaign is free. Opening it costs $5 on the free plan, and each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99. The share reward you set comes out of the pledge too.
The percentage fee on a pledge follows the plan of the account making it. It's taken when the pledge is made, so it isn't returned if the campaign misses its goal. Paid plans aren't on sale today, so the published fee is the free plan's fee.
Every fee is on the pricing page.
What if the goal is missed?
If the goal isn't met by the deadline, you take your pledge back from escrow with one tap, and nobody has to approve it. What comes back is the amount held for you: your pledge minus the fees taken when you backed (the platform fee, the flat fee, any tip and any share reward the campaign pays).
For an author, that means nobody pays for a print run that can't happen. Try again with the ebook first, and print once its readers ask for paper.
How do you start?
Start with a draft while you finish the edit: writing and previewing it costs nothing.
- Sign up in the app with email or Google.
- Write the story of the book, with an excerpt, the goal, the deadline and the rewards.
- Set the share reward and publish.
- Send the link to your mailing list first, then to your bookshop and writing group.
Everything you can fund has a guide for each kind of project, the goal planner checks your sums, and every other question is in the answers.