Self-publishing your book essentially means you have to be your own editor, designer, proofreader, and marketer, not to mention you also have to write your book. There are many tasks and this is the first time you are faced with one of them.
For many beginning authors, this process can seem a little overwhelming. After all, how can you be sure you're on the right track to making your book a success? To help answer questions you might have, we've put together a list of five mistakes to avoid if you want to self-publish your book.
1. “What matters is the inside
You are not wrong. Content is king and will determine the long-term success of your book. However, we often find that authors who make this their mantra end up seriously neglecting more superficial but vitally important elements, such as book writing service, formatting, and well-written descriptions. The irony is that if you don't put effort into the outside of your book, people will never see the inside. It’s a bit like a date: what’s important is the inside, but you have to take care of the outside so that people are interested in what’s important.
You may not have all the necessary skills in your pipeline, but it's entirely possible to self-publish a professional-quality book (both content-wise and externally) without necessarily having a experience. We'll tell you more throughout this article, and of course, you can always check out our Help Center and blog for more tips, tricks, and guides for self-publishing your book.
2. Ignoring reviews and/or comments
One of the benefits of self-publishing is that you have the freedom to write about topics that haven't typically been explored in mainstream literature. Many publishers do not dare to tackle these topics for fear of not obtaining a return on investment or because they are niche genres with few but very passionate fans. This can sometimes lead to authors being overprotective of their ideas and rejecting any criticism or feedback, constructive or not, usually to the detriment of the final product.
Don't get us wrong: we're not saying you have to sell out or compromise your creative identity. If you are not happy with the book, there is no point in writing it. However, self-publishing also means self-publishing (for the most part), which requires a certain amount of objectivity. This is why we always recommend that at least two people you trust read and comment on your work before publishing it.
This is especially true if you want to sell your books once they are published. Having two people read and comment on your book before you publish it can help you eliminate any errors you might have missed, plot holes, or unwanted story elements.
3. “My target audience is everyone
We hear this phrase often. There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding on the topic of target audience, their role and importance.
First, let's get the most common misconception out of the way: having a target audience doesn't mean that that audience is the only one who will buy your book. If you define your target audience as young adults aged 15 to 20, that doesn't mean you're actively discouraging people outside of that age range from purchasing your book.
This simply means that you tailor your writing, themes, and aesthetic of your book to make it more appealing to your chosen demographic. It’s about ensuring the thematic focus and aesthetic coherence of your work. This is important because it gives your book its identity.
4. Thinking You Don’t Need Marketing to Self-Publish Your Book
Marketing is usually one of the most challenging topics for authors preparing to self-publish their book. After all, most writers don't want to become authors for marketing's sake. However, it is one of the essential components of the success of a self-published author.
Unfortunately, we often see writers who only make a token effort to promote their book, or worse, who ignore it altogether and think that interested readers will find it. That may be the case for some of them, but the vast majority of your potential readers won't be able to find your book among all the noise on the Internet these days. Plus, even if interested readers find your book on their own, do you really want to waste the opportunity to sell hundreds of copies through a well-designed marketing campaign?
If you don't know anything about book marketing, we suggest you check out our guide to promoting your book. We also have an article on our blog memoir ghostwriting services dedicated to book marketing on social media that might also interest you.
Don’t waste time and start promoting your book before it’s published! Research your target audience and choose communication channels accordingly. There are several different approaches depending on the context, but the three articles mentioned above will help you get started on the right foot.
5. Assume people don’t like your book
Sometimes, even if you have put all your soul and all your love into self-publishing your book, the sales of your works may not go as quickly as you hoped. Many writers misinterpret this slow start as an indication that their book is a failure, universally hated by everyone, and then give up writing.
It's a shame that this is happening, because most of the time it only takes very little for sales numbers to improve almost instantly. So don't give up! We're here to tell you that it's completely normal and you shouldn't feel defeated. In all likelihood, your book is not the problem. Rather, the problem is that people simply don't know your book exists. If you've read the previous points in this article, you should already have a good idea of what may have happened and what you can do to fix it.
Generally, the answer is that you need to spend more time and effort on marketing. However, it may be worth asking more people for feedback on your book, both in terms of content and cover, to see if there is anything you can change to make it more appealing to a wider audience. However, this won't happen overnight, so don't get discouraged if you start slowly. Keep up the good work and spread the word!