Don’t make these 7 self-publishing mistakes
Posted By Sue Collier on November 3, 2011
There is a lot of information available on self-publishing today—there are blogs, books, and groups galore where authors can learn the ropes. Unfortunately, I still run in to authors who have made costly mistakes with their projects—blunders that could have been avoided.
Here are some of the most common:
1. Setting unrealistic goals. In spite of recent success stories in the news, you probably won’t become rich from your publishing venture. And you probably won’t sell a million copies of your book. Keep in mind that a book that sells 10,000 copies—whether self- or traditionally published—is generally considered to be a “success.” Another thing is that too many authors also believe that just putting their work out there is somehow going to result in sales, so they neglect putting together a marketing and promotions plan—which leads to the next item on the list.
2. Failing to think about marketing before the book is published. This is a biggie. I know that writing a book is no easy task, and authors tend to get caught up in the process before thinking of the next step, which is ensuring your book reaches your audience. I frequently speak with authors who have had their books out for months and have generated few sales. When I ask what they’ve been doing in terms of marketing, I often get a vague response. Or I have authors call me in September, asking to help them plan a promotions plan for the upcoming holiday season (which they should have started long before fall). It’s never too early to think about promoting your book and building your author platform. You’ll definitely want to have a plan in place well before the book’s publication date.
3. Not knowing your audience. Perhaps your book does have wide appeal, but not “everyone” is going to read it—even if you think they should. Also, consider your competition: Does your book offer something new and unique to potential readers?
4. Going the vanity press route and thinking you’ve self-published. If you pay a publisher to publish your book, and that publisher uses its own ISBN on your book, you have not self-published. And chances are, if you’ve got a vanity (or subsidy) publisher imprint on your book, reviewers won’t give it the time of day. Although the stigma is diminishing for true self-publishing (you purchase your own ISBN prefix under your own publishing company name and assign a number to your book), it still exists for vanity and subsidy publishing because editing is often nonexistent and interior and exterior designs are usually templates that look substandard. So if you hire a “self-publishing service,” make sure the end result is a well-done book that is truly self-published—by you.
5. Thinking you can do it all yourself. You can—but the end result will likely be an amateurish book that is riddled with errors. Even the best writers need good editors. And unless you are a book design professional, you want a pro to design your interior and exterior so they don’t scream “self-published.” Too many times I see authors in writers groups who post a book cover designed by themselves or a family member—and they almost always look it. Surround yourself with professionals who can help ensure your book reads well and looks good. (Get recommendations for professionals from other self-published authors whose books you like.)
6. Being stingy with review copies. Reviews are an essential part of any book promotions plan, so budget the cost of review copies in your original promo plan. I have worked with authors who were opposed to sending out “free” copies of their book—and the number of reviews they received suffered for it. It’s not unusual to hear some successful authors reveal they sent out a hundred or more review copies.
7. Not looking at self-publishing as a business. Once you’ve decided to self-publish, you are no longer just an author; you are also a business owner. And just as a commercial publisher looks upon any new book as an investment of its resources, so too do you.
Whole heartedly agree Sue. I’m surprised of the amount of writers and authors that come to me and the idea of review copies has not even entered their mind! Tackling it as a business is so important and I advise with the same ideal as you, but this is clearly a huge mindset shift for some people.
I’ve found that it helps for writers and authors to ‘chunk things down’ into small milestones. This helps with two key factors more important than the latest twitter hashtag.
1. Helps with confidence and the sense of ongoing achievement that fuels motivation, crucial for any amount of success or progress.
2. Allows the person to potentially delegate the smaller tasks to other people, reducing the mind load.
I had a popular post about the difference in Vanity and Real / True self publishing here, touching on this topic receiving quite a few emails from it. It’s clearly a sore spot so many writers still have trouble with.
http://www.bookcovercafe.com/real-self-publishing/
Keep up the great work Sue, getting this message out to writers and authors.
Anthony
Book Cover Cafe
Re #7, for an excellent guide to self-publishing, see http://www.deanwesleysmith.com and look for Think Like a Publisher.
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I have several ideas for books (probably three, perhaps four) in my head. Age-wise I do not have all the time in the world to “get with it.”
I just purchased your book “The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing” at Barnes and Nobles.( Have not read in detail as yet.)
The main question before embarking onto all that writing and self-publishing entails is, approximately how much money is involved in getting a book completed and ready for sale. That question covers financial need for all that it takes from editing, cover, printing (say, 500 copies), and all that your professional knowledge roughly estimates. (Would I need to take out a second mortgage?)
Though the variables are many, there must be an idea banded about before a novice begins so he or she could get an idea of what it takes financially to get the job done. I cannot seem to find that included in basic information related to book writing.
Thanks for this opportunity to ask. Bob Soucy
Hey Bob–The finances needed will vary depending on the size of your book, the level of editing that is needed, and what other items you will be outsourcing, but you can probably plan on spending from $1,000 on up. Feel free to email me directly if you’d like more information. Thanks for reading!
Editing – at minimum, for a quality copy-edit you are looking at $1000.00 – assuming novel length (80+K words)
Cover Design – It can vary from free (template) to custom art $1000+ (have seen quotes as high as $3500 in truth)
ISBN/Publishing costs couple hundred bucks
If you are computer savvy and capable – use something like lightningsource otherwise createspace/lulu are your friends (cringe) – your books will become pricey with the latter choices, but so be it – it is POD and you aren’t shelling out costs for doing offset printing.
If you choose to do a print run – those are cheapest cost per book, but that means you need to find a place that handles distribution for you. I’d use the former POD choice first for your first time in to make sure you even have a calling for such an activity…. let’s be frank, most people don’t. You’d rather not find that out after having bought hundred of your own book that nobody will buy. However doing your own print runs are what the real publishers do and enables competitive pricing. There is a reason why you don’t see that many novel length books selling for $8.99/$9.99 when folks use CreateSpace/Lulu etc….why? because the author cost through those outfits are higher than that…. personally its a rip-off…but so be it…it caters to a set of clientele…. they do make things easier for those who might be more technically challenged.
Thank you for this.
We’re researching how to self-publish our very niche erotic horror anthology and this post has been very helpful.
The idea of being stingy with ARCs or review copies kind of blows my mind.
Cannot agree enough with the lack of editing and cover design flaws. I’ve seen so many books that are self-published and the covers look like something slapped together with a cheap graphics program. How do they expect to compete with professionally designed jackets and properly edited manuscripts?
Thinking your book is “out there” so it should sell is another common mistake. You’re not a store in the mall that already generates foot traffic for you; you’re one of tens of thousands of titles that will be published this year with no built-in audience or customer base.
Writing is one job, publishing is another, selling is yet another. Self-publishing makes it easier to get your book in print but I think it also fools authors into thinking it makes it just as easy to get them sold. Great tips.