The Dunedin City Council spent more than $12,000 to prepare the bid to become a Unesco Creative City of Literature.
A Official Information Act request revealed $11,540 was spent on designing, developing and building the website www.cityofliterature.co.nz and another $480 was spent on website hosting costs.
A council spokeswoman said most of the work to prepare the bid was completed voluntarily.
On Monday, Dunedin was named one of four newly designated Cities of Literature - the others were Granada, in Spain, Heidelberg, in Germany, and Prague, in the Czech Republic.
They join existing Cities of Literature Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin, Reykjavik, Norwich and Krakow.
*The names of A.P.Gaskell and Cilla McQueen were missing from Dunedin's Writers Walk list published in yesterday's Otago Daily Times.
