On your way to work today, you probably received lots of brand messages without realising. Maybe you picked up a coffee from a café with an Italian name and branding, maybe you grabbed a healthy snack in green packaging to go with it, or maybe you bought a bottle of water with a crisp, clean Alpine mountain on the side. Even if we take billboards and magazine adverts out of the equation, companies have a subtle way of telling you what they want to be known for in their marketing. Big brands spend millions on these clever ways of making you associate their name or product with certain values. Indie authors should be branding themselves in their marketing also.

Before setting up I­_AM Self-Publishing, I spent years working at a trade publisher and a literary agency, so I have seen just how many hoops authors need to jump through to get a publishing deal. In fact, one of the reasons I moved into self-publishing is because it became very difficult to get a publishing contract for a debut author, no matter how good they were. Here are reasons why literary agents and publishers reject books.

Top authors, entrepreneurs, and self publishing companies swear by the process of setting and working toward clearly-defined goals. You may think that things like visions and goals are only for the business world, but the most successful self-published authors today do treat their book publishing like a business. Indie authors are very busy, juggling lots of things, so without a clearly signposted path, it’s easy to get lost. Whatever stage you are at, goals will help you get more done and be more successful.

Self-publishing is a really exciting process. After spending years putting blood, sweat, and tears into your book, it can be tempting to rush to the finishing line, but that only leads to mistakes. Some authors don’t realize just how many careful processes are involved once the final draft is complete but before it makes sense to print a book.