The Biggest Self-Publishing Mistakes That Cost Entrepreneurs Thousands

Self-publishing a book sounds empowering… until the hidden costs start stacking up.

In this solo episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show, bestselling author, publishing strategist, and founder of Automatic Authority Publishing & Press House, Tarryn Reeves, pulls back the curtain on what no one tells you about self-publishing, especially if you’re an entrepreneur writing a book to grow your business.

From expensive “cheap” editing mistakes and amateur cover design to formatting nightmares, failed launches, and books that never convert into clients, this episode exposes the real financial, emotional, and strategic costs of doing it alone.

If you’re planning to write and publish a non-fiction book to build authority, generate leads, and position yourself as the go-to expert in your industry, this episode could save you thousands and years of wasted effort.

You’ll discover:

• The biggest hidden expenses most self-published authors don’t budget for
  
  
• Why “DIY publishing” often costs more than professional support
  
  
• How poor editing, design, and launch strategy damage your credibility
  
  
• The most expensive mistake entrepreneurs make when publishing a book
  
  
• Why your book should be a business asset, not a passion project
  
  
• How to publish strategically so your book attracts clients, not crickets
  
  

Whether you’re at the idea stage, halfway through your manuscript, or recovering from a failed self-publishing attempt, this episode will help you make smarter decisions before you hit publish.

Because publishing a book isn’t the goal, building authority, visibility, and impact is.

👉 Learn more about working with Tarryn and her team at www.automaticauthority.com

Transcript

0:39

So today I want to take you behind the glossy Instagram posts and the whole I published my book in a weekend narrative and talk about something that nobody in this industry seems brave enough to talk about, honestly. And it's the hidden costs of self-publishing, the ones that drain your wallet, your energy, your brand, and your time. Yes, we are going there today because too many entrepreneurs come to me after they've tried to DIY their book, after they've been burned by cheap services, after they've spent thousands and have nothing to show for it. Or worse, they published a book that actually hurts their authority instead of building it. So if you're planning to write a business building book or you've been thinking about publishing, this episode will save you years of pain and potentially tens of thousands of dollars. So let's dive in. First up, we're going to talk about the real cost of cheap publishing. Because here is the truth that I wish someone had said to me when I published my first book. Self-publishing isn't cheap. Bad self-publishing, yeah that's cheap, but you'll pay for it later. And every time someone says, I found someone on Fiverr to edit my book for 150 bucks, or I'm just going to get a $29 Canva template for the cover I'll upload it myself, how hard can it be? I can practically hear and see the future chaos unfolding. Let me break down the four most common ways that cheap self-publishing becomes expensive. First up, you will end up rewriting your manuscript. So the cost for that is time, frustration, and reputation. People think that editing is proofreading. No, it is not. A good editor creates clarity, flow, impact, sellability. A cheap edit leaves holes in your story, disjointed messaging, awkward sentences, and worst of all, a confused reader who simply won't buy from you. When I work with people, we do three rounds of editing by three different editors who are skilled in three different areas of editing. I have a diploma in editing. It's a thing. People go and do courses and get certified and diplomas and degrees for this sort of thing. Okay? Issue number two, your cover screams amateur and this one will kill your sales like nothing else. The cost here is sales and authority. People do judge books by their covers. I do it, you do it, everybody does it. Humans are shallow, we are shallow beasties. This is the fact. A cheap cover design uses stock fonts, predictable layouts, low res images, zero market research about what is actually selling in that niche. But a professional cover designer uses behavioral psychology, genre data, buyer preferences, color theory, A-B testing, platform algorithms. There is a massive, massive difference here, between a Canva template and what is actually going to sell your book. The other thing is formatting, or sometimes known as typesetting. Hell, the cost here is literal weeks of your life, and headaches. I remember when I first started my publishing company, the formatting was the thing that just undid me again and again and again. I remember countless, countless nights, 3 a.m., 2 a.m., on the floor of my office, literally in the fetal position, crying because one of my typesetters had screwed up again or we'd gone back for a round 1 billion of typesetting. It is something that is so important to get right and is an actual art Now, every platform is different. You've got Kindle, paperback, hardback, IngramSpark, KDP, you've got margins, you've got bleed, you've got trim sizes, you've got font licensing, and one wrong setting and your book prints like a newspaper funeral notice. Your literal funeral notice for your book. The other thing is launching with no strategy. The cost here is zero visibility and zero reach. You don't just upload a book, you launch a product, a brand, a piece of intellectual property designed to bring you business. Skipping strategy will cost you credibility and it will cost you money. So now that we've kind of gone down that little rabbit hole, let's get practical because there are actual line items that most authors don't know about. So grab a pen, seriously, yes, I'm serious, pause this, grab a pen, open your notes app, come back to this, save it, whatever you need to do, because this is important. The first line item I wanna chat about is professional editing. So you've got your developmental edit, your line edit, your copy edit, and your proofreading, and the range that you can expect to spend on this, depending on the quality of the editor that you're hiring, or the company that you're hiring, can range anywhere from $2,000 right up to 15 grand. Okay? Next up, you've got your cover design. Your professional, please hear this, professional cover design. Not just a nice design, you want a cover that converts. For this, you're looking at anywhere between 500 to $3,000. Okay? Then you've got your interior layout and typesetting, your formatting, professional formatting. This can range anywhere from $400 to $2,000 depending on the type of book that you're putting together. Then you want to talk about ISBNs. One book needs multiple ISBNs. This is the number that you have to register in order to be able to sell your book. Okay? You will need one for your paperback, you will need one for your ebook, you will need one for your hardback, you will need one for your audiobook. Series, you're gonna need even more. So the cost for these is about $60 each. Or you can bulk buy a pack for about $480 plus. Right? Then you want to look at legal deposits and copyright registration. Now these are not mandatory everywhere, so be sure to do your homework, but they are still a cost. Okay? Then you want to have your author website updates, your landing page, your lead magnet funnel, your book funnel set up, because if you don't have this and you just pop it up on Amazon, You might make some sales, but is it gonna lead to more business for you? Probably not. For this, you're looking anywhere between $500 to $5,000, okay? Then you wanna be looking at your launch tools, your ARC team software, advanced reader copy, sorry, ARC, advanced reader copy, team software, email marketing tools, ads, PR. You wanna budget anywhere between $500 to $10,000 plus for this, depending on how big and how hard you wanna go. Printing costs. You can print on demand or you can print on bulk. Either way, it is still a cost. Then you want to look at optimizing your Amazon page, categories, keywords, metadata. And this is where people really, really screw themselves. Make sure you do your homework or hire a professional who can do this for you. And last but not least on our little line item agenda, we have got the biggest one. It is the hidden time costs and the one that entrepreneurs never calculate. When you DIY everything, here's what you actually spend. Weeks you could have spent selling something else, the mental load that steals your creative energy, time away from clients and time away from revenue producing activities. So if your hourly value is $500 to $5,000, DIY publishing is the most expensive decision that you can make. Now let's go even deeper because the real cost of DIY publishing isn't really the money. It's your energetic bandwidth. And I have been there. Multiple authors have been there. You've got the cost of overwhelm. Figuring out KDP settings at midnight is not CEO behavior. The cost of decision fatigue, hundreds of micro decisions, fonts, colors, spacing, trim size, metadata, keywords, the list literally goes on and on and on. When we publish a book in my company, the standard operating procedure is over 100 micro steps. Okay? With multiple people delivering on that. Then there's the cost of shame. You publish a book you aren't proud of, so you don't promote it, so it doesn't convert, and so your brand suffers. The cost of feeling unsupported. Publishing is lonely, especially if you're doing it all yourself. And worst of all, there is the cost of lost momentum. You start, you stall, you stop, and the book actually never does get finished. And this is the part that nobody talks about, but I will because I've rescued enough authors to see the pattern. And here's the one that hurts the most. The single greatest financial waste in self-publishing is this. Writing the wrong book for the wrong person with the wrong strategy. And I see this constantly. Coaches writing memoirs that their clients really don't actually care about. Business owners writing inspirational books with no offer bridge. Entrepreneurs writing too broadly. Visionaries writing without an angle. And founders writing books that don't align with their current or future business models. A book is a product in your business ecosystem. If it's not aligned with your authority positioning, your core high ticket offer, your lead gen strategy, and your long-term business vision, it does not matter one single iota how beautifully written it is. It will not convert, it will not lead clients to you, and it won't create automatic authority. This is why I always say your book is not the goal. Your book is the vehicle. The goal is authority, visibility, and clients. And when you get this wrong, you pay for it with years of lost revenue. So let's flip the script. Why done with you and done for you publishing actually saves you money. So people look at professional publishing services and think, that's expensive. No. It's cost efficient because it removes the hidden costs entirely. So here's what you actually get when you work with a professional publishing partner like us at Automatic Authority Publishing and Press House. You get strategy before you even write. We build the book around your business model so the book sells you. You get editorial excellence, no amateurs, no cheat fixes, real editors with real proven experience. You get the proven launch formula. Our clients don't just figure it out. They follow a tested framework that guarantees results. We literally guarantee results. Best seller campaigns, not luck, not chance, not a drop in the ocean. It's a strategic, ethical blueprint that works and we have never, ever failed to deliver. Time savings. This is the magic ingredient. We save you hundreds of hours and energy and emotional burden. And a book becomes a marketing machine. And this is where most people fail. Remember their book ends at the last page. Our authors books begin at the last page. Sounds weird. I know, but it's because they open a doorway straight into the ecosystem. And that is what makes the investment worth it. So let me give you a checklist to avoid every painful mistake that we've talked about today. Before you publish your book, make sure that you have the following. A validated sellable book concept. A clear connection between the book and your offer. A professional editor. A professional cover designer. A launch strategy. A PR and visibility plan. Keywords and categories researched. Lead magnets embedded. A nurture ecosystem ready to go. A sales funnel connected to the book. And a conversion plan for turning readers into clients. That is the difference between publishing a book and publishing a business asset. Whew, I feel like I got really ranty there. That was a lot, but it needed to be said. I needed to get it off my chest. You needed to hear it because your message matters. Your story matters. Your expertise deserves to be packaged in a way that elevates your brand, not cheapens it. And if you're listening to this thinking, Tarryn I want the book, I want the authority, I want the impact, but I finally realized that I actually really, really, really, really don't want to DIY this, then listen carefully. This is exactly what we do inside my publishing company. We take you from concept to manuscript to professional publishing to best seller to client generating book funnel without the stress, overwhelm or hidden costs. So here's your next step. You want to head to automaticauthority.com. You want to apply for one of our high level publishing experiences because publishing a book isn't the goal. Becoming the go to authority in your industry is. And that starts the moment you choose the right publishing partner. Thank you for being here and listening to me be ranty. Thank you for choosing to lead unapologetically. And as always, write your story, lead your legacy.