Publishing a book is an exciting time for most authors. They are eager to share their tales with the world and make connections with potential readers. But knowing what to avoid doing while self-publishing your book will come in handy. Publishing errors can lead to poor reviews or failure to gain traction. Below are the top four mistakes you should avoid at all costs when publishing your book.
Not Hiring an Editor
Having your book edited professionally is one of the most important investments you can make. Hiring an editor will help ensure that your manuscript is free from errors and delivers a polished, professional look to potential readers.
An experienced editor can also review your work with fresh eyes and point out areas for improvement in terms of content and flow. They can offer advice on how to make your work more readable and engaging for readers. Hiring an editor familiar with the book publishing industry will help ensure that you get a polished product with no spelling or grammatical errors.
Not Hiring a Cover Designer
If you want to sell books, the cover needs to be excellent. An outstanding book with a terrible cover won’t sell well at all. When it comes time for self-publishing your book, make sure that you hire a professional graphic designer or design team to create an incredible cover for you that will help drive sales and conversions.
Using the Wrong Publishing Platform
One of the most common mistakes in self-publishing is using a publishing platform that’s not right for your book, or worse yet, you use more than one. You might make this mistake if your sales are slow to non-existent or you have no control over the price tags. It takes months to publish new books on some platforms, and you can’t always price them where they should be.
Pricing your book too high or too low will hurt your sales. It’s unlikely that you’ll sell more books by selling them at a discount or for free, although it might seem like an easy way to get started. A little marketing goes a long way when you’re beginning, especially if nobody knows who wrote the book yet.
Publishing Too Early in Your Writing Process
One of the biggest mistakes authors make is publishing too early in their writing process. It is advisable not to publish your book until you are finished with it and it has gone through multiple rounds of editing. Even then, if any glaring errors or issues need to be corrected, hold off on sending it to publishing sites.
Take Away
It’s costly to do everything yourself instead of hiring professionals for different tasks like editing, formatting, and publishing the final product. Not marketing your book enough to get it out is also a mistake people make before and after publishing. Keep this information in mind to avoid inconveniences when self-publishing your books.