Kayla Hicks - Author Kayla Hicks - Author

Rushing to Publish Cost Me Three Thousand Dollars

2 min read

Before I knew more about publishing, I dumped three thousand dollars into CreateSpace to publish my book for me

Like numerous authors before me who wanted to publish, I was ready to hit the ground running.

So ready in fact that when I published my first book ten years ago, instead of researching the processes and how to publish, I paid a service three thousand dollars to help me make it happen. As happy as I was to have published my first book, I was unsure if it was sustainable to do it again.

Thankfully, my first book sold 250 copies. But when the sales stopped altogether and I only had 12 reviews to show for it, I was seriously questioning my decision.

Forward four years to when I slowly began my journey to growing my social media following, which admittedly wasn’t going well. But then one day, a guy named Ben McQueeney reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in joining his little X (Twitter) writers chat. And that was when it all changed.

After getting to know these other authors, some published and some not quite yet, they taught me something amazing — I could publish a book for nearly free.

That was when Ross Young, Ben, Peter James Martin, and some of the others taught me about:

  • Canva.com for marketing images and book covers

  • Reedsy.com for free book formatting

  • Finding cheaper editors

  • And how to upload my book to platforms like Amazon

If I took the time to learn it all, I could publish my books for nearly free. Something I needed more than I ever knew.

Needless to say, we authors are in this together and without the help of other seasoned authors, I would have never made it to where I am today.


For more about publishing, see:

I Lost Thousands Publishing My Book

Red Flags That Authors Should Be Aware of With Contracts

Publishing 101