The 5 Common Mistakes New Authors Make (And How to Avoid Them)
Avoid these pitfalls and set yourself up for self-publishing success without the overwhelm.
You finally did it—you sat down, poured your heart into your book, and now you’re ready to share it with the world. But then… doubt creeps in.
“What if no one buys it?”
“What if I did something wrong?”
“What if I wasted all this time?”
I know that feeling all too well. When I self-published my first book, I thought I had everything figured out. But I made every mistake in the book (pun intended). I priced it wrong, my cover was weak, and I had no idea how to market it.
The result? Crickets.
Fast forward to today, and I’ve published 19 books—14 of them bestsellers. The difference? I learned from my mistakes and created a simple, repeatable system that works.
If you’re about to publish your first book (or you’re stuck wondering why your book isn’t selling), don’t worry—I’ve got you. Let’s go over the five most common mistakes new authors make and, more importantly, how to avoid them.
The 5 Common Mistakes
Before we continue, it’s important to note, mistakes happen. None of us are immune to making mistakes. It’s just the way life is. And when it comes to self-publishing, there are a lot of ways to make mistakes. My goal today, is to help you reduce the amount of mistakes you will make along the way.
Writing Without a Clear Audience in Mind
Your audience is essential to your books success. And while there is a lot of talk about figuring out who your audience is the truth in the matter is that your audience can’t be everyone.
The Mistake: Trying to write for everyone instead of a specific audience. I know that you feel like your book can help everybody. And maybe it can. For most books, that just isn’t true.
The Fix: Identify your ideal reader and tailor your book to their needs and interests. Think of it like this, you have your market (health, wealth, or relationships). Then you have your target audience (who do you help). Lastly, while writing your book, consider your nice (how you help your audience).
If you can focus on this simple fix when it comes to your audience, you can write a book that will garner lots of positive reviews and it might just lead to huge sales for you in the end.
Skipping Professional Editing
I go back and forth on editing. I know plenty of people who have teams of friends or family who are great editors. Heck, you might be one of those people too. Editing a book can cost a lot of money, so why bother?
The Mistake: Relying only on self-editing or a friend’s feedback. Most first time authors want to skip and editor because of the cost. They want to pride themselves on being a budget author or something like that. But this will hurt your reviews and people may not even finish your book if it has a lot of issues.
The Fix: Invest in at least one professional round of editing (or use tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid). If it is your first book or two, I highly recommend you find an editor. You can use Upwork to find some really good ones that might even be affordable. Then, after you have seen a book edited a few times, you can move on to self-editing.
Editing a book is really important because it helps people continue to read through your book and it makes it easy to read. The more people read your entire book, to more likely they will leave a review. And the more reviews, the more sales.
Designing a Weak Cover
Don’t lie to yourself on this one. Everyone judges books by their covers. This is your first introduction to a book, to the content, and sometimes to the author. This is probably the most important decision you make prior to publishing.
The Mistake: DIY-ing your book cover when you have no design experience. I get it, you don’t want to pay for a book cover because you’ve used Canva before. But, if your book doesn’t stand out or it looks homemade, nobody is going to buy this book.
The Fix: Hire a professional cover designer or use pre-made templates from trusted sources. I honestly love working with cover designers. Mostly the ones who have done a lot of covers. They just know things about how to make them look good. If you use templates, be sure to make adjustments on color and fonts.
Do not skip out on a great book cover. I have talked to plenty of authors who can’t understand why their book doesn’t sell, and the first thing I notice is that the cover sucks. Don’t be that first time author.
Neglecting Marketing Until It’s Too Late
With my first book, I had marketing plan that I didn’t start building until three days before I hit publish. And while I sold 248 books in that first year, there were no more sales for two years.
The Mistake: Publishing first, then thinking about marketing. There are people whose full-time jobs are coming up with marketing and promotion plans for books. Since that is the case, you cannot bootstrap a plan for your book after you publish. That’s wasting valuable time and will lead to a failed launch.
The Fix: Start building your audience before you publish—social media, email lists, and collaborations matter. In fact, the best way to start doing this is as you write it. Share snippets of your work on social media, with a blog, or on your email list. This will help you capture readers along the way.
Another really important thing to consider is to try and create the most consistent sales in the first 30 days of publishing on Amazon KDP. This timeframe is really important. More on this here.
Pricing the Book Incorrectly
Did you know that your book price matters a great deal when you are a new author? Because it does. This is a mistake I see with a lot of people who write a book without much of an audience or lacking in authority.
The Mistake: Pricing your book too high as an unknown author. I get it, if you price your Kindle book on Amazon for $25, then you only need 4 people to buy it to make $100. Guess what? Without a previous audience or the authority to sell at this level, you will sell, no books.
The Fix: Research successful books in your niche and price competitively. Or better yet, price your book so people will impulse buy it when they don’t know you. How to do that? Price your book at $0.99. This helps you gain momentum, gain new eyes on your book, and will help you sell if you have no audience or a small one.
Yes, you will only make $0.33 on the sale. But guess what, self-publishing is a long game, and book sales come with reviews and readers. You got to get your book in people’s hands in the beginning.
3 Action Steps to Avoid These Mistakes
If there was three things for you to take action on today, it would be these three right here:
Define Your Ideal Reader Today – Before you write another word, get clear on who your book is for.
Commit to Professionalism – Editing and a strong cover aren’t luxuries—they’re necessities.
Start Marketing Now – Even if your book isn’t ready, start building excitement and connections today.
Writing a book is an incredible achievement, but success doesn’t just come from writing—it comes from writing smart.
If you want a proven step-by-step process to go from idea to bestseller, check out The Minimalist Author Way. It’s the system I wish I had when I started. And it is exactly what I use to publish my books today!
My name is J.R. Heimbigner and I am a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon with 18 self-published books. I have something I want to share with you:
The Minimalist Author Way (Course & Community) - P.S. At the end of March I am raising the price from $97 to $197, sign up today for lifetime access at the lower price!
Also, this post may contain sales or affiliate links, so I might get a little kickback if you purchase anything. Thank you in advance!