There is no single answer to this question as it will depend on the route you take for self-publishing. But here are some points on the pricing scale:
- Free: if you do all of the writing, editing, formatting, design and marketing yourself, you can self-publish a book for free. Amazon’s KDP self-publishing platform is free to use. Its main rival, IngramSpark, has small charges for setting up a book (usually around $50) but these can often be avoided using readily available discount codes.
- A few hundred dollars/pounds: if you only outsource parts of the process you are not comfortable with taking on, or you have friends with the right skills who can help, you could produce your book for under $1000/£1000.
- A few thousand dollars/pounds: you can usually find a complete service from draft to publication at this price, where all aspects of professional book production are done for you, although marketing help would often cost extra.
- Several thousand dollars/pounds: the most expensive services will take on everything that a traditional publisher would (including printing stock, marketing your book and possibly offering a sales outlet), but funded by you.
Tens of thousands of dollars/pounds: if you are not confident with the initial writing of a book based on your own ideas, you can hire a ghostwriter to do it for you, and this would typically be part of the most expensive options.
It all comes down to your own confidence as well as your budget, and of course how professional you want you book to be.