Learning from Our Mistakes with Self-Publishing and Marketing
Tonight, Laura Kirwan, Jeffrey Poole, Jo Lallo, and myself (Lindsay Buroker) went around in a virtual circle, talking about some of the mistakes we’ve made over the years, as related to publishing and marketing our books and, in some cases, choosing what to work on.
Here are a few of the topics we hit on:
- Editors — how not to find them and how to find them (and don’t forget to ask for a sample edit!)
- Cover art — the struggles of doing it yourself or even getting it right when you’re hiring a professional cover designer
- Signing up for one-stop publishing packages — (hint: don’t do this)
- The potential pitfalls of starting too many series at a time
- Genre hopping and whether it makes sense to take a pen name
- What not to do when an agent comes calling
- Some things to think about when choosing titles