Since I’m on this great self-pub journey with absolutely no savings or income to utilize, there’s a constant struggle to gauge what is a worthwhile expense and what isn’t. How much can I really afford to pay on this book cover? Since I can only muster up so much cash, should I do it myself and pour all of that into source files or hire someone else with more skills but higher rates for everything? Can I afford a line editor? Ads?

All of those questions and more swirl around in my head every day. If I’m struggling with these questions, probably someone else out there is struggling just as hard, confused and frustrated by the wealth of information urging indie authors to SPEND HERE. Welcome then, to the “When To Pay, When Not To Pay” series on Blargle Splect outlining some of the places I’ve decided to invest my limited financial resources and why.

Advertising

Time for another in my When To Pay, When Not To Pay series. This particular post has been a long time coming, mostly because I had to try out a bunch of things and ask a bunch of people what their thoughts are on the whole mess.

Myths

One of the biggest things to watch out for in this self publishing journey is the myths that’ll trip you up and potentially waste some of your precious precious currency. Like this old hat: you’ve got to spend money to make money.

On the one hand, yes you do. You’re going to need a computer and an internet connection in order to create and upload an ebook, both of which will cost you money. On the other hand, when it comes to advertising it’s not at all true. Some of the people I talked to and the research I did, suggested that less than a %1 return on your investment was acceptable when it comes to advertising.

No, spending money without any hope of returns on that money – is not an acceptable business practice.

Now due to my frail health, I’ve been somewhat forced to split this post up over the whole week. Please come back Thursday for my final conclusions on When To Pay, When Not To Pay: Advertizing.