«The Biggest 5 Mistakes When Self-Publishing A Book» | Ashley Stahl on Forbes. The number 1 is: «Don’t try to save on the cover»

Ashley Stahl (@AshleyStahl), CAKE Publishing (@cakepublishing)
Forbes (@Forbes)

«When I first set out for a book deal, I was apprehensive —and for good reason: by all accounts, it’s tough to sell a book these days. There’s a reason people think of the word “struggling” when they think of writers, and I’ve been on a mission to prove to myself that this doesn’t have to be the case.

»I either got lucky or happened to have hit on something because, after a nerve-wrangling month, my agent let me know that Hay House —among a couple of other publishing houses— made an offer on my book and soon I had a bidding war, which inspired a solid book deal.

»Still, I was clear about one thing: it wasn’t just luck or my idea that helped me rise to the top of the pile: the fact is I have a large email list, a great deal of interaction on social media and marketing experience. My agent and publisher affirmed that these were key factors in my success.

»So, what do you do if you have a book living inside of you, and you don’t have such assets to sell yourself to publishers? How, in short, is the person with the story to tell but a lack of tools to tell it, supposed to take advantage of the fact that publishing a book pushes careers into the stratosphere?

»I asked Anna David, CEO of Light Hustle Publishing, to shed some light on the self-publishing process. Anna David is a master at facilitating the process, and I knew she’d have answers. In fact, some of her recent business projects include Darren Prince’s international bestseller, Aiming High: How a Prominent Sports Agent Hit Bottom at the Top and the soon-to-be-released The Gorga Guide to Success by Real Housewives of New Jersey star Joe Gorga.

»She herself is also a New York Times bestselling author of seven books, four of which were published by HarperCollins and one, which was published by Simon & Schuster. In other words, in her own words, she’s a die-hard for traditional publishing turned self-publishing fan. In the wake of her transition, she says, “I accepted the fact that publishing was broken and this actually presented an amazing opportunity for thousands of people that had always been excluded from the publishing world before.

»According to David, there are five key mistakes people often make when it comes to creating success with self-publishing:

»1) Don’t try to save on the cover. Gone are the days, she says, when book authors can download an already created cover from a site like Canva, and David also recommends avoiding sites like 99 Designs, Upwork or Fiverr to get someone to craft a cover at a bargain basement price. “It’s sort of like saying, ‘I’m going to go in sweats to an important business meeting because when they hear what I have to say, they’re going to respect me,’” she says. “You only get one chance to make a first impression and people’s attention spans are so short that you pretty much guarantee you’ll be ignored if you look unprofessional”».

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