8 self-publishing essentials

While many things about independent publishing are up to you, there are also quite a few that are so important they can be classed as essential. Here are some of the main ones.

E-book publication. In this day and age, you don’t necessarily have to do a print run of your book, especially if you are writing fiction, but you do need to have an e-book publication. And that e-book should be…
Available on as many platforms as possible.
Some form of promotion. A blog and a presence on social media are the two big ones – and they’re great because you can do them for free – but there are plenty of other forms of promotion you can get involved in.
Business sense. If you are serious about self-publishing, you can’t just be a writer. Of course, being a writer is an essential, but you also need to understand about working for yourself and all that it entails.
Editing and proofreading. You can do this yourself or you can ask someone else to do it for you, but you should never self-publish a book without making sure it is properly edited and has been proofread before publication.
Focus and commitment. If you’re not committed to what you’re doing and don’t have the focus you need to get things done, you simply won’t get them done at all.
An objective person. You can do most self-publishing tasks by yourself, but it still helps to have at least one other person by your side, if only because it can sometimes be hard to be objective about your own work. Someone who can be constructively critical and offer an unbiased opinion is a must.
A good book. This must be the biggest essential of self-publishing: if you don’t have a book worth reading, it’ll be hard to get anywhere.

What are your self-publishing essentials?