Self-publishing gives you total freedom. Which is fantastic. Right up until it isn’t.
The real danger isn’t a bad book; it’s publishing too soon. One of the biggest threats to your burgeoning self-publishing career isn’t necessarily writing a terrible book. I think it might be publishing a good book before it’s actually ready.
Learning how to self-publish gives us the freedom to upload a manuscript to Amazon tomorrow. And that freedom is both thrilling and profoundly hazardous. It’s alarmingly easy to careen straight into the algorithmic abyss with your shoelaces tied together.
An Indie Author’s Hard-Earned Lesson
When I self-published my first novel, Half Made Up, I sat back and waited for the royalties to rain down upon me. I refreshed my sales dashboard every five minutes, which Amazon likely interpreted as panic or cardio. After that, utter silence. The digital equivalent of tumbleweeds rolled past my lonely product page.
My book wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t as good as it could be. Like turning up to a black-tie gala wearing flip-flops and a t-shirt that says, “Work in Progress,” it didn’t matter how good the writing was. The packaging undermined everything.
What nobody told me is that writing a good story is only half the job. Publishing it well is the half that determines whether anyone will ever see the first half.
So here, in all their ugly glory, are the mistakes I made writing my first book. So you don’t have to.
1. Don’t Borrow Copyrighted Content
Let’s begin with a basic rule: if you didn’t write it, don’t publish it. (To be clear, I didn’t plagiarize anything. But we have to start with the bleeding obvious.) Copy nothing
Even if you think the quote is tiny, harmless, or practically public domain by now, Amazon’s automated copyright police are faster than lawyers and significantly less forgiving. Save yourself the headache. Keep every sentence unquestionably yours.
2. Don’t Publish Without Professional Editing
I convinced myself that reading my manuscript twelve times made me immune to typos. But the human brain loves auto-correcting flaws, especially your own. Readers, however, don’t. They’ll tolerate the odd clunky line. But relentless errors make them question your competence and their purchase decisions.
There are different levels of editor (from stylistic to more fundamental grammar police). But a professional editor sees what you can’t: pacing, clarity, logic, tone, and yes.
It starts with basic proofreading. The missing word in chapter nine that will haunt your reviews forever. So, invest in editing and protect your dignity.
3. Don’t Cheap Out on Your Cover
Do readers judge a book by its cover? You betcha.
Covers are not decorative. They’re strategic weapons. After your brilliantly strategic keywords get a potential reader over to your title, after your scintillating book blurb whets their appetite, the biggest advertising tool is the cover. A cover communicates genre, tone, quality, but more than all that: whether the author has their life together.
So put away your Corel Draw and your hopes of moonlighting as a graphic designer. Give your 9-year-old niece who thinks she knows how to illustrate, a polite smile and say “no.”
If your cover looks homemade, readers will assume the book reads that way too. Give your story the outfit it deserves, not the last-minute costume you found in the discount bin
4. Don’t Ignore Interior Formatting
Once someone opens your book, the formatting should disappear into the background. So it needs to be clean, consistent, readable. Mine didn’t.
So I hired an interior designer. That way there was no interior chaos distracting from my prose. Dialogue that zigzags across the page or chapter numbers that roam like nomads will send readers running.
Good formatting is invisible professionalism. Paying for it hurt my wallet. But healed everything else.
5. Don’t Neglect Your Author Page
Your Amazon author bio should feel like a handshake, not an obituary. If it reads like you’re trying to remain anonymous, readers won’t feel inclined to connect. Show a little personality. Give people a reason to follow you beyond the last page.
6. Don’t Skip Keyword and Category Research
Metadata may sound sterile, but it’s the oxygen your book breathes. Without good keywords and the right categories, your book floats through cyberspace unseen, unheard, unloved. Amazon gives you tools to help readers find your story.
Ignoring them is a terrible business strategy disguised as creative purity.
7. Don’t Publish and Then Vanish
Many new authors treat publishing as the finish line. Click button, collapse, wait for fans to arrive. But releasing your book is actually the starting gun.
You need a launch plan, advance readers, marketing, social presence — something to indicate your book exists. If you won’t champion your work, no one else will realise they should.
8. Don’t Price Like You’re at War with Money
Price communicates value. If you set your debut ebook at ninety-nine cents, readers assume you lack confidence. Set it at fourteen-ninety-nine, and they assume you’ve sustained a head injury. Research your genre’s norms and respect them. If you treat your book like it’s worth reading, others will too.
9. Don’t Mislabel Your Genre
Promise a heart-pounding thriller and deliver existential philosophy, and your reviews will invent new ways to express disappointment. Genre is a contract between author and reader. Break it once and the algorithm will exile you to the wilderness, where only confused shoppers roam.
10. Don’t Bribe Anyone for Reviews
Amazon’s terms are simple: do not offer money, gifts, favours, kidneys, or even emotional pressure in exchange for reviews. The company takes integrity extremely seriously. When they catch you cheating (and they will) you and your book may vanish into a digital gulag from which there is no parole. Earn reviews honestly or not at all.
Bonus: Don’t Rush Your Launch
A book launch is not a surprise party. It requires anticipation, energy, early reviews, marketing, and momentum. If you just upload your book quietly and hope magic happens, what you’ll get instead is a very quiet product page. Launches create visibility. Visibility creates sales. Sales create more visibility. It’s a virtuous cycle powered entirely by preparation.
Final Thoughts: Transparency Is the New Black
Here’s the truth no marketer wants to print on a tote bag: nobody knows the secret formula. There’s no publishing wizard behind a velvet curtain pulling levers that guarantee fame, fortune, and Oprah’s phone number. There are only strategies that increase your odds—and then there are people who would like $2,250 before they reveal those strategies.
The best thing an author can do is walk into every business relationship with their eyes open and one hand firmly on their wallet. Ask for proof. Ask for pricing. Ask for terms you can walk away from if someone promises you “Bestseller Status” using the same tone a waiter uses to offer extra fries.
Marketing can work. Smart marketing can work better. But hype is an expense you should never pay for. Demand receipts. Protect your royalties. And above all: save your wild leaps of faith for the characters in your story.
This essay is one of a collection of pieces documenting the bedlam involved in writing and self-publishing my ongoing genre fiction series: The Misjudgements of Andy MacKay, available on Amazon.