Mistakes We See Every Baby Author Make
If you've been searching for honest advice on self-publishing mistakes, debut author tips, or how to navigate indie publishing without losing your mind—you're in the right place. Whether you're a first-time author trying to figure out where to start, or a baby author who's already knee-deep in the process and realizing something might be off, this guide is for you.
Here's the deal—indie and self-publishing is the wild west of the publishing world. Everywhere you look, there's conflicting information—one author says to release your ARCs months ahead of reviews, the other says wait until right before. One says focus on ebooks only, the other says go all in on your debut. With so much conflicting information in an already sparse space, it can feel impossible to make an educated game plan.
That's where we come in. Hawthorn & Aster is a queer-owned ethical marketing company that specializes in indie and self-published romance. We've been around long enough to see what mistakes nearly every baby or debut author makes. Today, we're focusing on the top five—but trust us, we will be circling back to this subject at a later date. There's plenty more.
(I feel like we keep saying that we've "been around the block" a time or two, but it's true! If you could please imagine us as your one-foot-in-the-grave great-gay-auntie-Greta, that would be appreciated. That way you can receive this advice with all the love—and sass—that's intended to come along with it.)
Let's start with the most obvious (and damaging) mistake we see our authors make.
DIY-ing the Front-Facing Parts of the Book
Now, don't get us wrong, we absolutely love some DIY Queens/Kings/Non-Binary Rulers Supreme—but Great Gay Aunt Greta is gonna tell you something you need to hear.
Your cover shouldn't be your macaroni art.
Your editing shouldn't be your first-ever haiku.
Bluntly, your audience-facing materials cannot and should not be the part of your journey that you're diving into cold.
Allow us to explain.
Your book cover is the first thing your audience is going to see.
And while, sure, you can probably make something that looks "good enough" in Canva, here's the reality:
You're likely not a graphic designer or an artist
You likely have no background in print
You likely have no marketing experience to know how to create something that is genre-aligned and sellable
If you are a graphic designer or artist who has worked with print and has done in-depth market research, kindly disregard this section.
Working with a cover artist ensures a few things:
That your cover will be beautiful—exactly how you imagined it
That your cover will be print-friendly and legible
That your cover will be market-ready, designed by someone who works in the space and understands marketability within design
As we've said many times across all our platforms: if you spend your money anywhere, it has to be on cover design and editing. So, let's talk about what's happening beyond your cover—the story itself. Or rather, the editing.
Your editing is your reader's experience.
We know that you write beautifully—there's no question about that. But writing well is not the same as selling someone an optimized product. Think of it like this: editing takes your writing to the next best possible level. Let's walk through this realistically:
You likely don't hold an English degree (or a degree in whatever language you're writing in)
You likely don't know what the Chicago Manual of Style is, or its rules
You likely haven't stepped away from your own work long enough to see the errors
Ordinarily, I'd try to give some grace and space to people who still want to DIY here, but I cannot overstate the importance of working with an editor. Even if you have a PhD and can quote every rule in the CMoS like some bizarro grammar encyclopedia, you still shouldn't edit your own book* (if you can help it).
The reason is simple: we are all blind to our own work. You will miss something vital.
Working with an editor ensures that you will:
Receive a grammatically sound, CMoS-compliant manuscript
Get external insight about the story and, often, tips to enhance the reader's experience
Get to take a well-earned brain break from staring at your own words
And while we're here, we may as well talk about the next big bear trap we see our authors fall into: getting the wrong kind of editing.
Getting the Wrong Kind of Editing
You may think that sounds silly. Editing is editing, after all. But that's not quite true. There are actually several different kinds of editing—enough that we have literally watched our clients' heads spin.
And it's not just the type of editing that matters, either—it's also about finding the right editor. First, let's dive into the quick and dirty glossary of what most authors will encounter:
Developmental (Structural/Content) Editing: The "big picture" edit, most beneficial for stories with expansive world-building or complex structure (fantasy, mysteries, etc.). Developmental editing looks at the story as a whole, including restructuring, character motivation, and narrative inconsistencies.
Line Editing: A line-by-line edit focusing on the flow of your writing at the sentence level. Line editing will take your prose to a whole new level.
Copy Editing: Largely considered the final stage of editing—copy editing is the literary clean-up crew. This focuses on grammar, fact-checking, and any last-minute embarrassing snafus you wouldn't want existing in print.
Proofreading: The final boss. Proofreaders comb through the manuscript to catch any lingering typos, inconsistencies, or formatting issues (quotation marks facing the wrong way, double spaces, etc.).
As a debut or baby author, we would love to see you go through all rounds of editing—though you might consider skipping developmental editing if you had a strong beta reader or team and you're writing in a genre that's less lore-heavy. That said, we fully understand that budgets are tight and editing is expensive. So here is the absolute non-negotiable: line editing and copy editing.
Why? Your debut is your entry point into the publishing world. You want to showcase the best version of your craft. Line editing ensures that your writing is drop-dead gorgeous and ready for reader eyeballs. And copy editing, because grammar and structure matter. Before you dig your heels in, think about the last time you caught a typo in a book with over 50k reviews on Goodreads—and how it haunted you for a week.
Beyond the type of editing, let's talk about choosing the editor who is right for you. We'll be diving deeper into this subject at a later date since it's a rather in-depth topic on its own—but since we're already in quick-and-dirty-list territory, here's ours:
What does this editor's body of work look like? Do you like the way those books were edited?
Does the editor prioritize preserving your voice, or do they lean toward sentence-level clarity?
Are their prices frighteningly low? If so, do you know why? (Friends and family discount? Just starting out? They love your work and want to help?)
Did you like the sample edit they provided?
Okay, phew. We just covered a lot of ground in not a lot of time—but we promise, the hard part is over. Let's dive into the rest, shall we?
Going "All In" on Their First Book
Look, we get it. It's your dream come true. You want it to be everything you imagined. You want fifteen pages of cover art, sprayed and gilded edges, three sheets of stickers, and a custom PR box with confetti cut into the shape of your initials.
Take a seat with great-Auntie-Greta. We're going to hold your hand while we say this.
That's a bad business decision—for a few reasons:
Most authors never see a return on their first book. If you read last week's blog, you already know how expensive publishing can be.
If you start at the ceiling, there's nowhere to go but down.
If we were your business advisor (which we are not), we would tell you this: focus on an ebook and paperback for your debut, and crowdfund or Kickstart any extras for signed copies, stickers, and the like. Take all profits and funnel them directly into one of two things: additional marketing (paid Amazon, Bookbub, or Meta ads), or—if the interest is high enough—funding a special edition hardcover.
Which leads us to one of the most important points we have been screaming about since day one, and will continue to yell about for the foreseeable future.
Using Free ISBNs
Now, I'm going to be really direct with you—and it's going to sound really, really mean. But remember, I'm still holding your hand, right? Right. Okay, breathe with me.
Why the fuck would you give corporations creative ownership over your book?
Because that's what you're doing when you use their ISBNs. They become your publisher. That means any opportunity that comes down the pipeline has to first wrestle your intellectual property from the corporate Cerberus' teeth.
Think about it: why would companies like the 'Zon and D2D offer you free ISBNs? Out of the goodness of their hearts? No. They get something out of it.
A single ISBN costs $125. The next 21 times you want to go to Starbucks, make your cup at home.
Just don't give your intellectual property to corporations. We beg you.
Because we know how much you care about your book and the world you built—which leads us to the last mistake we see with nearly every client who walks through our doors.
Falling Into the Trap of Needing Everything to Be Perfect
We're going to give you the full client treatment right now, okay?
We often tell our clients that publishing a book is like planning a wedding. You get the big picture figured out and executed, and as the day creeps closer, you find yourself overwhelmed by all the tiny things that still need doing—napkin color? Seating arrangements? Aunt Betsy cannot stand Uncle Bob, so they have to be across the venue from each other.
But you did it. You planned everything perfectly.
Then the big day comes. Ah, shit—one of the bridesmaids decided to go vegan for the week. Great. The flower girl had a meltdown and now her mom won't let her walk the aisle—effing hell. The person of honor forgot the rings? (Fun fact: this happened to me. We actually mimed sliding the rings onto each other's fingers, and people's flabbers were thoroughly gasted when they didn't see rings at the end. Forgetful magic.)
The point is that no matter how perfectly you plan and how masterfully you execute, something will go wrong. And that's okay. That's just part of it.
You can publish 50 books and you will never have a perfect one. That can be a bitter pill to swallow—but let me invite you to sit with that feeling. Be curious about it. Ask yourself one question: what is scarier? Sending something imperfect out into the world? Or never having room to grow?
Truth Be Told, There Are a Lot More Than Just These Five.
But these are the five we felt most urgently needed to be said—the ones we see come up again and again with nearly every author who finds their way to us.
Self-publishing is a wild journey, and we know it's impossible to get a straight answer half the time. So stick around. Great-Auntie-Greta isn't going anywhere any time soon—though she may remind you that one foot is in the grave every time you go too long without stopping by.
Regardless of whether you've been with us for a while or you're just now stopping in, thank you for hanging out. We hope to see you next week.
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