Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a writer. As a kid, I’d fill up notebook after notebook with stories, poems, and details about characters that I wanted to create. I wrote my first chapter book in the fourth or fifth grade. Writing was my first love, and I ended up turning it into a successful career.
But before I had a career as a writer, I was an aspiring independent author. During my freshman year of college, I made friends with a talented illustrator. Early in our friendship, we decided that we wanted to create a children’s book together. We met in 2005 and finally made it happen in 2015. Ultimately, after a successful kickstarter campaign, we raised the funds we needed to bring our dream to fruition.
We were young, naïve, and knew absolutely nothing about self-publishing a book. It was a passion project for the both of us. We wanted to create the book for sentimental reasons, but also, we wanted people to actually read and buy it!
Mistakes were definitely made, and I know so much now that I wish I knew then. Here are the three things I wish I knew as a first-time author, as well as some tips on how to avoid those mistakes.
Table of Contents:
• Book formatting is tricky
• Don’t print too many books
• Don’t become an Amazon seller
• Wrapping up
Book formatting is tricky
Every book is not complete without interior formatting. This is the case for truly any type of book. Novels and memoirs often require a table of contents and chapter headings. Graphic novels and cookbooks need properly placed images. And, absolutely any book needs the correct page bleed.
While I did know how to use Adobe InDesign quite well, I knew absolutely nothing about page bleeds. As I was laying out my book, I didn’t think about where the text needed to end, or where the spine would ultimately sit in relation to my images and text. As a result, when I sent my files to my printer, I was told that my book couldn’t be printed because I exceeded the page bleed.
This error made my book printing experience take longer than it should have, and it also added unnecessary frustration on my end.
How to avoid this mistake
It’s plain and simple: hire a professional. You can’t learn the ins and outs of book formatting overnight, so it’s best to trust an expert who has special training in this nuanced art. BookBaby has a team of professional book designers who will format all aspects of your book — from margins and page bleeds to chapter headings and footnotes. This way, writers can stick to what we do best: writing!
Don’t print too many books
When it came time to place my book order, I wasn’t given any guidance for how many books to print. All I could tell was that the more I printed, the cheaper it would be per book. I love a good deal. I did the math and determined how many books I could afford based on how much money I’d earned through Kickstarter. I’m not quite sure how I came up with this number, but I decided to order 300 books. I needed to send some thank-you copies to my Kickstarter backers and wanted to have some inventory on hand.
In hindsight, I absolutely ordered too many books. Sure, it’s nice to have some author copies on hand, but I truly didn’t need 300 books. It’s been more than a decade since that initial order, and I still have a significant amount of inventory stored at my house.
How to avoid this mistake
A great part of printing with BookBaby is that there’s no minimum order size. In fact, authors can order just one book if that’s all they want! In general, it’s recommended to start with 25 copies. You can always order more if you need them, and if you’re set up to sell your book through Print On Demand (POD), you won’t have to worry about inventory storage. More on that in a moment.
Don’t become an Amazon seller
Once my book was published and printed, I had hundreds of copies in my house and needed a way to sell them. Of course, I thought of Amazon, as I wanted to be featured in the world’s largest marketplace.
I decided to create an Amazon seller account, as I figured that this was the best way to sell on Amazon. I was absolutely wrong. Being an Amazon seller was a nightmare! I had to deal with an abundance of forms, and if I wasn’t frequently selling, Amazon would shut down the account due to inactivity. Plus, I found their Seller Central platform difficult to navigate, and I had to pay Amazon a high royalty rate every time I sold a book. And every time someone bought my book, I had to print the packing slip and mail the book at the post office myself. What a pain!
How to avoid this mistake
I should not have become an Amazon seller, and I have since deleted my account. The best way for independent authors to sell on Amazon is to get set up with Print On Demand book distribution through BookBaby. With this setup, your book is still listed for sale on Amazon, but you won’t have to worry about inventory storage or heading to the post office. Instead, each time a sale is made, BookBaby will print the book and mail it right to the customer.
Additionally, there are other great ways to sell a book besides Amazon. By getting set up with direct-to-reader sales on BookBaby Bookshop, authors earn higher royalties than they do on Amazon. Plus, it still has the same great Print On Demand setup that allows you to avoid inventory storage and trips to the post office. Even if you published elsewhere, you can still sell your book on BookBaby Bookshop. That’s exactly what I did for my children’s book, I Can Understand.
Wrapping up
By nature, independent authors make mistakes. We’re human! We’re doing this on our own without a traditional publishing house backing us up.
You’re probably going to make mistakes just like me, and that’s okay. In the case of my book, I created something that was deeply personal. Even though there were bumps along the way, I’m incredibly proud of what I published. I still love the look of surprise when I tell someone that I’m an author.
What matters the most is not the mistakes you make — it’s how you overcome those mistakes, and who you choose to help you make the most of your experience as an author.
When you work with BookBaby, you’ll be collaborating with a trusted partner who helps you avoid common obstacles like formatting issues, excess inventory, and frustrations with e-commerce sales. Remember: self-publishing doesn’t mean doing it yourself. Reach out to BookBaby to start your journey.
