Self publishing is going to cost you. One of the main costs is time. You’re going to be writing, re writing and at the same time looking for all the relevent people like editors, illustrators, designers, printers, PR agency who will help you get your dream out. These people unfortunately don’t work for free so that is the other cost-financial.
Once I started to make inroads with my contacts and realised in which direction I was heading I started to treat it like a business. The creative part-the writing- was 90% complete, there were still to be more rewriting but the majority of it had been put to bed.
The book that I was writing- The Magic that’s Ours was going to be a 36 page, A4 landscape full colour children’s book. The cost of the layout and design was a major cost-something I couldn’t afford. As I knew the designer well and I’m a professional photographer we negotiated a trade. Instead of me paying for design and sample prints, I would take photographs for the company in lieu of payment.
Just like every other business, negotiated wherever possible.