Oops! 3 Mistakes I’ve made in self-publishing since I started with Zombie Turkeys in 2016. I’ve made unique mistakes with each novel, but I’ll cover the big ones in this blog.
Oops! 3 Mistakes – The First Mistake I Always Make
What could it be? I’ve got an MBA. I’ve written computer programs to schedule, I’m a certified project manager. I have both training and experience in managing projects, like self-publishing.
Time estimation. Things always take longer than you think.
For example, my latest book, Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse, should be in my hands today. I planned to sell it at the Chambanacon convention. It’s not.
The book isn’t printed. The covers are done, but not the binding. And I just fixed a problem with the ISBN yesterday.
What went wrong?
First, writing the book took longer than I planned. I traveled to California and Israel, which impeded me. I also waited until the last minute/month to finish up.
Second, my editor took longer than I thought. She got a lot of work all of a sudden. No problem, if I had been done a month earlier.
Third, we found a mistake in my binding. Oops! 3 Mistakes I’ve made, number 1.
Oops! 3 Mistakes – My Second Mistake in Self-Publishing
Where else did I go wrong?
I thought nothing would go wrong. Never before did I have a typo in my binding. I never made a mistake with my ISBN before. But I have the capacity to make new, never before seen mistakes.
Maybe you do too.
Plan for mistakes in your plan.
Finally, Mistake Number Three
I know better about this one. I haven’t always failed here, but this time I did.
What else did I do?
I didn’t plan for slack time.
When I realized how little slack time I had to publish by November 29th, I should have blocked off all October as slack time to catch up with any problems. I should have targeted September 30th as my writing deadline.
Woulda, shoulda, coulda. Maybe you can learn from my mistakes.
I’m Thankful for You This Thanksgiving
I’m thankful for you, my blog readers and newsletter subscribers. I’m giving you 15 free middle-school books. Click below.
That’s right. You’ll get my latest novel Secret Supers for free here. Enjoy the first promotion I’ve run for this book.
But that’s not all! Click here next to subscribe to my newsletter and get my free short stories in my upcoming Oops! anthology.
Finally, newsletter subscribers will be able to get my audiobooks for free! Find out how in my next newsletter this month.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
