Cost of Publishing a Book

I am not a famous Professor who publishes his book with University Presses or some well know established publishers with a handsome royalty to boot. I am serving in this little corner of the earth with my target audience the Malay speaking church in Sabah and in Malaysia of about 1 million strong if you include the Catholics. In fact, the indigenous church in East Malaysia probably make up at least 50% of the whole Malaysian church. In Sabah, my home state, the statistics tell me that 90% of Sabah's Christian community speaks and reads only Malay. It is the highest proportion of Malay speaking Christians in Malaysia as many indigenous Christians in Sarawak can still read and speak English. Hence. my burden for the past 4 or 5 years is to write Malay books for Malay readers because they can't read in English and Indonesian which is a sister language to Malay or Bahasa Melayu is getting further from the pure original Malay of Malaysia. But publishing is costly affair. I have to stop work to write. 

There is no way I could serve in a Seminary or a church and do writing at the same time. It is sad really that we are far behind Western Universities or Colleges that encourage faculty members to write and publish. I remember a number of my Professors taught only one or two subjects a Semester so that they could focus on research and publication and every three years they have a mini sabbatical of three months to one semester to devote solely on research. And after six years, most professors get a full year paid sabbatical. 

As for me, I have to pay for everything and it is a work of faith and a labour of love. If I do not have an income, it means I am living on my savings while I work on my book full-time. I have done it three times before in 2014, 2019 and the whole of 2022 until June 2023, when I worked on my books and praise be to God that five books had been published in that time. But it is costly. After 5 plus years with my MacBook Pro bought at Changi Airport (early 2008) through a gift from a friend, I had to buy computers last year to continue writing. Computers and tech are not cheap and I paid for everything out of my pockets. 

So it is a work of faith. When I order 500 books to be printed for say, RM8,000.00 for cost of printing, I need to sell 200 books just to make even on the cost of printing not including the tools I need to write and work until a final manuscript is ready to be printed. Praise be to God that the two of my most recent books already sold more than 250 copies, Galatians and the Triune God in Malay. At least I am not making a loss in terms of printing cost but when I work on my books I am not earning any fixed income which is a loss I incur for Christ, for my gain is readers getting spiritual sustenance through the books they read and for that I am content and thankful to God.