Hello friends! Sagan here. Welcome back to Indie Author Weekly, where I share my behind-the-scenes journey of writing and self-publishing books.
If you’re new to this podcast, I am a productivity strategist for multi-passionate creatives at SaganMorrow.com: I help people manage their time and energy effectively, through customized, actionable strategies that work for your unique life and business. When I’m not teaching about productivity to solopreneurs, I spend my time writing romance novels, and occasionally, business books. And that is what this podcast is all about: the adventures of the author life.
Now let’s get into this episode of the Indie Author Weekly podcast. Today, I want to share 3 mistakes I made with the print versions of my books. It’s really easy to make some silly mistakes, so I hope that by me sharing them with you now, you know not to make the same mistakes with your own books!
Luckily, you can correct those mistakes and upload the new file of the printed version to Amazon, for example, if you use Amazon as your book printing service. If you want to grab paperback copies of my books, you can do that by searching Polyamorous Passions in the Amazon bookstore, or you can visit SaganMorrow.com/books.
Okay. Here are 3 mistakes I’ve made with the print versions of my books…
Mistake #1: Not double-checking the formatting.
When I gave my manuscript to my book formatter, I naively assumed they’d format everything exactly the right way, with the proper italics and everything. Unfortunately, this wasn’t always the case!
In fact, I didn’t realize until after receiving the print copies that the formatting was messed up. In some areas, the page numbers didn’t match up with the Table of Contents, or things that were supposed to be italicized weren’t, or the backmatter wasn’t in sequence only on odd pages, and so on.
Another version of this mistake was not taking into account how the cover image might change on the print version compared to the e-version. For example, many of my book covers featured a horizontal image, so it could wrap around really beautifully from the front to the back of the book on the paperback version. But my most recent book, Out of Control, which is Book 6 in the Polyamorous Passions series, features a vertical image. As a result, it’s the only book in the series so far that features a solid white back cover beneath the book blurb and author info, rather than the continuation of the image from the front of the cover.
Mistake #2: Using a font I don’t have access to.
This is a really good one to know that you might not have thought about, at all. I really like the body font that my book formatter chose to use in the first 3 books in my Polyamorous Passion series, which was Neutra Text. The only problem is that Neutra Text isn’t available automatically in Adobe, and it’s weirdly difficult to track down and then add to Adobe.
This means that any time I notice a small typo in one of those books, I can’t just easily correct the mistake myself and then upload the new version to Amazon. Instead, I have to keep a running list of any changes I want to make, and then send that list to my book formatter so they can make the changes.
Needless to say, as a proactive step, I’ve asked my book formatter to use Times New Roman as the body font for the rest of my books. When I start hiring an editor for every new book release, then I might go back to using a prettier font like Neutra Text.
By the way—if you want tips for editing your own work, you can get those in Episode 15 of this Indie Author Weekly podcast.
Mistake #3: Purchasing too many copies the first time.
It’s a real pain, when you order 20 author copies delivered to your house, and then realize that you didn’t check the formatting, as with Mistake #1, for example. You want to be strategic with how many books you order at the same time, so that if or when you make changes, you won’t have a bunch of books to sell before the new versions come in.
And maybe 20 books won’t be a lot for some people. In future book launches, that will be a tiny number for me! Regardless, it’s something to think about.
Another example of this is that I’ve already redesigned the cover for Book 4 in the Polyamorous Passion series, titled She Wants More. I share more about the backstory as to why I did that in Episode 14 of this Indie Author Weekly podcast.
Okay! To recap, 3 silly mistakes I made with the print versions of my books include:
- Mistake #1: Not double-checking the formatting.
- Mistake #2: Using a font I don’t have access to.
- Mistake #3: Purchasing too many copies.
I hope this helps you so that you don’t make these same mistakes with your own books!
Now, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Connect with me on Twitter and Instagram, @Saganlives, to chat about it! And you can send me a message on either of those platforms if you have requests for future episode topics, too. The more you tell me what you’d like to see more of on this podcast, the better that I can accommodate that. You can also submit your questions or topic ideas anonymously at SaganMorrow.com/question.
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By the way, you can access complete word-for-word transcripts of this episode and all past episodes, plus sample chapters of my books and a few other bonuses and goodies, on the “secret” version of this podcast. Get access to all of that at SaganMorrow.com/secretpodcast.
Thanks so much for tuning in to the Indie Author Weekly podcast, and I will see you in the next episode.