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Origin Reddit Post
r/selfpublish
First book mistakes?
Posted by u/theTrueLocuro•06/05/2025
I'm about to start mine. What were your first book's mistakes?
Top Comments
u/DoubleWideStroller
Solidarity.
u/smoleriksenwife
Spending months querying, hiring a developmental editor off readsy, our proofreader choice ended up being a flop as well.
u/RobertPlamondon
My protagonist was too quiet. This meant that other characters stole most of the scenes and I couldn't turn the banter up to eleven unless there were three people in the room.
I also though
u/TheLandoSystem59
Putting the F word in it. People don’t like that, especially older people who tend to read more than other demographics.
u/apocalypsegal
Read the wiki and learn stuff. Learn how to tell stories before you even think about publishing. Everybody makes mistakes, but no one has to make all of them.
u/No-Yogurt6594
My first book mistakes happened twice now. It had too many extra blank pages and forgot to add page numbers.
u/OnlyReflection6
not putting paragraphs, it looks like a letter
u/DCON_Youtube
Starting posts on Reddit about writing rather than just writing.
u/LoveAndViscera
Publishing draft 5 instead of draft 7.
u/A_Abrems
This is embarrassing, but I wrote my first book back when I was 13. Of course, as a 13 year old dyslexic child who was never taught the proper rules of prose, it sucked. My declining mental h
u/Lemon_Typewriter
Im rocking in a corner reading that!
u/AverageJoe1992Author
"First book mistakes" usually end up being things to do with publishing, rather than content.
Content is subjective. Don't worry about 'mistakes' until you have something to publish
u/SillyCowO
Don’t worry about the marketing until your first draft is done and edited.
Don’t toss the first draft because it’s “bad.” The first draft is supposed to be bad. It’s the bones for your stor
u/Substantial_Salt5551
I’ve heard other people say this on here too (so I think it’s common?) but I still don’t know what genre my first book was. I still don’t think the concept was horrible, but the plot was a di