When I started off my author career, I nearly ended it before it even began. I made a handful of mistakes that I'm going to share with you today, along with what I would do differently to avoid those mistakes in the future, and what you can do to avoid them as well.

The first mistake I made was not understanding the genre I was writing in. It's crucial to know your target reader and the genre they're reading. This allows you to align your book with that genre, so your ideal reader will actually enjoy your book. I created a story that was a mix of different genres, and it was a disaster. After that, I focused on the young adult fantasy genre, and my next book series was much more successful.

The second mistake was not having a good book cover design. The cover needs to match the genre, or readers won't be interested in your book. I tried to be clever with the cover, but it didn't work. When I changed the cover to fit the urban fantasy genre better, it performed much better.

The third mistake was valuing money more than growth. I was so focused on making money that when my second series didn't perform as well as I hoped, I got burned out. Instead, I should have focused on improving my skills as a writer.

The fourth mistake was seeking feedback from the wrong people. I should have shown my work to readers in the genre, not just friends and family. A developmental editor can also provide much more valuable advice.

The fifth and final mistake was trying to do too much in marketing. It's better to focus on one marketing channel and one target reader until you're making around $10,000 per month, rather than spreading yourself thin across multiple platforms and genres.

By avoiding these mistakes, you can set yourself up for success as an author.

When I first started my author career, I nearly ended it before it even began due to a critical mistake - I didn't understand the genre I was writing in. Identifying the right genre for your book is crucial, as it allows you to target the ideal readers who are likely to enjoy your work.

In my case, I created a story that was a mishmash of different elements - part Terminator 2, part science fiction, part urban fantasy, and part superhero novel. This lack of a clear genre direction resulted in a disastrous book that didn't resonate with any specific readership.

To avoid this mistake, I recommend conducting thorough genre research. Visit your local bookstore or explore the bestseller lists on Amazon to see what books are selling well in your desired genre. Analyze the common tropes, themes, and characteristics of those successful titles, and ensure your own book aligns with the expectations of that genre.

Using AI tools can also be helpful in identifying genre-specific elements to incorporate into your writing. The key is to find a genre that closely matches your vision, even if it means making some adjustments to your original concept. By targeting the right genre, you'll be able to connect with readers who are actively seeking the type of story you're offering, greatly improving your chances of success as an author.

When I first started my author career, I made the mistake of not having a good book cover design. As you can see from the example book, the cover did not clearly convey the genre. I thought I was being clever by using a black and white design, thinking I could build on it over the series. However, this approach was misguided.

The book cover is crucial - it needs to match the genre your book belongs to. Readers will judge a book by its cover, and if it doesn't look like it belongs in the genre they're interested in, they won't pick it up. I learned this the hard way, as this cover did not perform well.

Later, when I changed the cover to fit more of an urban fantasy vibe, I saw a noticeable improvement in engagement and sales. Readers could instantly recognize the genre they were interested in.

This is where a service like Get Covers can be incredibly helpful. They have designers who specialize in creating covers that align with specific genres. By using their expertise, you can ensure your book cover effectively communicates the genre to your target readers, giving your book the best chance of success.

After writing my first book, I set that aside and wrote an 8-book series that did relatively well. Feeling confident, I was sure the next series I wrote would be a huge bestseller. I wrote the first 2.5 books before even launching the first one, thinking the cover was amazing, the genre was dialed in, and it would make me a lot of money.

However, it ended up tanking, making only $500 in revenue after I spent $1,000 on ads - a $500 loss. This devastated me and caused the worst burnout I had ever experienced. The reason was that I had set my sights on the money-making potential rather than focusing on improving as a writer.

Had I made my goal to simply get better as an author with each book, rather than chasing the money, that failure would have just been another lesson learned. Instead, the burnout lasted for years, and I'm only recently been able to get back to finishing that series.

The key is to have the right priorities - focus on consistently improving your craft, as that is within your control. The money is not. If you persistently work on getting better as a writer, the financial success will likely follow eventually. But in the meantime, make your goal the growth, not the money, to avoid debilitating burnout.

When I was working on this title, I gave it to a lot of friends and family. There was one family member in particular who had read a lot of books, so I thought she might be able to give me advice. However, I got a lot of bad advice from all the people I shared this with. This was because, first of all, they didn't read the genre, and secondly, they weren't experts in writing.

When I went on to work on my next book, I decided to bite the bullet and get a proper developmental editor. This developmental editor was able to give me actual advice that was going to make the book a success. That's why this book and the series that follows is still my bestselling book series out of all the books I've written.

When you're just starting out, it can be difficult to scrape up the money to hire a developmental editor or someone like that. But at the very least, you want to be showing your book to people that read in that genre and can therefore give you advice on how they felt about it. Even a reader who doesn't understand storytelling will be able to tell you if something feels off or they don't like a particular scene if they are familiar with that genre.

If you can scrape up the money to afford an editor for your book, I highly recommend you do it. You're going to get much more valuable advice from those people than from your friends and family or high school English teacher.

Marketing is one of the most essential skills to build up early in your author career to succeed. However, in my case, I made the mistake of trying to do too much in marketing.

I was spending so much time reading about everything in marketing that I was spending less time actually doing all the things. When I did start working on marketing, I tried to do everything that everybody was telling me. This ended up with me managing to do very little in a lot of different things, which meant that none of those things ended up being super effective.

We all have a limited amount of bandwidth in what we can do and focus our attention on. Nowadays, I recommend to most authors who are just starting out to really hone in their focus and focus on one avatar (one type of reader), one genre, and one channel (one way of getting traffic to their books), whether that be YouTube, a specific social media platform, or a form of content marketing or advertising.

You're going to get so much more out of it by focusing intensely on that one platform and really mastering it, than you are going to be trying to do 10, 12, or 20 different things. That's why I tell people to pick one channel, specialize in it until you are an expert in that thing, and then focus on one type of reader and one type of genre until your books are making approximately $10K a month.

What I found by trying to do so many things is that I ended up not being able to succeed in any of them. It wasn't until I specialized in one form of marketing, in this case, YouTube, that I was able to do more with it than I could have done had I tried to do all of those things all at once.

When I first started my author career, I made several mistakes that nearly ended it before it even began. These mistakes included:

1. Not understanding my genre: I didn't properly research the genre I was writing in, leading to a book that didn't fit any specific genre well.

2. Poor book cover design: I tried to be clever with the cover design instead of making it genre-appropriate, which hurt my book's sales.

3. Valuing money over growth: I was so focused on making money that I got burned out when my second series didn't perform as expected.

4. Seeking feedback from the wrong people: I relied on friends and family instead of genre-savvy readers and professional editors.

5. Trying to do too much in marketing: I spread myself too thin across multiple marketing channels instead of focusing on one.

By learning from these mistakes, I was able to turn things around and find success as an author. The key is to focus on understanding your genre, creating a genre-appropriate cover, prioritizing growth over money, getting feedback from the right people, and specializing in one marketing channel. Avoid these pitfalls, and you'll be well on your way to a successful author career.