Worth the money, an open book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

What is the best money you've ever spent in your writing endeavors? What's the worst?

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Up until recently, my work was traditionally published, so I didn't really spend money on the big things like editing, books covers, formatting, etc. All that was on the publisher. 

 So, I mostly spent money on infrastructure for events (tables, tents, banners, swag) and publicity. In that vein, the best thing I did was hiring an artist to make graphic versions of my characters that I could use for publicity. I've got more than my money's worth using them for social media posts, advertisting, etc. 

4 memes I made using the images by Charles C. Dowd

 

The worst/least useful was review services. They either didn't deliver, or what they delivered disappointed. And I felt skeezy for doing it, sort of shady.  

Logo from a useful YouTube channel about indie publishing

 

Now I'm working on my first indie projects, and editing is the best thing I'm spending money on. I have good critique partners, so I prepare a relatively clean manuscript, but a fresh pair of well-trained eyes at the end will catch all those little inconsistencies and unclear moments that you can no longer see because you're too close to the project. Definitely money well spent. 

I've also spent money on book covers, ISBNs, and software. So far, all of this feels worthwhile. My "sunk cost" will definitely be higher at the outset to produce indie books, but making all the decisions myslef has been exciting and I think I'll be happy at the end. We'll find out when I get there I guess :-)

So, on the indie end, I don't have any expenses I regret. I'm sure they will come, but they haven't found me quite yet.  

 How about you? If you write, what have you been spending your publishing dollars on? Any praise or regrets?  If you read, what kind of publishing things seem worth spending money on from your perspective? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.