What are the Most Common Mistakes Authors Make?

✍️ Writing & Craft Mistakes

1. Starting without a clear purpose

   • Not knowing the genre, target reader, or promise of the book.

   • Readers feel this immediately as confusion or lack of focus.

2. Weak openings

   • Too much backstory, world-building, or setup before anything happens.

   • The first 5–10 pages must earn the reader’s trust.

3. Telling instead of showing

   • Explaining emotions instead of letting actions, dialogue, and consequences reveal them.

4. Flat or inconsistent characters

   • Characters who don’t evolve, contradict themselves, or exist only to serve the plot.

5. Overwriting

   • Excessive description, repetition, or long passages that don’t move the story forward.

🧱 Structure & Story Problems

6. Lack of tension or stakes

   • Nothing significant is at risk, so the reader has no reason to keep turning pages.

7. Meandering middle

   • Strong start and ending, but a sagging middle with no clear momentum.

8. Unsatisfying endings

   • Rushed conclusions, unresolved threads, or endings that don’t pay off the story’s promise.

✂️ Editing & Revision Errors

9. Skipping professional editing

   • Relying only on self-editing or friends.

   • Grammar errors are bad—but structural and pacing issues are worse.

10. Defensiveness about feedback

    • Treating critique as an attack instead of a tool.

11. Publishing too soon

    • Excitement to “get it out there” before the manuscript is truly ready.

      
      

🎨 Design & Presentation Mistakes

12. Poor cover design

    • Covers that don’t match genre expectations or look amateurish.

    • Readers absolutely judge books by their covers.

13. Weak formatting

    • Inconsistent fonts, spacing, or margins—especially damaging in ebooks.

      
      

📣 Marketing & Mindset Mistakes

14. Assuming a good book sells itself

    • Even excellent books need visibility, positioning, and promotion.

15. Not defining a target audience

    • “Everyone” is not a market.

16. Unrealistic expectations

    • Expecting bestseller status immediately or becoming discouraged too quickly.

17. Ignoring the long game

    • Many successful authors build readership over multiple books.

      
      

🧠 Big Picture Mistake (The Most Costly One)

Trying to do everything alone.Publishing is a team sport: editors, designers, marketers, and experienced advisors dramatically increase a book’s chances of success.

Publishing exceptional books of all genres since 2009

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