When I browse sites like UpWork or Thumbtack, I see countless people wanting to turn their ideas or manuscripts into books. But often, their listings are so off-base for what the industry-standards are that they can find it hard to actually get any interested freelancers to apply to their project. Even more problematic are the authors who jump into creating a book 100% themselves without any publishing experience. They often make key mistakes that can make their book seem more amateurish than it needs to.

Here are the biggest mistakes I see that can really make an indie book look unpolished.