7 Book Writing Mistakes that Block the Success of Your Book n How to Avoid Them Have you read a self published book and noticed misspelled words, a wall of text and grammatical errors? Did it inspire you to read on? Or did it cause you to lose a tiny bit of confidence in the author? The truth is poor proofreading hurts the self published author and the industry itself. You see, every ounce of confidence lost in one self published author reflects poorly on all independent publishers. Professionalism inspires confidence. Whether you are writing a short ebook or a full length guide for your industry, your well edited words will work powerfully for you. In the same way professionalism inspires confidence to purchase your book, grammatical errors and misspelled words may cost you in lost sales. Correct these writing mistakes and translate your professionalism to more book sales. 1. Failure to check for spelling and grammatical errors. Don’t be lazy; use spell check. Also, look for singular nouns coupled with plural verbs and vice versa. Check for homonyms correctly spelled but misused words like to, two, and too or effect and affect. Correct punctuation errors like Em dash (-) to indicate duration instead of two (–). 2. Failure to cut selfish constructions containing ‘I’. Minimize the “I” in your writing. Your audience wants to know what you can do them. Answer their questions. Solve their problems with each solution. During the editing process, circle each “I” and replace as many as you can with a “you” centered sentence. 3. Failure to shorten your sentences. Slash your sentences to under 15-17 words. Don’t bog your readers with complex sentences. Remember multiple phrases slow your reader’s comprehension. Make it easy. Get to the point fast. 4. Failure to write compelling copy. Write for the 8-10 grade level. Reward your readers with benefits for them. Clear, easy to understand copy makes your reader want to read your piece to the end. Fill your writing with what’s in it for them. They’ll come back for more and tell all their friends. 5. Failure to avoid pompous language. The shortest, most well known words are best. The more syllables in a word, the less compelling it becomes. Cut all unnecessary adjectives. 6. Failure to slash adverbs. Go through and cut words like openly, suddenly, very that tell the reader instead of show the reader. Circle all the -ly and very words. Pull out your thesaurus and replace them with power words that show emotion or describe. 7. Failure to check the flow of information. Check your paragraphs for good harmonic flow and understanding. Meaning, make sure you don’t drop off suddenly and change the subject. Clear writing creates compelling copy. Compelling copy leads to more book sales. Are you ready to translate your professionalism to profits? Correct the above mistakes and watch your sales soar from the minute you publish. Remember to check for spelling and grammatical errors, check all dates, times and prices, slash the passive voice, cut the selfish constructions containing “I”, shorten sentences, write compelling copy, avoid generalities, slash the adverbs and check your flow of information. Implement these seven tips to begin proofreading for profits! Earma Brown, 13 year author and book coachGet a Free Book Writing Kit when you take the Write a Book Challenge. Send any email to writeabookwritetowin.org for the free kit including a 7 lesson mini-course “Win with the Writer Inside” or visit her at Book Coach Helping Aspiring Authors for more Book Writing resources and tips.

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