The most common self-publishing pitfalls

It isn’t only independent publishers who sometimes make mistakes. I’m sure we have all come across traditionally published books that have left a little something to be desired, that are full of typos or have been ‘blessed’ with a nightmare of a cover design. Yet the difference is that, in self-publishing, if there is something wrong with your book, it’s all on you.

With this in mind, it’s worth being aware of some of the most common self-publishing pitfalls and some of the things you can do to avoid them. Please feel free to add your own in the comments below.

Poor editing. This is one of the big ones, particularly for those who are new to self-publishing. It’s also relatively easy to fix. One option is to take more time to edit your book yourself. Another is to hire someone to edit it for you. Sounds obvious, but there are lots of books out there that would have benefitted from further editing.
Cover design disasters. The general rule of thumb here for self-publishers is that if you want a good cover design then hire someone to do it for you, unless you are a complete whizz at doing it yourself. If, like most of us, you aren’t sure where to even start, it’s probably not worth attempting yourself in the first place. If you do decide to go for the DIY approach, keep it simple so the scope for cover fails is as low as possible.
Boring blurb. You don’t have long to sell your book to a potential reader, so your blurb needs to be sharp, snappy and to the point. In short, make it interesting. And don’t make typos.
Formatting crises. It would be lovely if we didn’t have to worry about e-book formatting. Alas, this is not the case. How your manuscript looks on your word processor is not always how it will look in e-book form, so don’t forget to check it before you publish it.
Over-ambitious pricing. If you take a look at the prices of self-published books, many if not most of them will be priced at the lower end of the spectrum. This is because to price too high is often to put readers off and in a competitive market, no self-published author can afford to do that.
The extremes of marketing. One extreme is to do no marketing at all. The other is to go over the top with plugging your book at every opportunity. The former isn’t great as, obviously, if you don’t do any promotions, no one will find your book. The latter isn’t always great either as no one on your Twitter feed wants to be told to buy your book every five minutes from now until eternity. There is a need to strike a balance here.

What do you think are the biggest self-publishing pitfalls?