Mistakes Were Made
Mostly by me
Definitely by me
Here is a non-exhaustive list of all the mistakes I made when self-publishing my first book:
I didn’t hire a copy editor. And there were spelling, grammar, etc errors when I sent to ARC readers. Some were forgiving and pointed them out. Others, not so much.
I hired a copy editor to fix it, but I didn’t have him send a sample and I didn’t look very long before I chose him. He then took three weeks longer than planned and sent back my document… and didn’t complete the job. Multiple chapters were untouched.
I used formatting software I wasn’t familiar with, and it switched around almost all my “ “ marks, introducing HUNDREDS (thousands?) of new errors into the book forty-eight hours before publication!
I didn’t have proofreaders.
I spent money to hire beta readers, all of whom weren’t critical enough. Instead of pushing them to be honest , I basked in their praise like a fool.
Didn’t read nearly enough books about writing great stories before attempting to write one. I thought my “good ideas” would be good enough (they weren’t).
I spent a TON of money on various covers, because I didn’t know what I really wanted. All in all, I paid for eight covers for my first book, and used two (paperback and hardcover).
Paid for and hired book tour companies without reading reviews of said booktour companies. I desperately want to talk shit right now BUT I WONT, however, the ones I rehired for book two were MTMC, BookTour Gals, and BookTours360. Those are the only ones I recommend.
Paid for and hired social media influencers to make content for me… but then didn’t give them enough direction. I got some truly amazing reels and a new aesthetic, but I also wasted money here because some of the results were god-awful.
Didn’t know people were against AI art, so I had AI art made for book one (which I still had to pay someone to do, because I couldn’t figure out how to do it myself). Then discovered the bookish community hates AI, so, I never used the artwork. Another waste of money. I will probably write a full post about this, honestly.
Never self promoted by my book. At all. I hate social media; I hate the sound of my own voice; I don’t think I’m pretty enough; ERGO I avoided putting my own face on my social media accounts and didn’t promote either of my books before launch. Almost every author in existence does this, I didn’t because I was too insecure. Honestly still trying to get over this and put myself out there.
Advertised my book to the wrong audience. I sent my book (for free) (with priority shipping) to bookish influencers and paid for ads for those who love romantasy and fairytales. Guess what?! they hated my book! it was too dark and too weird and they don’t like time travel or zombies or death! A full year in, I now know my audience, and most often it’s women like me. Women over 25, moms, Scorpios, Slytherins, and people who wish we could celebrate Halloween all year long, and nurses! In retrospect I should have known this.
Only sent it to 8 literary agents. Apparently most people send dozens, if not over a hundred, query letters. I got two full manuscript requests. Both passed because they didn’t like the ending. Fun fact: I rewrote the ending with a plot twist, and that’s the one readers have today. I guess those queries did pay off afterall?
There’s probably more but I’ve depressed myself enough for one day