Chris A. Baird | May 6, 2020
What is the greatest misinformation you have read about book publishing?

What is the greatest misinformation you have read about book publishing? Find out the things that you should avoid and not believe in.

The question that was sent to me today is, what is the greatest misinformation you have read about book publishing? There are many things I come to mind but first, it is an excellent question.

If you are getting started with self-publishing in general, I'm assuming we're discussing self-publishing not just publishing with traditional publishing. Though, there is a whole series of greatest misinformation that has passed out about publishing.

But with self-publishing, there are a lot of ways in which you can do things incorrectly. And that would cost you a lot of time, money, and maybe your book never even makes it out to the market because of that.

But before we get started, check out my free Self-Publishing Checklist. Hopefully, that will help you out of it.

Let's start with my story. When I first started, I started with a book that told me how to do self-publishing. I still recommend it and it is a pretty good way.

You generally aren't going to want to guess how to get started with publishing. I started with a book and I didn't figure out those on the market. I just figured out what is it that I like to write about.

Check out this related article: Where Should First-Time Author Publish?

So, I just started writing my first book on a topic I felt I knew something about. I didn't know if there was a market for it or not.

I also didn't understand if there were niches. Or if that particular book is within the market that I was writing on that would be more profitable for me.

The idea of specializing in a niche was completely a new idea for me.

The idea that you would do that, so I sort of ignored that. I thought I could just figure it out by simply taking and reading a book that would tell me how to go through the steps.

Some of the greatest misinformation about publishing that I was exposed to very early was that it doesn't matter what you write about. Because after all, if you just write anything, I'm sure people will be willing to buy it.

A Whole Lot Of False Information

Now, here is a couple of answers that I came to over the years. One of them is, it doesn't have to be so complicated. Some people, when they create a course or they have a book, and they try to tell you there are a thousand things you need to pay attention to get it right.

So that can be a serious problem because if you see that this is going to be so complicated and that if everything isn't going right, you're not going to sell any books. And you might as well not even bother. That is a major piece of greatest misinformation.

The next one is the opposite. It is so easy to publish that you don't even have to work. It's virtually almost done for you right from the start, and that is also a piece of information that some people have in mind.

They get started and they quickly give up. They never managed to get that first book done. And so that's another one, it's going to require quite a bit of work to get the first book done.

The next misinformation is the idea that some people suggest that you have to pay a lot of money. Maybe you have to hire a marketing agency and you have to hire a publishing company. They would tell you that you have to do all of these things.

It's going to cost you $10,000 or $20,000 to get your first book out. When in fact, I know it is a little bit of a shocker, but you can actually do it for free. You don't have to pay a single dollar to get your first book out.

Now, I am not saying this book is going to sell or be a best-seller by any means. And that you are going to make your money back. I would not recommend going the free route.

Check out this related article: How Many Books Do You Need To Sell To Make A Living?

I believe that it should at least cost you probably about $50 to $100 to get your books going. But if we want to do it for free, it can be done.

There are values in doing it for free because it gets you started and it gets you moving somewhere. If money is an issue, well then, the free route may be right for you. If you look at some of my other questions, I explore this exact issue on some of my other blogs and videos.

The next one is, you won't figure out the best strategies alone. Some misinformation is the idea that through trial and error you are going to figure this out. You just need to give yourself a little bit of time.

And that the best strategies will come to you. That is completely false. So if anybody has ever told you that, "you know, you'll just do trial and error and you'll get it under control".

Some of the strategies I was completely blown away when I first started taking several courses on self-publishing. How many things I was doing that were completely incorrect and that you double, triple, or ten times the amount of sales when you're following the correct strategies.

Go For Latest Strategies

You need somebody who is aware of those strategies because you won't figure it out. There are people on Youtube who post videos all the time, telling you strategies that simply may have worked a decade ago.

But nowadays, they don't work at all. That's another aspect, something that you are going to want to pay a lot of attention to.

The final is that the rules of the game are changing continually. That sort of connects to the previous one which is something that may have worked 5 years ago. It may get you banned from Amazon today.

So I would highly recommend you, not try to just take old content and see if somebody has had worked previously and just keep running with. If you see your sales dropping, it's time to mix things up to figure out what changes need to be made and try new strategies.

Staying informed, being in a community, being aware of the latest things, are excellent ways of making sure that you do not fall for the misinformation surrounding the issue of old strategies still working.

Check out this related article: How To Self Publish On Barnes And Noble?

Some of the basics and fundamentals stay the same. Because psychology, the nature of marketing, the nature of sales, do not change over time.

If you're sticking with those classic copywriting skills and other skills regarding your book description, your cover, and things, those are going to be the same since they have been at the beginning of time.

People really haven't changed that much. What people are looking for that also we can learn a lot from things that have been done previously.

What have you found? Have you ever faced somebody coming to you with information you thought was valid and then you found out it was actually misinformation? I would be very interested if you leave your comments below and check out my other blogs and videos.

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