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

by Sean Platt

A few other nonnegotiable titles for serious (career) writers: The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White; Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You by Ray Bradbury; Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss; The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.

First draft: Write for yourself with the door closed. Say it. Second draft: Revise for readers with the door open. Say what you mean. Third draft: Polish. Say it well.

The best way to get blocked as a writer is to start second-guessing yourself, and the best way to do that is to pause and think too much about what you’re writing.

We strongly believe you should write your first drafts as fast as you can.

It’s the pesky Puritan Work Ethic rearing its obnoxious head. If someone wants to prove how good and honorable a pursuit is, one of the most common things they’ll do is to explain how long they slaved over it. We disagree. Vehemently.

For most writers, it’s more important to write regularly than to write a lot in any given session.

the vast majority of indie authors should hire a cover designer.

Think of your title like this: you want potential buyers to read your title and think, “Wow, that’s exactly the answer to my problem!”

it’s probably smart to do some basic keyword research in order to align your book’s name as closely as possible with what people are actually out there searching for.

The two main file types you’ll want for e-books are .mobi files (for Amazon Kindle) and .epub (for everyone else).

You want three things: conversion, readership, and attention.

Readers are people, and people want more from life.

Here’s how you get an army of devoted readers out there doing your selling for you: Write books that are worth sharing. Then more after that.

The strategy here is to find people who might like your work and connect with them.

Pull in those people who love that kind of thing. Proudly alienate those that don't.

Most people don’t respond to the fans who take the time to contact them, so simply answering your fans will make you stand out.

If you’d like to hear from someone who uses social media much better than either of us, check out Joanna Penn’s guide How to Market a Book.

Old-school vacuum cleaner salesmen asked prospects a lot of questions. If they were classically trained and good at their craft, they would only ask questions that they knew in advance would be answered with an easy, straightforward yes.

A newsletter’s job is to build attention and habit. You want people to get used to seeing your e-mails on a regular basis, and want people habituated to opening them.

Seth Godin said, “You will be judged, or you will be ignored.” You get to pick one or the other. Which will it be?

Marketing means informing people who might like to buy your product that it exists. Optionally, you can also inform those people that your product is a great deal, that it’ll make them happy or change their lives, that its price is discounted, or that other people liked it. That’s

One is that there is no get-rich-quick in publishing and that you must work hard to build a career. Another is that time-tested strategies (which seldom change) are always more important than tactics (which change often). A third is that this is a business, not a hobby, and that you need to treat it that

The best book we know about the workmanlike approach to art — the approach we advocate — is The War of Art,

Writing is about you. Publishing is about the book. Marketing is about the reader.

Your written product stops being about you, your needs, desires, and emotions as soon as the writing is finished. Then it becomes a product, and you must treat it as such.

What assets are most likely to pay off later? What properties are worth working on and getting behind because they have potential down the road, even though they may stagnate now?

David’s excellent book Let’s Get Visible, which is all about understanding the various ways that Amazon puts recommended books in front of prospective readers.

If you believe in the project, write it anyway. If it doesn’t sell, it was made with words, and you have a bottomless well. Go write another.

Be willing to experiment even if you might fail. Understand that life and your career are bigger than one incident or decision, and that sometimes, you have to hold your breath, take the leap, and see what happens.

Courage is taking action in the presence of risk, in spite of fear.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that everything can be accomplished through a series of simple steps, and as a result, we tend to look for systems to do things. We want to push a button, pull a lever, then sit back and wait for achievement to manifest.

this book’s core message is to write a lot of good books and connect with your readers.

in our experience, you can reduce it to a species of fear that has nothing to do with the story itself. You might be afraid of finishing the story and having to show the world — or have to admit your fear by sticking it into a closet forever.

I recommend writing no fewer than five days a week. We both recommend writing fast for reasons having to do with momentum.

we don’t have great ideas; we have random ideas and then make them great.

Anything is a good idea. Got that? Anything. An idea is a concept. It’s what you do with that idea — the directions you take it and how you articulate the story world — that fill it out and put meat on its bones.

stop dreaming of becoming writers and talking about becoming writers and just sit down and write.

Always remember, the reader is god.

My first draft is selfishly for me, me, me. But the second draft is totally focused on the reader. What will inspire and delight and surprise them? What will evoke emotion? Is it the emotion I'm aiming for? What will pull them into the story and make them miss their bus stop?

You have to take responsibility for anything that has your name on it. You need to take ownership of your career.

write the book you want to read.

The moment I realized that the words didn't have to emerge perfectly onto the page, I decided I could write, because I knew that I could edit. That changed my life!

'The Success Principles' by Jack Canfield which starts with 'Take 100% responsibility for your life'.