Updated September 24, 2023

Subtitle

Avoiding book formatting and design blunders can dramatically enhance your sales

Synopsis

If your hope is that your book gets noticed and bought, then it must look and read like a professionally designed and edited book. These desirable qualities immediately show your audience you have respect for yourself, your readers, and your subject matter. This mutual trust will help you build a dedicated audience that will take you and your advice seriously and continue to buy and read your publications.

What You Will Learn

1. You will learn non-fiction authors' most common mistakes when creating their books.

2. You will learn to recognize these mistakes and how to fix them.

3. You will learn how and why avoiding these mistakes in the first place will help you sell more books.

Introduction

If your hope is that your book gets noticed and bought, then it must look and read like a professionally designed and edited book. These desirable qualities immediately show your audience you have respect for yourself, your readers, and your subject matter.

This mutual trust will help you build a dedicated audience that will take you and your advice seriously and continue to buy and read your publications.

These attributes might sound obvious at first glance, but it takes a lot of work and planning to make it all come together correctly. And unfortunately, your book might never find an audience if they find it lacking.

Why I Made This List

So, with all that said, if you want your non-fiction book to get noticed, purchased, and impress your clients, then you need to avoid these common mistakes and pitfalls listed here. I developed this list from my own reading experiences.

I have read thousands of non-fiction books and noticed that these mistakes are not limited to small publishers and new authors. I see some of these same problems in the publications of some of the largest publishers.

Just A Simple Reminder

And please, never forget that as a self-publisher, YOU are solely responsible for your book’s success and reputation, so you must be attentive to avoiding these missteps. Even if you have hired a designer, editor, proofreader, etc., the finished product is your responsibility.

10 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Self-Publishing Your Non-fiction Book

Mistake # 1: Missing Sections

Include all of the standard sections of a book. This means the title page, copyright page, table of contents, etc. Readers expect your book to look like an actual, professionally edited, and designed book.

Mistake # 2: Cramming It In

Use proper margins. Making your margins too small will make reading your book difficult and unpleasant. The top, bottom, inside, and outside margins are each different, and each needs to be the appropriate size. And always use an easy-to-read font for your text.

Mistake # 3: Bad Cover

Change your cover if it is not working. We all know about first impressions and how they will affect your sales and reputation. Do not hesitate to hire a professional cover designer for a few hundred dollars.

Mistake # 4: Not Enough Proofreading

Find every typo and grammatical error in the book. Do not be afraid to hire a professional proofreader. A professional can find mistakes that you have overlooked a hundred times. Use grammar software on your text before sending it to a professional.

Mistake # 5: Missing ISBN

Include an ISBN and barcode on the back cover. Include the ISBN on your copyright page. No retailer will sell your book without it.

Mistake # 6: Improper Structure

Your writing and content must have the proper structure. Every chapter and every paragraph must have a beginning, middle, and end. Your book must progress in such a way that the reader can easily follow along. If it doesn’t, the reader will get confused and quickly tire of reading your book.

Mistake # 7: Not Providing Solutions