6 Writing Mistakes That Can Sabotage Your Book’s Success

Writing a successful nonfiction book requires much more than just putting pen to paper. Authors need to be intentional about avoiding common writing mistakes that can sabotage their book’s potential.

In this guide, we’ll explore 6 writing mistakes made by nonfiction authors looking to grow their businesses and establish themselves as experts. From focusing too narrowly on your own interests instead of market needs, to the pitfalls of editing during the writing process, being aware of these missteps is essential.

By steadily working through how to circumvent each of these 6 mistakes, you’ll chart the path toward publishing a book that truly resonates with your audience.

Mistake #1: Writing What You Want to Share Instead of What the Market Wants

One of the biggest pitfalls we see authors fall into is writing a book focused solely on what they want to share. This usually includes their interests, knowledge, and pet topics.

While your expertise and passions are important, if you go down the road of simply writing about whatever you feel like sharing without considering market demand, your book will likely struggle to find an audience and make an impact.

Focusing on Your Passions vs. Market Needs

It’s all too common for aspiring authors to get excited about the book they want to write. They let their brains fill with all the ideas and insights they can’t wait to put on the page. But if you’re not carefully analyzing where the intersection lies between your message and what your market is truly hungry for right now, you risk publishing something that falls flat.

READ MORE: Three Classic Disastrous Book Marketing Mistakes

Identifying the Critical Intersection

One of the most crucial things we work on with our authors is pinpointing the sweet spot between:

1) The current market landscape and trending needs/demands
2) The author’s authentic mission and message they feel called to share

It’s in finding that intersection where the magic happens. A book that perfectly aligns your expertise with what your audience urgently needs to hear has higher chances of success. Writing mistakes often start when authors miss this vital overlap and selfishly choose topics based solely on their own interests.

To avoid this mistake, always sense-check your book concept against the realities of what your market is seeking guidance on. If those variables are out of sync, it’s time to re-evaluate your approach before wasting time writing the wrong book.

Mistake #2: Seeking Advice from the Wrong People

Another major writing mistake authors tend to make is asking the wrong people for feedback. While input can be valuable, polling the opinions of those outside your intended audience is a surefire way to get derailed.

The Pitfall of Polling Non-Readers

Some authors run their book ideas by friends, family members, former colleagues, and others who don’t represent their target readership. While the feedback is usually given with the best intentions, these people simply aren’t qualified to judge whether your concept will resonate with the market you’re aiming for.

The harsh reality is that even the juiciest peach won’t taste delicious to someone who doesn’t like peaches. Your book isn’t meant for everyone, so getting advice from the wrong people can completely misguide your writing efforts.

Validate Your Idea by Pre-Selling

Rather than seeking opinions, the best way to validate your book idea is by pre-selling it to your real target audience. Offer a free webinar, workshop or other teaching experience built around the preliminary book concept. If you’re unable to attract signups from your target readers, that’s a clear sign your idea may need refinement.

But if those you’re writing for demonstrate enthusiasm by opening their wallets and signing up (even for free)? That’s powerful validation that you’re on the right track. Not only will this weed out dud ideas, but you’ll also start collecting leads to sell your book to later.

By validating demand for your book directly with your audience from the start, you’ll ensure you write something they actually want to read.

Mistake #3: Writing a Generic Book Instead of a Specific, Niche-Focused Book

In the past, many successful nonfiction books took a broad, general approach to covering their topics. However, some authors today are failing to shift towards the modern preference for specific, niche-focused books that solve a particular problem.

The Market Shift Towards Specificity

Thanks to the internet, readers now have access to an overabundance of free, general information on just about any topic. This has dramatically changed the book-buying landscape. Generic, “comprehensive” books that merely survey a topic at a high level no longer provide enough distinct value. People simply aren’t enticed to purchase them anymore.

What readers are hungering for now are highly specific guidebooks that deliver an amazing depth of insight into a narrow problem they need solved. For example, a book about starting a business as a mom of a special needs child or methods for negotiating your way to a higher salary. These niche-focused books concentrate on precise pain points that are simply much more compelling.

The Power of the “Concise Expert” Book

By writing a tight, niche-focused book, you position yourself as the concise expert for that particular sliver of your broader topic. This allows you to charge premium prices and attract clients more effectively. It also lets you make a bigger impact by delivering profound value.

Generic, rambling books trying to cover too much ground at once often have the opposite effect. They leave readers underwhelmed with surface-level knowledge and unclear on your unique expertise.

Avoiding this common writing mistake of taking too broad an approach is essential in today’s market. Concentrate your book on solving a distinct, niche problem to ensure it resonates.

Mistake #4: Editing While Writing

One of the biggest culprits of writing sabotage is editing while writing. Trying to construct and critique your book simultaneously is a recipe for stagnation.

Separating the Writing and Editing Mindsets

The writing and editing processes employ very different cognitive modes that are best kept separate. Writing calls upon your creative, free-flowing right brain to envision and express ideas without judgment. Editing, on the other hand, activates the analytical left brain to logically examine and refine that output.

When authors attempt to write and edit at the same time, they end up stuck in a constant cross-pattern of competing mindsets. This clunky back-and-forth grinds the creative process. It halts your brain with incessant questions and second-guessing of every sentence as you write it.

The “Keep Writing Forward” Mantra

To avoid this debilitating writing mistake, we teach our authors to embrace the “keep writing forward” mantra. This means separating the acts of writing and editing into two distinct, linear phases.

During the initial writing phase, the only goal is to keep making forward progress. You want to get that very first draft out onto the page as fluidly as possible. No editing, judging, or critiquing is allowed until the full draft is complete.

Then, and only then, do you return to apply an editorial lens and start refining. Giving your creativity free rein during that initial writing stage, unencumbered by premature criticism, unlocks exponentially higher productivity.

Mistake #5: Marketing After Writing Instead of Before and During

One of the most costly writing mistakes is waiting until after you’ve finished your book to start promoting and marketing it. This puts the cart before the horse.

Generating Revenue and Leads From Day One

Rather than writing in a vacuum, successful authors leverage their book projects as revenue generators. Consider them lead machines from the very beginning. You can start validating interest, collecting email leads, and even making sales for your book’s core concept before you ever write page one.

The key is offering some form of free content or teaching experience related to the book’s promised solution. This could be a webinar, video training series, or live workshop. Basically any way of delivering an appetizer of value to your target audience. Those who show up and engage with this preview content have already self-identified as being interested in what your full book will provide.

This will also allow you to organically build an audience of qualified prospective readers who you can continue marketing your book to as you write it.

Turning Your WIP Into a Marketing Machine

As you make progress on your draft, you can continue feeding this eager audience bite-sized samples of your book’s insights and content. Each chapter or section you complete presents an organic opportunity to further nurture these leads by sending an excerpt, making an offer, or delivering another piece of related value.

By the time you finally publish, you’ll already have cultivated a substantial pool of productive leads and revenue generated directly from your book – before it’s even finished. Waiting until after writing to start marketing is one oversight that can severely undermine your book’s success.

Mistake #6: Expecting to Make Money from Book Sales Alone

While every author dreams of their book becoming a bestselling smash hit, one of the most pervasive writing mistakes is expecting to fund your entire business solely through book sales revenue. This outdated approach needs to be adjusted for the modern reality.

Books as Lead Generators, Not Profit Centers

For the vast majority of non-celebrity authors, books no longer function as primary profit centers in and of themselves. Rather, their biggest value comes from using them as a led generation tool for your main revenue streams like coaching, consulting, speaking, online courses, or whatever your core offering is.

Your book serves as an inexpensive way to attract, educate, and nurture prospective customers for your services. But counting on book sales alone to independently sustain your business is extremely unlikely to work in today’s book market unless you’re a huge name.

Adopting the “Shoe Money” Mindset

So what should your expectation be when it comes to book sales income? We recommend adopting the “shoe money” mindset. Any royalties you generate from book purchases should be treated as fun, discretionary money – enough for periodic shoe shopping trips, but not enough to seriously grow your business.

This mental framing of book sales as “shoe money” rather than make-or-break income is vital. It allows you to feel appropriately celebratory when book royalties come in, while not derailing your overall revenue strategy if those numbers happen to be modest or inconsistent.

By avoiding the writing mistake of building your entire business plan around direct book sales, and instead using your book as a lead generator for your main services, you’ll be positioned for sustainable success.

You’re Ready for Literary Success

From writing what you want to share instead of what the market demands, to the mistake of expecting to fund your entire business through book sales alone, there are many potential pitfalls for nonfiction authors to avoid.

Steering clear of these 6 common writing mistakes – seeking advice from the wrong people, taking too broad of an approach, editing as you write, neglecting to market from the start, and misaligned revenue expectations – is crucial for ensuring your book resonates with readers and achieves your goals.

By being aware of these hazards from the outset and adjusting your approach accordingly, you’ll put yourself in the best position for nonfiction book writing success.