9 Mistakes First-Time Authors in Zambia Should Avoid Before Printing

Most of the expensive mistakes in a first book are not made while writing it. They are made in the weeks after the manuscript is finished, when the author is understandably eager to see the book in print. Decisions are taken in the wrong order or without enough information. A cover is designed before editing changes the page count. A large quantity is printed because the price per copy looks attractive. A launch is planned, but nobody has decided where readers will buy the book the following week.

None of this means the author lacks talent or judgement. It simply reflects a process that most first-time authors have never been through before. Our advice at Sotrane Publishers is to slow down at exactly the point where most authors want to speed up. A few weeks of planning after the manuscript is finished can save a great deal of money and disappointment.

Here are nine mistakes worth avoiding, and what we recommend doing instead.

Finishing the draft is a writing achievement. It is not proof that the manuscript is ready for the printer.

1. Treating the first complete draft as the final manuscript

Completing a manuscript is hard work, and it is natural to feel protective of the version you have finally finished. A complete draft still needs distance and an outside reader.

Before you seek professional help, put the manuscript aside for a while and then read it as a reader rather than as its author. Look for missing explanations, repeated ideas, chapters that begin too slowly, unclear motivations, inconsistent names and claims that need support. Then bring in the appropriate level of professional editing.

Editing is not the same as correcting spelling. A structural edit examines the order and logic of the whole book. Copy editing deals with language, consistency and accuracy. Proofreading comes last, after the text is stable and usually after layout. If you design and typeset the book too early, every significant editorial change creates extra production work that you will pay for twice.

2. Designing the cover before the book is settled

A cover designer needs more than a title. They need to understand the readers, genre and tone, and for a printed paperback they need the final trim size, binding and spine width. The spine width depends on the final page count and the paper.

For example, a book first estimated at 220 pages may finish at 272 once it has been edited and typeset. The printer will then require a wider spine, and a wraparound cover designed for the old measurement cannot be sent to print unchanged.

It is fine to start thinking about the visual direction early. Hold back the final print artwork until the production specification has been confirmed. Our guide to book cover design explains what a designer should be solving beyond decoration.

3. Relying on outdated ISBN advice

This matters particularly in Zambia because the ISBN arrangement has changed, and old blog posts, saved phone numbers and forwarded messages may still point authors to bodies that no longer assign ISBNs.

The International ISBN Agency lists the Booksellers & Publishers Association of Zambia (BPAZ) as no longer authorised to assign ISBNs. The current operational guidance for Zambian applicants is that ISBN requests are being handled through the National Library of Namibia ISBN registration agency until further notice. The ISBN itself is free, so be cautious of anyone asking you to pay for the number. Authors who publish with Sotrane do not need to apply separately, because we request the ISBN on their behalf as publisher.

Before printing a number on a cover, make sure it has been properly assigned to the correct format of your book. Our ISBN in Zambia guide explains the current position in more detail. Remember also that an ISBN identifies a publication. It does not give copyright protection.

4. Printing a large quantity because the unit price looks low

Printing quotations usually show the cost per copy falling as the quantity rises. Using illustrative figures, a printer might quote K82 per copy for 300 copies and K64 per copy for 1,000. The lower unit price is tempting, but 1,000 copies at K64 requires K64,000 in cash and leaves you responsible for transporting, storing and selling all of them.

Before choosing a quantity, ask yourself:

• How many copies have already been ordered or paid for?
• Which bookshops or institutions have actually agreed to take stock?
• How many readers can I realistically reach directly?
• Where will I store the books safely and dry?
• What will delivery to other towns cost?
• How quickly could I reprint if demand is stronger than expected?

A smaller first run costs more per copy, but it reduces risk and gives you real information about demand. Unsold books are money sitting in cartons. The right quantity depends on the title, your sales routes, your cash position and how quickly a reprint can be arranged.

5. Setting a price without knowing the full cost

Printing is only one part of what a book costs. You may also have paid for editing, cover design, typesetting, transport, a launch event, marketing, payment charges and delivery. A bookshop or distributor will also expect a share of the selling price.

Write the numbers down before choosing a price. If printing costs K70 per copy and you sell at K90, the K20 difference is not profit. Other costs still have to be recovered, and some sales channels will not pass the full retail price back to you.

Work out what you actually receive when you sell directly to a reader, through a bookshop, in bulk to a school, through an online shop and at an event where you have paid for transport and a venue. A sensible price works across the channels you realistically intend to use.

6. Sharing the full manuscript with everyone who offers to look at it

Feedback is valuable. Uncontrolled distribution is not. A manuscript sent to a friend, then a cousin, then a contact from a WhatsApp group and then several designers and printers can end up on phones and computers the author can no longer track.

This does not mean you should be afraid to share your work. Publishing depends on collaboration. Share deliberately instead. Keep one master file, use clear file names with dates and keep a note of who received which version. When you work with editors, designers or publishers, make sure there is a clear professional arrangement about how the material will be used. To request a quotation, a synopsis and sample chapters are often enough.

Our article on protecting a manuscript and book explains copyright and practical file control in more detail.

7. Approving the book on a phone screen and skipping the proof

A PDF that looks fine while scrolling on a phone is not the same as a printed book. Before a significant print run, check the final proof slowly and, where possible, look at a physical proof from the actual printing method.

At this stage you are not reading for meaning. You are looking for production errors: missing, repeated or blank pages, pages in the wrong order, chapters starting in the wrong place, text too close to the binding, page numbers and running headers, image quality, captions, tables, spelling on the cover, the ISBN and barcode, the spine width and any colour changes in important artwork.

A useful method is to ask one person to check the text and another to check the layout and physical specification. Authors know what each page is supposed to say, which makes obvious mistakes surprisingly easy to miss.

8. Treating the launch as the whole marketing plan

A launch is an event. Book marketing is what happens before it and long after it. A full hall usually shows that the author has supportive friends, family and colleagues. It does not tell you how the next five hundred readers will find the book.

Before launch day, decide who your first reader groups are, where they can buy the book after the event, who will answer enquiries, how deliveries will work and which organisations might buy several copies. Plan what you will share after the launch and which reviewers or media contacts suit the subject.

The weeks after the launch are where the longer book marketing work really begins. A reader who discovers the book three months later should still find it easy to buy.

9. Paying before you know what the service includes

"Publishing package" can mean very different things. Before you pay a publisher or a publishing service provider, ask for a written scope that covers manuscript assessment, the type and number of editing rounds, proofreading, cover design, typesetting, ISBN registration, copyright guidance, print specification and quantity, author copies, marketing, distribution, sales reporting, royalties where applicable, ownership of files, timelines, reprints and how disputes or cancellations are handled.

If the arrangement involves a publishing contract, read it before signing and ask about any clause you do not understand. Do not accept "we will handle everything" in place of a written scope. A professional process should make responsibilities clearer, not more mysterious.

A better order for a first book

Every project is different, but a sensible sequence usually looks something like this:

• Finish the manuscript, then rest it and review it yourself.
• Obtain a manuscript assessment where needed.
• Complete structural editing, then copy editing.
• Confirm the publishing arrangement and production plan.
• Resolve permissions and check facts and sources.
• Typeset the settled manuscript.
• Design the final cover to the confirmed specification.
• Proofread the laid-out pages.
• Confirm the ISBN and publication details through the correct current route.
• Approve a final proof.
• Print a quantity that matches realistic demand.
• Launch with distribution and follow-up marketing already planned.

Some stages overlap, but the principle holds. Do not pay to polish a production stage that an earlier editorial stage is likely to change.

If you have already made one of these mistakes

Do not panic, and do not keep spending simply because money has already been spent. If the cover was designed too early, ask the designer what will need to change once the printer confirms the spine. If you printed too many copies, treat the problem as one of stock and distribution planning rather than simply "more marketing". If your ISBN information came from an old source, check the current position before reprinting or registering anything further.

Publishing problems become more expensive when they are hidden in the hope that the next stage will fix them. Our publishing process puts editorial, design, production and publication work in an order that reduces avoidable rework, and we encourage authors to ask questions at every stage of it. The strongest first book is rarely the one produced fastest. It is the one in which each decision gives the next one a firm foundation.