There are mistakes made by authors when they just want to start publishing their works. Publishing is a totally different ball game from writing. This article is targeted to all the authors that are new to publishing and they are the most common mistakes made by authors.
Researching: Researching the publishing house is very important. Researching the publishers is almost a whole work on its own. Most new writers don’t bother to find out about their publishers and the good thing is, doing it right the first time, you might not need to research another publisher or publishing house again. When researching about the publisher, try to look out for the publishers to avoid, find out as much as possible from the publishing house’s website and run away from the wrong publishers.
Editing: No publisher will like to publish a manuscript that is not edited. The manuscript, manuscript excerpt or even query letter should be well-edited, a publisher will not likely go through a work full of errors. Even though an editor can be expensive, try to get one or get friend(s) to go through it. You can also get writers that you can exchange manuscripts to edit if you can’t afford to pay for editing.
Submitting works once or twice: Agents and publishing houses get loads of works and therefore take time to respond, don’t stop submitting your work during that period. Submit your works as much as possible until your work gets accepted.
Taking rejections seriously: When your work gets rejected, don’t get dejected. It is likely you get your work rejected by the first publisher you apply to. Don’t lose hope, submit to another and another until you get accepted.
Self-publishing: Most authors that are new to publishing always self-publish and publishers will likely not accept works that have been previously published and those works might be rejected.
Little or no experience with publishing: Authors should get to know how the way of publishing is. Since it is the first-time publishing, authors should know how publishing works and know the errors to avoid when submitting their manuscripts even though knowing about publishing comes with experience and experience takes time. Publishing works in different fields has different publishing rules.
Not following guidelines: When you finally get the publisher to work with, follow their guidelines. What the publisher does not want, do not do. What a publisher wants, try to do it. Try to get publishers that work with your field so that your manuscript does not get rejected, submit what the publishing house will accept.
