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is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date.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?
Eric Roth says
Excellent primer for both experienced and novice self-published writers! Thank you.
May I also add two mistakes that I made with my first book?
As the co-author of an English as a Second Language (ESL) conversation textbook, I overlooked the power of giving review copies to organizations and publications for English teachers outside of the United States. This oversight – recognized a year later when seeing the number of orders from Asia and Europe – was an amatuer error. We live in a global world with publications across the globe for niche books.
Second silly mistake was overlooking the power of collaborating with publications and allowing chapter excerpts to be run in relevant publications. Sales increased when I traded a monthly column in Easy English Times – geared for literacy students and adult immigrants – for a small ad. This win-win situation allowed thousands of English teachers and adult educators to use educational materials in their classrooms and hear about Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics. It was a classic win-win situation for everyone.
A
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Eric – review copies are definitely a powerful tool in promotion and niche books can certainly reach a global audience. Collaboration is also something I am increasingly moving into and there are a lot of opportunities for such if we open our eyes. Thanks for your contribution.
Kim Cano says
Thanks for the great advice. I agree about the editor. My family reads/tries to help, which is cool, but they don’t understand how the story structure could be flawed. And, they sure as heck aren’t going to catch my grammar errors!
I also wanted to thank you for a previous post that saved me a lot of cash. You mentioned you had previously spent money with book publicists and how it didn’t work out that well. I read that right before I almost parted with the only marketing money I had. Now I’m learning social networking and how to write my own press release.
Joanna Penn says
Yeah 🙂 Thanks Kim – it really is one of my goals to save people money as well as time and heartache so I am so glad you didn’t go ahead with a publicist. I do think the best person to promote the book is the author, and you will find it is a long process that takes time and energy to do marketing – luckily, a lot of it is fun 🙂 all the best with your book.
Danita Clark Able says
Thank for this excellent advice!
Aggie Villanueva says
Great post, Joanna. Have you considered expanding this into an ebook? I think it could sell well. Look how many comments it has drawn. We all want to know what pitfalls to avoid. Thankx!
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Aggie – this, and other advice, is included as part of my Indie Publishing course with CJ Lyons. http://www.thecreativepenn.com/selfpublish/
Trisha says
Completely agree with you on all the points Joanna. One of the biggest challenges these days I feel is to make your ebooks (in case you have eBooks) discoverable. I am actually working on building a website which would make eBook discovery more social and easy (our goal is to connect eBook readers). Although we are still in development stage, I would appreciate if you could please review our website and let us know what do you think of it. You can visit us at http://www.boikeno.com (just warning you there will be site bugs and slowness but we are working towards fixing those..:) Would love to hear your comments or even a small write up if possible.
John Yeoman says
True, the worst mistake I made – way back in 2002 – was to pay £8000 (yes, truly) to hire a techie to design me a web site. For its time, it was state of the art. Wow, it even had music and animation! Then he disappeared – taking the key of the door with him. He’d left me no way to update my own website. After four years, I had to close it down.
Now I have a site that’s home-made (and looks it) but it works. Moral: keep everything, graphic design apart, under your own control.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks for being so honest and sharing John. This is definitely a mistake I hear of people making, even now. WordPress is my recommended solution now. I love the ease of updating & you can pimp it up easily for very little money.
Eve says
John’s story reminds me of my own (but the price he paid – oh holy wow).
I hired an editor off of Craigslist for developmental editing plus copyediting. What happened next is what I should have known from the start — don’t hire an editor whose only credit is writing a novel that is NOT the genre you’re writing for!
My mistake cost about $300 or $400. When I got the edited draft back, I was so dismayed and heartbroken (the editor had written in a LOT of cliches and so forth), I shelved that novel and it took me YEARS to finally work on it again.
Getting the right editor shouldn’t be such a crapshoot. Moral of the story: Don’t hire editors off of Craigslist! Do a LOT of research on the editor(s) you choose — A LOT!!!
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Eve – that’s definitely another great tip. I have a list of editors I recommend here:
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/editors/
I know how hard it is to find a good one. Equally, I know some editors who have horrific experiences with author clients 🙂 so it works both ways!
Louise Gibney says
Interesting point in no.6. I thought I’d see a big boost in sales after being featured on BBC local radio, but not really! I am all over Facebook, Twitter, blogging though! Check me out:
http://www.facebook.com/louise.gibney.writer
http://www.misswrite.co.uk
@literaturelou
Leep up the good work!
Louise
Eric Roth says
Wow! A regular social media presence even trumps the BBC!? Congratulations on both BBC interview – and your on-going success.
Helene says
Hi Johanna! I will never self publish and I rarely find that indie authors live up to my expectations regarding quality. I also doubt your novels are my cup of tea. But you are just spot on here as ever. I have the utmost respect for your views, I learn a lot from your posts and read them with joy. Keep up the good work. You are a true gem in the world of writers 🙂
Paul Andreas Wunderlich says
Thanks a lot for the article, it contains a lot of useful information. I found the marketing part one of the most promising ones, since it is there where I find myself stuck. I’m pushing though, trying to reach out to my readers as much as I can. Finding a niche is really important, though not that easy to find. Anyway, thanks for the post. Good luck on your sales!!
William says
Ugh… my father recently self-published and I am so frustrated at his marketing efforts. He has no online experience and doesn’t want to make a budget, but expects to sell books.
I even tried to get him to read your marketing page, hopefully he does it soon though… It is so much work to really market a new ebook.
Eric Roth says
After looking at my surprising 10-1 sales ratio on Kindle Select ebooks vs CreateSpace physical books, it behooves me to recommend self-published authors serious consider the many distribution advantages that ebooks present. While I only had limited success for several months, the January sales shot way up… for no clear reason, but that’s okay. Today – which is an exceptionally good day – Compelling Conversations ranks in the top 20,000 on Kindle and number one in its niche area: adult and continuing education. http://www.amazon.com/Compelling-Conversations-Questions-Quotations-ebook/dp/B001L5U332/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1271546510&sr=8-1
You may receive far less per book than selling a physical copy, but the dramatic increase in numbers is worth considering too. Or so it seems to me.
David Penglase says
Joanna I am an unapologetic advocate and referrer to your blog – if I may I would like to share an eighth mistake (I’ve made all seven plus…..) Speaking at conferences and association meetings and other potential public forums is something many indies (and traditionally published authors) try – and just like learning the skills of writing I recommend learn about the structure of a speech/presentation that will sell your books and leave people advocates referring others to your site. It’s not just about being a competent speaker – its the structure of the presentation. Warm regards and looking forward to more.
Becky Livingston says
Yes!
Joanna Penn says
Hi David, Thanks so much! I used to be a member of National Speaker’s Association in Australia and I think I heard you speak once. I certainly know your name, so marvellous to have you comment here. I learned a lot about speaking from NSAA and structuring a presentation to lead people through the story and experience you want to tell is critical. I am chronically over-prepared for all my speaking these days. Thanks for sharing.
David Penglase says
Wonderful Joanna – keep inspiring us through being the role model you are.
Patricia Fry says
Great post. Yes, there’s a lot that an author can and should learn about public speaking and communication skills as tools to promote books and get exposure. I’m coming out with a book for authors on this very topic. Allworth Press has chosen the title, “Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More.” It’s scheduled for release in the fall of 2012.
The book stems from my own experiences speaking on behalf of my books over 30 years, research and quotes, anecdotes and advice from around two dozen other professionals and authors in the trenches.
Let me know if you want to be notified when the book comes out.
Joanna, excellent post. This is something I teach and preach nonstop and I still meet authors who are making these mistakes. I find that some bounce back and succeed, others flat give up. It’s a shame. But you are making a difference!
Early testimonials from professionals indicate that we have hit the mark with this book.
Christopher Wills says
I agree with your 7 points, in particular number 7. More books sell more books. Most book buyers and book readers (our potential customers) never go on a blog (I know; I am spouting heresy; burn me at the stake).
Book buyers go to where books are; bookshops, Amazon and other online retailers and a lot of books are still bought on the strength of book reviews in newspapers. Book buyers also listen to recommends by friends and buy books related to television shows and films. And they usally stick to the same author again and again.
I am married to someone who reads up to 10 novels a month and she doesn’t tweet, has no idea what a blog is and her Facebook page is used for keeping up to date with friends. I suggest over 99% of book buyers are similar. To sell more books we need to understand this.
I think things are changing but it is easy as bloggers to get wrapped up in our own little world and ignore the fact that a lot of book buyers are still doing the same things they always did to find their books.
Jo Ann says
Joanna, as a new independent author of children’s books, I’ve made just about every mistake – certainly all the ones you’ve pointed out, and more! I’ve pursued all the “traditional” avenues, including brick and mortar stores, book blog tours, national distribution, etc. I recently started building a presence on Facebook, mostly by sharing images/illustrations from my book and describing how I created them. This was trial and error, but has been the most effective way to engage and expand readers. People seem to love the images, each of which portrays its own story. So, I’ve found a meaningful way to connect with a wide audience. I stumbled upon this “by mistake,” but it’s now the cornerstone of my marketing activity.
I’m an avid fan of your blog and have learned so much from you. Thanks for the great work!
Joanna Penn says
That’s fantastic Jo Ann, and testament to the fact that we all find our way into what we enjoy and what works for our audience. Facebook is great for that personal engagement, so congrats!
Steven M. Moore says
Hi Joanna,
Your points are directed more to the publishing and marketing side of things, but somewhat overlap with mine that focus on what the writer writes and the reader wants–see my guest post “The Eightfold Way” on the AME website http://www.amarketingexpert.com.
BTW, I’ve found that editors of your first type, i.e. ones that will help with plot, POV, setting, etc, are few and far between. Most just want to dot i’s and cross t’s–I can do that.
I’ve also gone the eBook route. I did the joint pBook/eBook gig for a while, but the pBook (POD) just became too expensive. (I explained why I chose indie publishing in another guest post on Donna Carrick’s Carrick Publishing website.)
All the best,
Steve
Earl Farris says
Your comments on the seven worst mistakes is right on target. I especially appreciated your point on cover design. I just completed my first novel and signed with a small independent publisher. We are in discussions about the kcover design. Your advice is especially relevant for me right now.