Many people have self-published their books. Self-publishing costs less (no editors, proofreaders, cover designers, interior designers, etc.). Still, in the end, unless you are a professional publisher, your book will end up lacking in quality, poorly edited, and you will market your book on your own.
1-Quality
The stigma around self-publishing is that self-published books don’t have any quality control. Further, a self-publisher is taking on the role of a publisher. But authors don’t know those processes and eventually release a book of low quality.
Poor cover design
Your front cover is your life. A front cover says, “Wow, this front cover sends the book’s message.” It might be a self-published book if the cover doesn’t “wow.” Here are a few errors to avoid on a book cover.
• No connection to the book’s subject matter
• Low contrast, contrasting colours
• Childish fonts and misspelt titles
• Using “by” in front of the author’s name
• Background noise.
Poor interior design
Self-published authors pinch on margins and line spacing to shorten the page count and reduce the cost. As a result, it pushes away readers. For example, self-publishing authors use a sans-serif font for a print book. Undeniably, the industry standard for print books is to use a serif font.
The word Foreword
I am being picky, but: if your first heading is misspelt, I know the book was self-published. Some self-published books misspell Foreword—Forward, Forword, or even Foreward. A format editor would check those elements for you.
2 – Poor or no editing
Developmental editing
Your editor provides feedback on “big picture” issues, including timeline, plot, pace, etc., to strengthen the book. After the first chapter, it will be evident that your book was self-published without a developmental edit.
Line editing
A line editor focuses on styles, like redundancy and verbs. An editor on the line weeds out overstatements, tautologies, hedge words, and lack of transitions as examples: awkward sentences or paragraphs and ensures consistent writing flow. Once I read the first paragraph, it will be evident that your book was self-published without a line editor.
Copy editing
A copy editor is focused on sentence-level mistakes. It’s distracting to the reader if you repeatedly misuse a word or use one so often that it distracts our readers. For example,
• Here and there
• For the most part
• Interestingly
• In other words
After the first chapter, it will be evident that your book was self-published without a copy editor.
Proofreading
Typos, punctuation errors, extra spaces, etc., were missed during the more extensive edits. It’s the final check before the content is “frozen” before it’s published. After the foreword, preface, and introduction of a book, it will be evident that your book was self-published without a proofreader.
3- Self-publish, self-market
Self-published authors must market their books. Amazon and most platforms look at a book’s sales in the first few days to determine whether they should invest in exposing it. For example, author “A” publishes a book and sells 50 copies on the first day. Author “B” posts in the same category and sells one reader on the first day, one in the following week. Which do you think gets the promo boost?
For example, Olga Munari, the bestselling author of the Joy of Cancer: A journey of self-discovery and the number one bestseller of the Joy of Life: Now What? had a robust social media platform before writing her book. When I published her books, she shot straight to number one. Moreover, Terry Cutler, the internationally bestselling author of Insider Secrets to INTERNET SAFETY: Advice from a Professional Hacker, hit Amazon’s bestsellers list for 24 months. Terry’s social media presence is colossal.
My authors don’t write for a living. But they are great marketers. Self-published authors should expect to spend 10% of their time writing and 90% marketing.
Start building a platform while you’re writing, not later.
