Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success)

by Sean Platt

This is typically a file with dimensions around 800x600 pixels,

This is not the same version of the cover as you’ll upload for display on the e-book sites. It’s much smaller.

Publishing on Amazon isn’t hard; you’ll need a .mobi file (which Scrivener compiles for you), a cover image of somewhere around 1,800x2,500 pixels, and a description for your book.

If you own the ISBN (International Standard Book Numbers) your book is published under, you will be listed as the publisher of record for that book. If you use a free ISBN, someone else is.

You should have your own website, and there should be a place on that website for people to sign up for your e-mail list.

Your brand, simply put, is the coherent impression people get of you and your books whenever and wherever they encounter you or them, nothing more and nothing less.

Your USP, or unique selling proposition, is largely an outgrowth of your brand. Your brand is who the public considers you (and your publishing company, even if said company is just you) to be. Your USP is the corresponding reason your readers should have for buying from you rather than anyone else. What are you that nobody else is (your brand)? And what can you offer a reader that no one else can (your USP)?

The key thing to remember about brand is that above all else it must be consistent, and you must not flinch from it.

You can use just about any e-mail service provider. Our favorite by far is aWeber,

Set a budget on each book that is commensurate with its real, objective, non-emotionally-clouded expectation of return.