The Six Things We Shouldn’t Do When Writing a Book

Most of the time I talk about our social media activities when I talk on this site but I thought for a change I would give some advice on some of the common generic mistakes that new authors make. Here are six things that authors shouldn’t do when publishing their book.

1.       Publish the First Draft

The first draft is very rarely ready for the reader’s eyes. At the very least an author should have the manuscript edited. Most (if not all) need to have the manuscript re-written in a second draft.

2.       Not editing the manuscript

Everyone makes mistakes and editors are there to catch them and make them right. Readers can be rather unforgiving if they spot a mistake in your book so I would always suggest a book needs to go through a good editor.

3.       Cover design

Unless you have a particularly good eye for art and are pretty talented in such a field as well as writing, it is normally best to get a professional cover artist to do your book cover.

4.       Not doing the research

If you are going to be writing for something that has an established feel, look, procedure, etc you need to make sure you know what you are talking about. If it is a location pack a bag and go visit for a few days, if it is a regular event that is held go and participate, if it is a historical event – read, read, read about it.

5.       Thinking other authors are competitors

Authors aren’t competing with each other. Unlike with some industries readers don’t have to stick to one supplier – they have as many different books as they want from as many different authors. Instead other authors are support, guidance and can be inspirational. I have many author friends and I don’t think I could do without any of them for my career.

6.       Get stuck on social media

If you can get addicted to social media, learn to turn off the modem, set limits, anything that will stop you looking at Facebook and instead concentrating on your manuscript. Social media only accounts for 1% of all online sales so you can’t even use that excuse.

I hope you have found this article useful. If you have any more examples please let us know in the comments below.

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