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The world of book publishing can be notoriously difficult to navigate, especially when you're bombarded with conflicting pieces of book publishing advice. Your author friend might give you one tip, and then someone you follow online could say the exact opposite thing, and then there could be a Twitter thread going around that is debating the exact same topic — and you have no idea what to think.

There's a lot of confusion and misinformation when it comes to the publishing industry, so as you prepare to publish your book, it is really critical for you to seek out sources of genuine, helpful guidance. Today, I want to specifically talk about five commonly given pieces of bad publishing advice and talk about alternative ways to think about them that will actually help you make informed decisions about your publishing journey.

1. Only Write in Trending Genres

The first piece of bad publishing advice I hear all the time is to only write in trending genres. Writers love to constantly discuss and debate what genres are “trending” in any given year, but really, in the traditional publishing realm, agents and editors very frequently dismiss the idea that trends meaningfully inform their decision-making.

Now, I am guilty of discussing trending genres myself because I know it's something that authors are always thinking about. But at the end of the day, whether or not your genre is trending should not ultimately matter, and you should certainly not only choose to write in genres that are theoretically going to be trending.

That's because in the traditional publishing realm, the time from which write the book then see that book published is very long — after you sign a book deal, it’s typically a year or two before the book is on the shelf. So, any trends that your agent or your editor at the publishing house were responding to when they signed you are basically going to be null and void by the time the book actually comes out. That's why trends really don't dictate how agents and editors make their decisions; they simply want to sign books that they feel are compelling and will resonate with readers.

Now, there are certainly waves where we see certain genres become more popular, like vampire romance in the Twilight era. But it's not a good use of your time to think about what publishers want and then try to write for that. Most likely, that's just going to end up feeling derivative and uninspired. Publishers are more interested in unique stories that you feel compelled and passionate about telling — and that, I guarantee, is going to show on the page.

If it so happens that a piece of pop culture or a trending topic happens to align with the content of your book, then that's great and serendipitous, but it's not something you need to get published by any means — and you should not force your book to fit in some kind of trend that you think publishers want.

2. Don’t Bother with Publishing if You’re Not Famous

While it's true that the traditional publishing landscape is incredibly competitive, it is false that publishers are only looking to publish books by celebrities or people who have very large social media followings.

Having a large audience can only help you with publishing because you have a built-in network to market your book to, and publishers want to sell as many books as possible. But they're ultimately looking for well-told stories that are offering something new and exciting. If an amazing story that captivates them crosses their desk by an unknown author who has no social media presence, that isn't going to stop them or be a deal-breaker. They're likely still going to express interest in that book if they loved it.

When I worked in the industry, we signed plenty of authors who had little or no social media following. If you don't believe me, you don't have to take my word for it — go to PublishersMarketplace.com. If you don't have an account, you will have to buy a one-day pass, and you can look up all the recent book deals in the debut fiction category. This means this author has never been previously published before, and this is their first book. Look at some of the authors' names who just got these book deals. I guarantee you're going to find some who don't have a large social network.

This is one of the biggest pieces of bad publishing advice I see constantly, and I want you to detach from this idea that you're never going to get published if you aren't famous or don’t have a huge social network.

3. Just Get the Book Out There

Whether you are trying to pursue traditional publishing or you're interested in self-publishing, the truth is the publishing process takes a lot of time and energy and effort. It takes a long time to get a high-quality book written, printed, put on the shelves and then into readers’ hands.

While you might be ready to just see the story published ASAP, you won't be doing your book justice by rushing this process. I really recommend being patient and making sure you're being thoughtful and taking all the necessary steps to put a high-quality book into the world. You want to make it’s the strongest it can possibly be; this book means so much to you that it wouldn't be worth shortcutting the process.

If you're querying, I know it can feel tempting to just send out your rough draft of your manuscript to see if agents have any interest in your premise or your writing, even if you know it's not the best you've ever done. But I really don't recommend doing this because when you query literary agents with your book, you typically only have one shot per book per agent. So, if they reject that book because it wasn't ready and it wasn't polished enough, then you typically can't go back to them with that same book unless you pretty much rewrite the whole thing such that it's almost an entirely different book.

You want to make sure you're putting your best foot forward and presenting agents the strongest possible version of your book from the get-go. To do this, I recommend heavily self-editing and getting feedback from a trusted external source if you haven't already.

Now, if you're self-publishing, I don't want you to just write the draft and then put it up on Amazon and hope that it sells. Make sure you're investing in rounds of professional editing, all the way from developmental editing down to proofreading. You're also going to want to invest in high-quality cover design and book formatting because this is going to ensure your story is on par with books that are published through publishing houses. Readers are going to be able to tell if you didn't do much work to the manuscript and it looks sloppy, and they're not going to want to buy your next book and may even leave you poor reviews.

As excited as you are to get your book out there and see it published, be thoughtful and really put the time and energy that this process requires into it, because I promise you're going to feel much better about the outcome if you take the time to do all that work.

4. Your First Book Won’t Be Publishable

Some authors are given the bad publishing advice that they shouldn't even worry about trying to publish their very first manuscript because it's going to be so bad that it's unpublishable, that it was really just a “practice book,” and that they should focus on their second, third, or fourth book.

While it's absolutely true that you are only going to grow and develop in your craft as a writer as you write your subsequent books, I hate this the idea that your first book is trash by default. That is not necessarily the case at all. If you personally feel that your first book was a mess and it's something you want to never see the light of day, by all means, work on your next books. But you wrote this book for a reason, and if you still feel passionate about it and you still think there's something there that might resonate with readers, there's no reason to put it in the trash can just because it's your first book. If you're proud of it and you're still passionate about it, by all means, continue to pursue it.

When I was in the industry, we signed plenty of authors on their very first book. That doesn't mean their book was perfect on the first draft, but they were committed to it and were dedicated to seeing that project through to the end, and their work resulted in something that was worth publishing.

So, don't write off your first book just because it's your first.

5. Focus on Building an Audience

The final piece of bad publishing advice I want you to ignore is to focus all your efforts on building a platform. As I mentioned earlier, having an audience is only going to help you when you go out to publish your book because that's a built-in group of people who are likely interested in buying it. However, I personally do not recommend making growing your author platform your number-one priority as you are pursuing publishing.

Sometimes I see authors spend all their efforts on building a newsletter and writing content for that or writing a blog where they share excerpts of their manuscript or creating fancy book trailer videos, all in the interest of building a platform. And while these can potentially grow your readership, they might not actually make that meaningful of a difference but take up quite a large amount of energy and effort on your end that could have been better spent on other aspects of your publishing journey.

What I think is the most important thing for you to focus on is to make your book as strong as it can possibly be. That means investing time and energy into revising the manuscript and developing your story so that it really is achieving your vision and so that readers are so captivated by it that they can't put it down. A good book should feel effortless to read, but there was so, so much effort put into making it that way, I promise you.

I also think it's worth your time to research your publishing options, and if you've decided to query literary agents, be very strategic about how you're querying and who you are reaching out to. If you're self-publishing, I recommend spending a lot of time educating yourself on the different platforms, your different options for distribution, and what you'll need to do in terms of marketing and publicity to self-publish successfully.

I'm not saying there's going to be no effort needed on your end to build a platform and market your book or that you shouldn't at all try to build an audience, but I don't want you to neglect the crucial work you should be doing on your manuscript and on researching your publishing options to just solely focus on the platform. The platform is important, but is ultimately secondary to those other elements that you need to make sure are in place.

I hope these tips help you navigate your publishing journey with more confidence and spot pieces of bad publishing advice circulating among the writing community. Thanks so much for reading and happy writing!

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