I’ve been in the publishing business for a long time now and I can confidently claim that I’ve learned one fundamental truth: writing and publishing are more challenging, idiosyncratic, and difficult than thought by most of the people.

Many rookie writers who are trying to get their part of this big business fail because they don’t understand the complexity of writing, targeting, and marketing. As the result, they’re heading for a disappointment. Even some of published writers commit horrible mistakes and fail just as miserably to reach their goal of becoming a bestselling author.

I’ve compiled a list of the most common mistakes made by both new and experienced writers, myself included, when trying to create a best-selling book. Have a look and avoid all of them in your business.

Mistake #1. Unmarketable ideas

I often call this one “writing for the wrong reason.” It doesn’t mean a bad or inappropriate plot but rather lack of marketability of the entire idea of the book. Simply saying, no one will buy it because it’s poorly designed. What I mean by this is that marketable ideas always target the needs of particular groups of leaders.

A marketable idea is an attempt to provide something different, something fresh, unique, and informative. By failing to produce such an idea, you won’t become a best-selling author.

Mistake #2. Writing for money.

This one also falls into the “writing for the wrong reason” category. Thousands of people who try to become bestselling authors try to write a book that will bring them a lot of profits. They begin writing with this mindset, which becomes the reason they failed afterward.

One cannot be truly creative and helping if the only thing to be concerned about is money. Although money is one of the main reasons why you start in this business, focus on the book and readers, because it improves your ability to deliver something valuable.

Mistake #3: Overstaffing the front of the book

The first pages of the book usually include reviews, dedication, prolog, and other items. In many cases, young authors try too hard to be likable and stuff a lot of good reviews and other information in the first pages, pushing the actual text further. What they don’t realize is the frustration of potential buyers who download a free sample.

With all those reviews and other stuff in the front, the free sample contains just a few pages of the text of the book.  As the result, there is simply not enough pages to persuade readers to buy it because they don’t get to anything. To avoid this, it’s better to move some of the elements to the back.

Mistake #4: Lack of promotion plan

Another popular mistake made by authors is the lack of promotion. If you want your book to sell, you’d better develop some ways to promote it before you are done. Simply said, you need to create a foundation of potential readers that will wait for your book to hit Amazon or bookstores.

The marketing of the book requires a careful planning to ensure that you get the most of your effort. According to Standoutbooks, a writer needs to define the target audience, determine where this audience hangs out online, find out how much money are there to spend, provide guest blog posts, get reviews, and even produce a book trailer. Whatever steps you choose to implement, make sure that your plan targets the right people and creates anticipation.

Mistake #5: Ignoring to include author’s bio and photo

You want the audience to relate to you because you need to make a very good first impression. Expert writers often suggest that including a bio of the author is one way to establish his or her authority and show why they are a perfect person to write this work.

Naturally, lack of bio and photo in the book won’t accomplish these things. As the result, a good opportunity to make a good impression as a competent writer will be lost.

Mistake #6: Not willing to get support

In some cases, it’s completely okay to do everything alone but other times. It’s much better to have an assistant to speed up the process of writing and publishing. For example, one could use the help of a writing coach or a person who will help with phone calls, meetings, promotion and so on.

Turning to experts to advance towards goals or using outside help with business-related tasks is a legitimate strategy. For example, one of my buddies, Shaun D.,recently wrote his second book and hesitated whether to use a professional copy editor to check for mistakes because he thought there was none. When he finally decided and turned it in, the copyeditor found 400 mistakes.

That’s right, four hundred mistakes in just one book. Just imagine what could have happened if he didn’t use editing help.

So in conclusion…

The writing business is complex and demanding. That’s why so many authors fail to reach their goals. However, if you found some familiar mistakes in this article, there’s nothing to worry about. Thousands of writers commit them every day, but now you know how to avoid them and do things in the right way.

Follow these tips and get used to the phrase “would you like your book autographed?” after you publish your next book.