It's Dangerous To Learn As You Go

I admit it, when it comes to self-publishing, I only spend time learning those things I need to know right now. Time is always tight and I hate to spend it on research that I don't have use for within the next day or so.

For an old guy like me I use the excuse that for every new thing I let in my brain, something else has to come out. And I have no control over what comes out so I have to be careful.

But really I'm just lazy.

Unfortunately that bad habit can kill your project before you ever get a chance to sell a book.

Say you went through the process of printing a book. And you didn't buy the most basic of all book things - an ISBN number. The project is dead on arrival. No one will ever be able to buy your book except from you personally. What if you bought the ISBN number from the wrong place. The project is dead on arrival. Same reason. Everyone who sells books uses ISBN numbers.

Did you purchase a library code and put it on your publisher page? No. You just lost a gigantic market. Without that code a library can't buy the book.

Remember when we talked about cover design? Did you end up having a friend design the cover to save money? Dead on arrival. Neither a book wholesaler or distributor will take on a book that doesn't have a professional looking cover. That means no bookstores can buy the books.

Have you written out a marketing plan that talks about how many books will be sold and who will buy them? No? Neither a book wholesaler or distributor will take on a book that doesn't have a good marketing plan. That means no bookstores can buy the books.

All the information you need to stay ahead of the learning curve is easily found on the Internet. But you can't afford to be lazy because bad things will happen.

Michael LaLumiere