Blog
Publishing guides for Australian authors
The questions authors ask us most, answered properly and without a sales pitch. Figures, timings and the parts other companies leave out.
Make the reading practical
Turn a useful idea into your next step
Choose the question you are working through, then explore the part of publishing that answers it.
What does my draft need?
Understand the difference between a manuscript assessment, editing and proofreading.
Start with the manuscriptHow will my book reach readers?
Explore the production and distribution work between a finished draft and a retailer listing.
Follow the processHow should I plan the budget?
Compare what is included and the questions to ask before accepting a publishing quote.
Look at the packages
Guides
Start here
Four long reads that between them cover most of what a first-time author needs to decide.
Why we publish this
Why we publish the numbers
Most publishing companies will not put a figure on a web page. We think that is the main reason authors find the industry so hard to judge.
An author comparing four companies with no published prices cannot tell which is expensive, which is cheap, or which has quietly moved the cost into a royalty share. Publishing the ranges makes us easy to check, which is the point.
None of these guides is a pitch. They are what we would tell you on the phone, written down once so you can read it without speaking to anyone. If after reading them you want a figure for your own book, the read behind it is free: see our packages and prices or send the manuscript through the quote form.
- Real ranges, in Australian dollars, including GST
- Timings based on how long the work actually takes
- The uncomfortable answers included, not edited out
- Updated when retailer terms or printing costs change
Ground rules
What you will not find here
Four things we will not publish, however well they would perform.
No sales promises
No projections, no bestseller claims, no "authors like you earn" arithmetic.
No invented statistics
Every figure states what it counts, or it does not appear.
No gated downloads
Nothing here is behind an email form. Read it and leave if you want.
No stale advice
Retailer terms change. Each post carries the date it was last checked.
I read their cost guide at two in the morning, worked out my own budget from it, and arrived at the first call already knowing what I wanted to drop. It is the only publishing website I have found that puts the numbers where you can argue with them.
Arun Chandra
Author of Build, Then Tell · Editing and cover design
Put your next chapter in motion
Get a free read of your manuscript
An editor reads it and tells you what it needs, then you get a written scope and one itemised price. No cost, no obligation.