When “good enough” is not good enough

By Julie Isaac

I recently took an author up on his free print book offer.

I also bought the “upsell” or “order bump” – the special offer presented to me after I completed the form. It was a $20 printed journal (I love journals) based on the book.

While I liked what the book had to say, the journal was another story. It consisted of seven sheets of standard 8½ by 11-inch paper encased in a cover. And of the 14 pages of content, eight were exactly the same.

Price and value

I’ve certainly purchased products before that I didn’t think were worth what I paid for them.

I remember a $47 purchase that I thought was overpriced but would have seemed perfect (to me) at $27. But even though it felt like I’d paid too much, it was still valuable information and I didn’t regret buying it.

This purchase felt different, though.

When good is good enough

I’m a big believer in the idea that quality matters.

That’s because a great book or product creates dedicated fans who want more from you. That leads to long-term success, whether that means they end up buying other books you’ve written or additional products and services related to what your books teach.

So, if perfectionism (or anything else) is keeping you stuck – if it’s stopping you from putting yourself, your books, and your products out into the world – then you’ve got a problem. In that case, if the book or product that isn’t as good as you’d like it to be, but is as good as you can make it at the time, publishing is an important step forward.

Good is good enough in that case.

How “good enough” works in your favor

Even though your book isn’t everything you’d envisioned, publishing it may be just what you need to help you break through a creative or emotional block.

You’ll also gain valuable insight from the feedback you get from readers, as well as from going through the full publication and sales process.

Your next book, product, or course will be better for having had that experience.

When you’re not helping anyone with “good enough”

The free book I received had tons of exercises in it, which the author could have easily used to flesh out the accompanying journal. Yet, for whatever reason, he chose not to.

A longer journal would still have been relatively simple to create. It would have been so much more valuable and supportive of the print book. And, it would have reinforced the book’s primary goal, the outcome it wanted to help me achieve.

For me, this is a powerful example of when being “good enough” is not good enough.

Yes, he got an extra $20 from me, which helped him cover the cost of printing and mailing the book as well as paying for advertising. But he also lost a lot, because I will never give that man another penny of my money. I won’t register for any online course; I won’t pay for coaching.

If he thinks it’s okay to give so little value for “only $20,” will he also think it’s okay to deliver little value for “only $200” or “only $2,000?” Think of all he has lost financially because of that substandard journal.

And we’re in the same niche. While I won’t publicly shame him, I also will never recommend him to my thousands of followers. If anyone ever asks me what I think of him, I’ll be honest.

Content that helps readers makes a lasting impression

To be clear, quality is not about volume. My problem with the journal isn’t about the number of pages.

I’ve known people who’ve sold information that fit on just a few pages, and no one felt cheated because the information was so helpful. In fact, many people teach courses on creating “tiny offers,” but they emphasize making these brief and low-cost products highly actionable and truly helpful.

When you can help your readers solve a problem or achieve a cherished goal, they’ll remember you.

Learn to recognize the difference

While I encourage you not to let perfectionism stop you from publishing and putting your work out into the world, whether it’s a blog post, a book, or a course, it’s also important to – as best you can from where you are – strive to be helpful and deliver real value.

The idea that “good enough is good enough” is meant to free you from whatever’s keeping you stuck, not give you permission to cut corners and prioritize fast and easy over providing quality content.

It’s up to you to find the sweet spot that allows you to publish valuable content that you feel good about in a consistent and timely manner.

How do you tell the difference between “good enough” and not yet “good enough?” Please tell us in a comment.

One of my newsletter subscribers subscribers sent me an unsolicited copy of his self-published nonfiction book. He included a note asking me to review it on Amazon.

He didn’t ask me if I’d review it before mailing the book. I wish he had, because it’s not the type of book I read, so I’m not qualified to review it.

But there I was, holding a book that was part memoir, part rant, and all awful.

Much of the content, while important to the author, was irrelevant to the book’s topic. In addition, because there were few paragraph breaks in the text — imagine a book with page after page of text with no white space — it was hard to read.

So I didn’t.

“Did you read it yet?”

The author kept hounding me for an “honest” review, all the while reminding me of how much that review copy cost him to print and mail.

I eventually read several pages to get a feel for his style and content. Then I scanned the rest to confirm that it was a book fueled by a vendetta and not by a need to help others. When I felt confident that I had seen enough to write an informed review, I did so.

I focused on the positives — his passion and topic knowledge — and gave it a three-star rating instead of a more honest one-star assessment.

It wasn’t the glowing five-star comment he expected, so he sent a scathing e-mail about me to his friend . . . or  — imagine “Dateline’s” Keith Morrison asking this question — “Did he?” 

The author sent his cranky message to me by mistake! Ha!

via GIPHY

Quality makes a difference

This author doesn’t understand the importance of quality — in his manuscript, in the finished product, or in his dealings with others.

If you want people to know about, purchase, and read your books, quality counts. It really is that simple.

People don’t tell other readers about books that are “so-so.” But they will do your marketing for you when you give them something worth sharing.

Signs of quality in a book

Whether you plan to write just one book or several, you need:

• A great title (and for nonfiction, a corresponding subtitle)
• An attention-getting, professionally designed cover that’s appropriate for your genre
• Excellent content
• Well-written content (which isn’t the same as excellent content — you can write well, but still produce text that’s useless)
• Text with very few typographical errors and grammar mistakes
• Quality marketing materials (this applies to everything you communicate about the book, from your tweets to your website)

It starts with the cover. There’s that cliche about how you can’t judge a book by its cover, but guess what: We do. And it’s the first thing we see when we discover a book.

Whether it’s a thumbnail-size e-book cover or one showcased on a bookstore shelf, if it doesn’t look “right,” we’ll move along without bothering to read the book description.

What’s more, if the cover looks amateurish, we’ll presume that what’s inside is sub-par, too. Can you take that risk?

Hiring help

If you’re serious about using your book to educate, entertain, influence, or inform, you’ll have to make sure it’s a quality product. Most authors need outside help to accomplish that.

There are all kinds of excellent professionals available to make sure that you’ve got the best book possible — one that represents you and your talents well. Yes, you will have to spend a little money on good talent, but isn’t that smarter than wasting your time producing a book that nobody reads?

Ask authors whose work you admire to refer you to cover designers, editors, proofreaders, and others who can help you take your book to the next level.

You can also use online writers’ forums, your local writer’s group, Facebook and LinkedIn groups, or your social networks to request referrals to trusted professionals.

A few resources for improving quality

I get a lot of e-mails asking me for resources, so here are a few that might help.

• Book covers: I know many authors who have been happy with the process at 99designs. For a more personal approach, consider my cover designer friend Alexander von Ness at Nessgraphica.
• Editing and proofreading help: Use the “Freelance Writer Search” option from the American Society of Journalists and Authors or the Editorial Freelancers Association.
• Ghostwriters: I’m a member of and recommend the “find a writer” resources offered by both the Association of Ghostwriters and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
• Quality marketing materials: At a minimum, you want an attractive website that appeals to your target reader.

Can you do all of it on your own? Not likely.

If you’re a good writer, you probably aren’t a good cover and interior layout designer.

If you’re a good artist, you might not be a solid writer.

Figure out where you’re weak and get help. You won’t regret it.

What services do you recommend for cover designers, book interiors/layouts, ghostwriters, editors, etc.? Please help others by sharing referrals!

(Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2012. It has been updated and expanded.)

Why?

Because the first book of this author’s that I read was profoundly disappointing. It was the length of a long magazine article and lacked depth, detail, and specifics.

Ugh.

I should have known better. There were several warning signs, including a do-it-yourself cover. The “product details” noted the (short) length. But the book’s excellent description hit all the right buttons — it promised the specifics I needed — so I took a chance.

Deliver what you promise

I would have overlooked many flaws if the book’s content had matched its description. All I asked of this book was to teach me something new.

But it didn’t.

Instead, the book was a shallow overview that left me feeling foolish for buying it.

Is this the reaction you want from your readers?

Do you want to give them the impression that you don’t really care about delivering on your book’s promises?

Probably not. I think you want to write a great book that readers will recommend to their friends.

To help make that happen, here’s a short list of what I see on Amazon that sends me back to the search bar for another option.

1. The book’s title is a mess.

Punctuation or spacing is missing. Words run together. A cover blurb is included in the title, even though it’s an endorsement, not part of the title.

For nonfiction, there’s no separation between the title and the subtitle. Almost as bad? There’s no subtitle.

2. It’s obvious you designed your own cover. (And that you’re not a designer.)

Nothing shouts “I don’t really care about my book” more than an obviously do-it-yourself cover.

If you don’t care enough about your book to make sure that the cover is appropriate for the category, why would I care enough to read it? You’re telling me that what’s between the covers will be amateurish, too.

(For tips on how to select the best cover, read “7 tried and true ways to make a book cover decision.”)

3. You aren’t letting me “look inside” the book on Amazon.

The “look inside” feature is the online equivalent of flipping through a book in a bricks-and-mortar bookstore. It gives the reader a preview of content and writing quality.

When you haven’t made it possible for me to peek inside the book, I start to wonder if there’s a reason why. That could mean that a preview might discourage people from buying.

That’s probably not the message you want to send.

4. Your book description is written and formatted like an advertisement.

Nothing shouts, “I’m an internet marketer trying to grab your dollars!” like a book description that looks and reads like a website sales page.

Hype might fool others, but it doesn’t fool me. I want thoughtful text that helps me see what I’ll learn from the book, not a huge, boldfaced font shouting at me.

Major publishers don’t use this approach. Minor publishers shouldn’t either. It’s insulting to the reader.

5. The book description is one long block of text with no paragraph returns.

This is a problem for two reasons. First, I can’t read text with no white space. My brain craves paragraph breaks!

Second, it tells me that you care so little about your book that you didn’t even review your sales page before it went live.

If you don’t care, why would I?

On the other hand … authors have been complaining that the system has messed with their descriptions. To be safe, go to your book’s page and make sure it looks the way you want it to.

6. You don’t have an author bio or the one you’re using isn’t relevant to the book.

Until recently, I was guilty of this. My bio just disappeared — poof! — from my Author Central account. One day it was there, the next, it wasn’t.

So, even if you’ve added your bio to your Author Central Author Page, check your book’s sales page to make sure it’s still there.

You’ll find a lot of helpful information online about how to write your author bio (including on this site), but the one thing that most self-published authors overlook is relevance. Novelists write that they’ve fulfilled a life’s dream by writing a book — not relevant — and nonfiction authors use a generic bio that doesn’t shine a spotlight on their best credentials for the topic.

Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, I need you to connect your life (and personality) to this book so I understand why you’re the right author for it.

Help me love your self-published book

I want to read more self-published books. I really do. I loved Karen Inglis’s and Kim Norman’s. I’d love to discover fiction that’s as good as their nonfiction.

But what I’m seeing tells me that many authors don’t care much about quality.

Here’s what Apple founder Steve Jobs says about that.

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.” ~ Steve Jobs

When someone tells you that what counts is quantity — when they tell you that you need a lot of books in the pipeline to be successful — look at the quality of what you’ve already written first. If it’s not as good as you can make it, don’t move on until it is.

Quality still matters.

Convince me to read your self-published book. What’s the best thing about it? 

Most authors feel a great sense of accomplishment when they hit “publish” on Amazon and make that labor of love available for purchase.

The smile that comes with that achievement quickly fades, though, when you discover that nobody is buying your book.

Once you take friends and family out of the mix, you’ve got no movement — no sales.

It’s discouraging. And it’s frustrating.

But it’s also typical, so know that you are not alone.

And know that you can turn that around if you work to avoid these three author mistakes.

Mistake 1: Asking other authors, “What are you doing to market your book that works?”

Why it’s a mistake: Each book has its own audience. If you write children’s books, your audience goes beyond the age range you’re writing for to adults who will buy your books for their children and grandchildren, as well as other adults who might purchase them as gifts. Those aren’t necessarily the same people who read science fiction.

Or memoirs.

Or are concerned about global warming.

Unless you’re asking authors who are writing for the audience you’re trying to reach, the answer to that question could be useless. Doing what they’re doing might very well be a waste of your time.

The fix: Be thoughtful and honest about who will love your book. (Pro tip: It’s not everyone.) Those people are your target audience — not mine or anyone else’s.

Then figure out where to reach them online and in the real world.

Yes, this takes effort. But nobody said marketing a book was easy.

Learn more about how this works in “The formula for more book sales.”

Mistake 2: Refusing to invest in your book’s quality.

Why it’s a mistake: Books sell by word of mouth. If your book isn’t exceptional, readers won’t recommend it.

Most authors need help to go from good to great. If you expect strangers to spend money on your book, you need:

• Excellent content.
• A compelling cover that’s appropriate for the genre.
• A plan for helping readers discover your book.

A professional editor will help most authors improve their manuscript; a professional cover designer will create a cover that appeals to your target audience.

Both come with a traditional publishing contract but when you self-publish, you have to find and pay for those professionals yourself.

Once you’ve got the best book possible, you need to let the right people know how it will transform their lives.

The fix: Ask successful authors to recommend a good cover designer, editor, and proofreader.

If you can’t afford to pay appropriately for decent help, you will want to manage your expectations about sales.

While the professionals are improving your manuscript and creating the ideal cover, you can start exploring your marketing options. My free Book Marketing Plan Template will walk you through the process.

Mistake 3: Not tracking your marketing activities and results.

Why it’s a mistake: You won’t know what works and what doesn’t if you aren’t linking tactics to outcomes. This is important because your goal is to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

If you’re making mistake number one — blindly following the lead of others — you’ll uncover that mistake if you’re watching what happens when you do something to promote your book.

Similarly, you’ll notice when you’re doing something right.

The fix: Try one new marketing tactic at a time, watch your Amazon ranking for changes, and record both the activity and results in an Excel file. Then watch for patterns.

For example, when I changed the keywords for my book’s Amazon listing, I sold more books immediately. I wouldn’t have seen that cause and effect if I wasn’t checking my sales.

Here’s what my tracking file looks like so you’ve got a starting point. Create an approach that works for you.

Find publishing success in 2018

Make 2018 the year you do what it takes to become a successful author. That starts with:

• Knowing who will love your book and learning how to reach those people with messages that will motivate them to buy, read, and recommend your book.
• Publishing the absolute best book possible — and accepting the outcome when you can’t do what it takes to meet conventional publishing standards.
• Doing more of what works to market your book and less of what doesn’t.

With some knowledge and effort, you can do it!

What’s your biggest book marketing challenge right now? Share it in a comment — maybe we can help. 

And in the case of the Grammarly free trial offer, you have everything to gain.

If you’ve spent any time on this site, you know that I often emphasize that:

1. Your book has to be a top-quality product.
2. Publishing the best book possible often involves paying for specialized services, such as copy editing and cover design.

That’s why I paid attention when I got an e-mail from the folks at Grammarly recently (that’s an affiliate link — as are others in this post. That’s how much I liked it.). They invited me to try their software that scans what you write for grammar and spelling errors. It also checks for plagiarism when you’re working with someone else’s manuscript (a great resource for high school and college educators, by the way). I use Grammarly’s plagiarism checker online because my articles have been copied and presented as someone else’s work before, and I don’t like it. The plagiarism checker makes me feel like I have a little more control over that situation.

Grammarly can help you save money on an outside editor by helping you find some of your mistakes before the editor’s meter starts running. Less editor time equals less money out of your pocket, right?

I tried it . . . I liked it

With that in mind, I accepted Grammarly’s blog post sponsorship offer (a free trial and an Amazon gift card in exchange for a blog reference).

I decided to use it for a week on my own writing assignments so I could test how it compared to the features built into Word for Windows. Word’s automatic grammar checker frustrates me because it often applies the wavy red or green underline to words or phrases that are correct. When clients see those colored lines on the articles I send them, they think I’ve made mistakes. Microsoft can’t be wrong —  right? Wrong.

Bottom line after a week: I like using Grammarly. It’s a bit like having a private writing coach who lets you focus a little more on what you want to say and a little less on how you say it, because your “Grammarly coach” will show you the grammatically correct way to express yourself. It helped me improve client article assignments before turning them in.

I also used it on a blog post, saving a few screen shots to show you here. In the example below, the software suggested that I might have a run-on sentence in the text. Thanks to that tip, I changed “Some won’t respond and others will decline to participate” to “Some won’t respond; others will decline to participate.” (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

On the other hand, in the example below, the software interpreted the last name “Costas” as “more than one Costa,” and gave me bad advice. That’s not unusual with the software. Like Word’s grammar checker, it will suggest changes that you really don’t want to make, unfortunately. That said, most of its recommendations are more sophisticated than what you’ll get from your Word processing software.

Overall, the software improved everything I used it on last week. The improvements weren’t dramatic because I write for a living, so I’ve got the basics figured out. But many authors aren’t full-time writers. Their “day  jobs” often involve little, if any, writing, so a little extra coaching from software can be very helpful.

Will it help you?

Because there’s a fee — $30/month, $60/quarter, $140/year — I’m not sure that full-time professional writers will get their money’s worth unless they have an employer who will pay the fee for them. I would definitely recommend it to authors who don’t already write for a living, though.

The site lets you try before you buy, too. Just copy and paste text into the trial box on the home page, then complete the form on the results screen for a free seven-day trial. (You might want to time your trial so that you’re using it when you need it the most.)

Note that the trial box on the home page doesn’t let you select the “style” of writing you need. When you access your free trial, you will be able to select from general, business, academic, technical, creative, or casual styles. That way, you’ll get feedback that’s appropriate for the end product and reader.

Your ultimate goal is a great book. We all need a little help with that.

What other software or products help you improve your writing? What do you recommend using?

Does quality matter in self-publishing?

By Kristen Eckstein

I’ve heard it from dozens of authors, “I just can’t seem to understand why my book isn’t selling. It sold well at first, but after the first 100 copies sales just… stopped. What can I do to market my book?”

Let me be frank. Marketing will only take your book so far if you’re lacking a quality product. Think about Amazon reviews for products people rave about (5 stars) vs. similar products in the same category people complain about (1 star). Most of those one-star reviews are complaining about the quality of the product.

If you cut corners in quality, you open the big fat door to failure after your family and friends all have copies of your book. The average self-published book only sells 75 copies. Average. Honestly, at first I didn’t believe that statistic since most authors I’ve worked with sell way more than that. And after seeing many poor quality self-published books, now I know why.

Benefits of quality

A high quality book reaps great benefits:

1. More sales—Books that look good and feel good make people look at them longer. You have seven seconds to convince someone to look further at your book after they see your cover. Make the most of that time!
2. More credibility—If you hope to get leads and new clients with your book, don’t cut corners. Cutting corners attracts the crowd who like to cut corners themselves. To attract higher-end clients, you have to show them a higher-end product. Think about the types of people who shop at Lexus vs. Kia. Lexus markets themselves as having a high quality product and Kia markets themselves as cheap. Who do you want to be?
3. More marketability—You can market a horrible book until the cows come home and sell a few copies. Or you can market a great book until the cows come home and become a New York Times Best Seller. The choice is yours.

If you’re on a tight budget and can only hire a professional, here are three things to make sure you outsource:

1. Editing—At bare minimum, hire a copy editor to look at your manuscript. Every book needs another set of eyes.
2. Cover design—People do judge a book by its cover. Studies have been done that prove this fact! Hire an experienced professional who specializes in book cover design and you won’t regret it!
3. Interior layout—MS Word is not a page layout program. This is one of the primary reasons self-published books get poor reviews or fail to sell, because books formatted in MS Word scream, “Look at me! I’m self-published!” Get yourself a professional book interior layout designer and give your readers a memorable experience.

Your book is your dream. It deserves to be treated with the highest respect and given the chance at a long and successful life, so give it that chance and watch your reputation and reach expand to new horizons and open doors to new possibilities!

Do you agree with Kristen? Why or why not?

It also had a few obvious typos.

I wanted to point them out so that he could correct them, but didn’t want to look like the petty nitpicker that I am. In the end (after debating with myself for about a minute — “Should I tell him? Should I mind my own business?”), I decided to tell him. After all, as you and I know, quality counts.

If his self-produced book trailer has typos, there’s little doubt that his self-published book has them, too.

“Don’t read me!”

Mistakes in marketing materials shout at potential readers, “Don’t read me! Don’t read me! The typos and bad sentence structure and never-ending paragraphs will keep you from enjoying the story!”

So . . . I told him.

He replied that he couldn’t fix the mistakes for technology reasons. I wanted to suggest that he stop using the book trailer if he couldn’t fix it, but managed to mind my own business this time.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a friend (and professional writer) posted on Facebook that her webmaster had spelled one word in her book title wrong on the website and in the corresponding URL. She tapped the collective wisdom of the group by asking, “Should I ask him to correct it?”

Hell, yes!

One responder noted that the mistake would reflect badly on her.

Nobody said, “Fuhggedaboudit.”

Mistakes cause problems

Here’s the deal: Proofreading your marketing materials is easy. Proofreading an entire manuscript is hard. If you can’t be bothered to make sure that you’ve spelled “diva” correctly in your book video (or worse, that you don’t even know that it’s not spelled “deva”), then we will presume that your book’s manuscript is even worse. Not many people are willing to read a book that is riddled with mistakes.

Even those who aren’t gud spellrs themselves can spot mistakes that others make — and be frustrated enough to wish they hadn’t bought the book.

And who is more likely to comment on the book on Amazon, B&N, or any other retail site that accepts reader comments? The person who feels ripped off or the person who thought the book was pretty good? We are moved to comment when we’re annoyed, not when we’re satisfied. If your book has problems, it won’t be a secret for long.

Your marketing materials are a window into the quality of your book. Even if you pay somebody to create them, proofread them carefully, and make sure they are visually appealing. They are your book’s business card. If your book is good — and I know you think that it is — then your promotional materials should be good, too.

What’s your take on this? What quality level do you expect in a book that you’ve purchased?