So, you’re done with your first draft and manuscript and aspiring to get your self-publishing done soon. Even if you’re thinking of getting it done on time, caution is necessary. Some vital mistakes in self-publishing can destroy your dream book even before it reaches a hundred readers at best.
Dreaming of becoming the next best-selling indie or self-publishing author while ignoring the market research, pro proofreading, effective promotions, etc., may dwindle your ambition even before you realize it.
That’s why it’s important to know the six common self-publishing mistakes that many aspiring authors make. If you’re eager to work on your mistakes, learn about them in the following.
Not Keeping up with the Publishing Market
Book printing, current trends, promotional strategies, etc., are a few crucial elements of the book market. And if you’re persistently missing out on the current publishing market, there’s a high chance of your book missing all the potential for success— even if it’s a fantastic piece of writing.
The thought of getting your dream book in your target readers’ hands is undoubtedly exciting, but you can only go so far from that point on if you haven’t prepared well before actually publishing the book.
You might’ve been inspired by an overnight successful best-selling writer from the last year, but the market changes every year. The avid sci-fi readers must’ve shifted their taste to romantic thrillers, who knows! You can only be aware of this if you’ve maintained your research on the progressive market.
So, slow down and grasp the market even before you start to write on something. Or even if your writing is done, including proofreading, cover design, promotions, etc., consider publishing it some other time if the current market isn’t looking much promising.
Neglecting a Professional Proofreader and Editor
You may know how to self-publish your book but hate the idea of seeing your piece of writing swarming with red marks and suggestions; however, those underlines can save the day for you to an extent.
That is to say; you must consider hiring a professional proofreader and editor so that you can shake your book off redundancy, misinformation, conflicting ideas, etc.
The final ‘go’ and its liabilities will always lie with your preference. But you must consider correcting and modifying the critical areas to make your story more relatable and comprehensive.
Besides, fact-checking is an issue you’ll often fall short of fulfilling as far as the necessity goes for fiction, drama, documentary, and so on. And a professional proofreader can diligently do that thing for you.
Compromising Quality to Achieve Word Numbers
If you have succeeded in the recent self-publishing of your book, your readers will want the following line of books to be even better. That’s a challenge, and it should be your goal since you’ve already established your standard with your success.
Nonetheless, a mind-blowing success often compels you to rush your following publishing works, which mainly compromises your writing quality. You’ll be crazy about getting done with your draft at hand, and this consequently makes your book vulnerable to grammatical mistakes, misspellings, plot holes, etc.
But you don’t want to make that mistake. Compromising quality for adding up words to finish your books in haste is never a wise move. Instead, you may lose your readers by giving them poor-quality books.
Approaching with Wrong Promotional Activities
It takes hours, days, months, and years of struggle, dedication, and hard work to finish a book. What if you’ve done the same without a proper strategy to promote your book to your target readers?
Your book isn’t going to find its readers by itself. Conventional publishing can do that job for you; however, if you’re self-publishing, things are much different, and harder to bag your readers while making the desired number of sales successfully.
You must work out your sales points, such as local book shops, book fairs and seminars, online book marketing and promotion, social media live events, freebies, etc. Also, you must consider your budget to tackle all these hustles since no one will guarantee your financial backup.
Being All Over the Social Media
You know the power of social media and how it has become the ultimate business platform. It has a fair share of book promotion activities as well. And honestly speaking, the more you show up with your work, the higher the possibility of selling your book becomes.
Nevertheless, experts suggest that becoming present 24/7 on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., may sometimes backfire on your ambitions too. Posting too many updates on your ongoing book may make your readers turn their faces away.
Additionally, random or irrelevant posts are where you lose your social media followers, aka your potential book buyers. Any post too often that doesn’t resonate with your upcoming book is a way to cut on the interest of your prospective readers.
Neglecting Possible Legal Issues
Self-publishing may often make you get your book published without focusing on plagiarism, copyrights, patents, facts, etc., especially if you aren’t hiring any professional proofreader and editor. Hence, it’s normal that there will be somewhat conflicting and controversial information.
Chances are that you might be sued by another author, publisher, institution, brand, or corporate company, alleging you for fraudulence. You can’t just rebuke their allegations with a verbal or written statement anywhere you like; rather, you must go through a legal procedure if they file a case against you.
This is one of the most common mistakes while self-publishing. So, it’s wise to stay on guard by eliminating the chances of infringement or forgery in your written work before you go on self-publishing your book.
To Summarize
The self-publishing process consists of works in two ways. First, you must strive to finish your writing through all life’s hurdles. Next, once the manuscript is ready, you must get away with the marketing, designing, printing, and sales management process.
All these arduous tasks come down to your cautious approach to publishing your book in the safest manner possible to ward off any risk of failure.
The six mistakes we’ve shared above will hopefully help you to go further with your self-publishing process, enabling you to achieve the height of success you’ve been dreaming of.
