There’s an old saying among project management circles that a project should be delivered on time, on budget and on scope. In reality you should pick two. Nevertheless, it’s good to gather an idea of what a project is likely to cost before you begin.
As I outlined in my Introduction to Content Marketing report, one of the attractions of content production as a form of marketing is the barrier to entry is acceptably low. Even if the cost of content is in line with other forms of marketing, you don’t need to commit a large amount of cost and resources to get quality results. The same can be said of ebooks. While they do require more time and resources compared with something simple like a blog post, the cost to produce one is not unreasonable for a mature marketing organisation.
As always, the final amount spent will vary depending on the extravagance of the desired outcome, but generally speaking the costs for this type of ebook project can be broken down as follows.
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When dealing with a number of suppliers for an ebook project it is also a good idea to keep an eye on the amount of time in-house staff spend working it, including dealing with third-parties. This is difficult to quantify for many organisations, however, good suppliers won’t simply work to an hourly rate (or agreed fee), but work with you in a business capacity to ensure the best outcome is achieved. Make sure all stakeholders have skin in the game!