My friend Liz Gaige of Market Navigators recently asked me to comment on mistakes that professionals make when self-publishing. I decided to re-post my answer to her here. Check out her regular newsletter (subscribe using the link above) for more goodies about marketing your small business.

OK, here you go;

Top 3 Mistakes People Make When Deciding to Self-Publish;

(1) Lack of objectivity:
If you want your book to fail, don’t hire an editor, don’t hire a layout designer, don’t hire a graphic designer to do the cover, don’t enter it into competitions, don’t ask for reviews, etc. Writing in isolation means that your work is not designed to sell. Even if you are writing a work that is not intended to become a bestseller, art cannot exist in a vacuum.

(2) Start with a plan:
Starting from a position of sound pre-writing marketing research is an excellent jumping-off point for a well-developed book. This is a small (micro?) business venture. Why not treat it like one, by recognizing that there is a starting investment, even if it is a small one, of time and money. Many of the items mentioned in item (1) are surprisingly inexpensive, and when formed as part of your overall plan, are essential ingredients for a sellable book.

(3) Print a moderate-sized run, rather than relying on print-on-demand for your entire fulfillment:
Many internet-based print-on-demand suppliers like Lulu, CafePress, and others, offer to market your book for you after you upload your files to them. This is tempting, because there is no initial cost to you, (other than time) and the promise of getting a check in the mail every month, without working for that check, is very nice indeed. But the reality is that if you are investing serious time in this book, you will need to sell more than 20 to 30 books to recoup your investment.* The magical no-work check in the mail rarely happens. It often surprises authors to find out that it costs about the same to print a moderate run the traditional way, as to fulfill about this same number of books using POD. POD has it’s place, but if you want to sell even a modest number of books over the next 3 to 6 months, it makes sense to go with traditional print runs. The pre-press work is virtually the same these days, and by crossing over to regular printing, you suddenly find your options for book size, custom covers, binding and many other choices virtually limitless. Your creativity is set loose.

[* So far, most of the clients that have approached me (vs. me approaching them) are people who have taken the POD route, and have been let down by the lack of progress / quality / sales on their project.]

Before you think I’m thoroughly trashing the POD suppliers out there, let me repeat something I said earlier in this post: POD has its’ place. For example, if you have a class to teach to 60- 70 students, and would like to offer students a chance to order their own textbooks over the web to bring to class, use POD. If you are testing a market with new materials and don’t want to commit yourself, use POD. If you have talent but no money, and want to get a copy out there, like, TODAY, then use POD. If you are trying to sell your book to an investor or publisher, and need a few copies to show around, use POD.

I’m happy to comment further on things like having a marketing plan to sell your book before you start, but that’s Liz’s department. Go ahead and eMail her for more details.