Here are the last two pitfalls we're including...

Trying to cut costs and ending up cutting your throat.

Underestimating the commitment it takes to promote your book.

3. Cutting costs while cutting your throat

Saving money not always good business. Sometimes more costly publishing services end up being the best bargain because you are using higher-paid professionals rather than entry-level staff to meet your creative and technical needs. Many low-priced book production companies function like assembly-line factories. You choose a template. Bang, bang, bang. Your book comes out just the way it went in.

Expect to pay more for personalized, quality, publishing services--especially if you have a long or complex project.

If you must skimp, don't cut costs in four critical areas of book production:

1. Cover design
2. Interior (page) design
3. Editing
4. Printing

Let's look at each of these.

Cover design. A cheap or "free" cover design is usually taken from a catalog or set of templates. If you don't want an original cover, you may be delighted with an inexpensive ready-made cover. More likely, you will be disappointed because an assembly-line cover simply doesn't reflect the individual taste and style of your book. And you never know when someone else will choose the same cover for another book!

Count on spending $300, $600, $1,200, $2,000 or more for a cover that is designed to present your book for maximum sales power. Ask for referrals or samples. Expect individual consultations by phone or email with the cover artist. Ask for two or more sketches or ideas. Share your preferences for colors or look-and-feel before the artist begins work.

The cover is all most people will ever see of your book. Make it as attractive as you can.

Interior (page) design. You can spot an amateur book design the minute you open the cover, even if you know nothing about typography. Look for stray bits of type, hard-to-read fonts, paragraphs that are too long. You should expect to pay $2 to $8 per page for a good typesetting and page design.

Editing. It's just good economy to trust your book to another set of eyes, someone who doesn't know you and works full time editing and writing for publication. The value of having a professional editor on your side cannot be calculated. Maybe your book has been edited ten times. But just before printing, as the pages are being set, insist on a professional editing job. You'll never be sorry.

Printing. If you want just a few copies, your book will be photocopied, not printed. This can be off-putting to some book buyers, who can spot a copy job half a mile away and don't like the result. If your book is printed, be sure the printer has a track record printing and binding books the same dimensions as yours. Ask for samples before you commit to a printer.

4: Underestimating the commitment it takes to promote and sell your book

The delivery of your book is not the end of your publishing project any more than giving birth is the end of parenthood.

Months and even years of nurturing your book lie ahead. Money will be needed--perhaps the hardest money you'll ever spend--to promote your book. Time will be pulled out of your schedule, and your nervous energy will be stretched to the limit.

Every author who chooses Griffith Publishing for book production services receives the monumental book by John Kremer, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. The 1,000-plus pages of this book are devoted to helping authors and independent publishers come up with a strategy and a plan for selling books. John Kremer also offers a free on-line newsletter, mini-seminars, and individual consultating for self-publishing authors.

Some additional pieces of advice: