OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
To be an independent author means taking your book project seriously. But most of us haven't been in publishing for our whole careers, so it's inevitable that we make mistakes along the way.
Mistakes aren't bad either. They are the human way to improve and learn. But it helps if we can help each other!
I'm not perfect and I continue to learn along the writer's journey but here are the worst mistakes I have made and seen others doing too. I'd love to hear from you in the comments about your mistakes as by sharing, we can all improve together.
(1) Not spending enough time learning about you, your book and your audience
You need to get to know yourself, as well as understand the goals for your book and the needs and expectations of your audience. If you don't understand your goals, how will you know what path to follow and whether you are successful or not?
For example,
- Know yourself. If your dream is to have your book in every physical bookstore and airport, then you should be looking at traditional publishing. If you just want to reach readers, go ebook only with a low price or free. If you want to make income, make sure you have other products behind the book.
- Know your book and your genre. If you are writing historical romance, you should be reading that type of book and understanding what the audience look for and then making sure your book fits the niche – or look for another niche
- Know yourself. Are you in this for the long haul or is this one book everything to you?
There are lots more questions to ask yourself. The key is to spend time reflecting and writing around these topics which will really help shape your publishing decisions.
(2) Not getting a professional editor
The #1 criticism of self-published books is that they are not professional enough and I believe quality is in direct proportion to the amount of editing you have. Seriously.
I really think that every writer needs an editor.
If you get a professional editor, and take their advice, your book will improve beyond anything you could imagine. I'll go further and say you need two editors when you're starting out – a developmental one for the structure of the book, and a copy-editor for the line detail and cleanup.
(3) Not getting professional book cover design
As above, we want our books to stand alongside traditionally published books and have the same level of quality. Unless you are already a designer specializing in books, then I recommend you hire someone. Here's a list of book cover designers.
If you want to DIY, then there's a tutorial here on how to make your own cover on MS Word. But remember to compare your book to the Top 100 books in your chosen category and make sure yours is just as good.
(4) Doing a print run without having a distribution deal
This was one of my big mistakes and I still hear of people doing it. Consider carefully whether you really want to publish a print book. If you do, brilliant. For the best result, hire a book designer and go with print on demand as the first option. You can order a few copies at cost to give to people.
But do you need to do a print run locally and have thousands of books delivered to your door?
This is important as you will have to pay in advance for printing. You'll also have to store them and ship them if you sell from your website.
Yes, it works out cheaper per book if you sell them all but are you going to sell them all? Do you have a distribution channel in place? e.g. a speaking platform or a guaranteed bookstore?
See the picture on the right? That's me in 2008 with way too many books that I didn't sell, before I discovered print on demand. They mostly ended up the landfill. Don't make this mistake.
If you need help with self-publishing, then invest in Choosing a Self-Publishing Service by the Alliance of Independent Authors which will save you time, money and heartache on your journey.
(5) Paying way too much for services you can do yourself with a little education
I still get emails from people who have paid $10,000 for an author services package and received 100 books as well as losing the rights. Or people who have paid $5000 for their author website without knowing how to update it themselves. [Here's my tutorial for how you can build your own author website in 30 mins.]
I know most authors aren't that interested in technology, but it is worth a little short term pain to empower yourself with some knowledge and save yourself a lot of money in the process. For example, if you just have a plain text novel, pay $49 for Scrivener and do it yourself. Then you can change the files whenever you like.
It's fine to pay professionals for a service but make sure you know:
a) why you need it
b) how things will work in the future e.g. changing things, which is 100% likely to happen
c) what your alternatives are
(Obviously I don't mean you should scrimp on editing or cover design but shop around and get the best deal for you and the right person for the job!)
(6) Doing no marketing at all, or getting shiny object syndrome
When I launched my first book, I only knew about offline marketing and mainstream media. I made it onto Australian national TV and radio and still sold no books. That's when I decided to learn about online marketing. Life has been a lot better since!
Many authors think marketing involves bookmarks or book signings but these are probably the least effective forms of marketing.
Other people get into blogging, then Twitter, then Pinterest, Facebook, podcasting, video etc all in the same week and then burn out with exhaustion and decide that marketing doesn't work.
This is shiny object syndrome – jumping onto the newest, latest thing without giving the last thing a chance to work.
My advice here is to give something a try for a few months of concerted effort before you expand. I started with a year of blogging, then moved into Twitter and podcasting, later I went with Facebook and video. These are my core marketing and platform building activities but they all took time to build.
Find what you enjoy and give it some time to work.
(7) Focusing everything into one book
When my first novel, Stone of Fire, came out, I was entirely focused on marketing it and making my new fiction career work. I heard the pros say you need more than one book but I was sure I could make it successful.
I put everything into the launch and utilized the large network I had build up over years online, but my initial sales weren’t enough to really launch any kind of career. Fast forward a few years and I have a lot of books and the income is substantial. I'm now one of those (annoying) people who preach that the best marketing is writing another book!
I definitely believe that you need to do some marketing to get the sales rolling, to gain initial reviews and build your platform for the long-term, but you also need to get writing.
The long haul career of a pro-writer involves always working on the next book.
Celebrating the last, but getting on with the next. This is our passion, but also our job. Obsessing over marketing one book isn’t as important as getting on with the next.
I hope my mistakes stop you from making the same ones!
I'd love to hear your comments. Do you agree with these mistakes and what else can you add?
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1 2 3 … 11 Next »That's great stuff. And great photos to back it up. How many books DID you have printed in that 2008 run?
Number 5 is a sad fact. I've seen up close what some of the unscrupulous services will do to an author with stars in his eyes. Saw an older fellow with a war biography clean out his savings for some glitzy "marketing package." It was essentially a few bookmarks, a cheesy hosted website and a bunch of things most of us wouldn't want even for free. Real sad. The experience broke him, financially and otherwise.
Excellent tips. I'm really starting to dig this site.
That would have been 2000 books Mark - and I hang my head in shame :) I was so hopeful and enthusiastic. Seriously, I WISH someone had told me about print on demand. That one mistake was responsible for this site really. I couldn't believe what an idiot I had been later.
I'm glad you 'dig' the site as well :)
As usual, some great points, Joanna
In the last month or so i've decided getting an editor (probably two like you say) is an absolute MUST. Quite frankly i do not trust me own editing and know i have so much to learn when it comes to writing technique and grammar.
Not only will an editor help my book, but hopefully act as a tutorial too
Matt (Turndog Millionaire)
Absolutely Matt. I think this is the key to quality books & I really want indies to have an excellent product.
Hi Joanna.
You were the first person to get me into blogging and I've been having a ball for nearly 4 years now. Thank you. You inspire me.
Great post. I am going to try the traditional publishing route when I get my novel/s polished, but am planning an e-book of flash fiction which I love to write (and write each fortnight for an online writing group I founded, RomanticFridayWriters.) Many of my blogger friends have e-published and some have been caught by unscrupulous vendors. I am going to point them to this post and I'm reading it carefully myself and checking out the links before I go much further.
Have a great week.
Denise
Fantastic Denise! I'm so glad to hear I inspired you :) and great to hear you will be experimenting with publishing approaches. I like this hybrid model idea as well. It's good to know all your options.
What a great name for your writing group. I love it. Could you share more about it?
You make some interesting points here, Joanna. I agree wholeheartedly, especially about the need for a copy editor.
I also think that ebooks need to be carefully formatted on the inside, with appropriate indentation for paragraphs, line spacing, etc. I've seen a fair few shoddily formatted books over the last few months, and it ruins the experience of reading the story.
Thanks for the post,
Ken
Thanks Ken - that's a good point. I have started doing my own now and checking it all very carefully. I think you also see some shoddy work from traditional publishers who clearly aren't checking their product! All authors publishing ebooks should have a Kindle at least to check the formatting for sales.
I agree! Traditional publishers make some terrible mistakes too Apart from the formatting I once read a novel by a very established author where a character's name changed halfway through the book, and then a few pages later, changed back again!!
Did anybody even copy edit that book? I wondered.
Joanna,
You always give great advice, and I am grateful. I am in the learning/building phase, and this post reinforces my belief that is the best approach for me - rather than jumping in and making needless and costly mistakes. Please keep the advice coming.
Just FYI: When I click on the link for your Author 2.0, no sign-up box appears below. It may just be my PC, or there may be a broken link.
Thank you for fixed the Author 2.o sign-up so quickly!
I've actually been away so it must have self-resolved! Little glitch in the matrix perhaps...
You make some terrific points here! One other problem with ordering too many books at once is that they can be damaged by humidity. Most publishers store their books in climate-controlled environments. No one's basement or attic has this!! Print-on-demand is the ONLY way to go!!!!
very good point Daphne - so even people with established speaking platforms should be looking at smaller print runs for storage reasons.
Great article--but I do have two things to add, if you don't mind.
I'm a writer and a reviewer--so I read a LOT. I mean--at least a book a day--it's important if you're a writer to be a READER. Read the genre you write--and read the NEW authors in the Big 6. Many forget that established authors can get away with things that a new author simply can't. This is important especially if you self publish.
Another thing is know your topic. I've found countless books with references to firearms of some sort. Almost ALL of them make mistakes regarding handguns. The most common is confusing a pistol and a revolver. To know if you're correct, research--but even easier, remember what revolve means--something goes around--as the cylinder in a .38.
I'd highly recommend CreateSpace for beginning with print books. You can pay to be in their distribution channels. My own book is only $3.99 in print on Amazon. Make it affordable for the reader.
Again--good article
Thanks Hope. Reading is indeed critical. I don't really understand someone wanting to write if they aren't a reader. Seems crazy!
I'll actually be doing an interview soon on guns, so I also get that point. Thanks for sharing.
Fantastic post, Joanna. Very lucid, full of common sense and born out of personal experience.
Great points here, Joanna. The marketing part is the tough one...a balancing act, for sure. I'm working at putting myself in a position to write more efficiently and a little faster. I spent a year learning a lot and am hoping to self publish my short story (as a promo for my novel) within a month. Then the novel should be out sometime during the summer as the first of a trilogy. I also am doing a short story anthology. Hopefully having 3 books out there by the end of the year will be a good start toward decent sales figures.
Always something to learn here...thanks for sharing!
Sounds like a great plan Marcia. I need a few more books up too...
Joanna, I jist found your blog on Twitter thanks to your clever post title :-) I am your new follower.
Learning from our past mistakes is a great way to go, but learning from the others' errors is even better. So thank you for sharing your experiences! I am saving your post and sharing it with my writer-friends.
Hi Angela, welcome to the blog and I'm glad the headline did its job! I love to share lessons here - as we're all on the writer's journey - just at different points :)