I have been busy this week writing my non-fiction self-publishing book. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a very long time.

I’ve been teaching self-publishing for four years both in person (at a community college and seminars) and on-line. I even promised the students in my last on-line class that they would get the class as an epub afterward… and then, to my shame (!), I never delivered because I realized that I would need to do a lot of writing and re-writing of my lectures to put them into shape to be a book.

Well, finally, I’ve done it. I’ve created an ABCs of self-publishing. As of this moment (Friday afternoon) I’ve got A through X finished. Yes! I’ve got something for just about every single letter (okay, there were one or two where I cheated and said “see this other letter for more information on this topic”). And I do actually have topics for X, Y, and Z (X-tras to put into your book; You — your bio; and Zoom In/Zoom Out taking a final look at how your book looks). I’m hoping that at this time next week, I’ll be able to tell you all that the book is on sale, but first I’ve got to get a cover designed and edit the thing.

So today, I thought I’d share a chapter of my this book with you– T: Ten Rules of Thumb. See what you think:

Work on your writing skills. No matter how beautiful your book is, if it isn’t well written, it won’t sell.
Make sure you get your books professionally edited. Yes, I’ve said this before and I might very well say it again. Why? Because it is that important!
Make sure your book looks as professional as possible in all ways – cover, editing, formatting. Self-publishing does not give you permission to put crap out into the world. It won’t sell and you won’t be doing anything positive for you or your career.
Build your audience. You can do this before you publish by having an on-line presence. And you must do it after you publish or else who’s going to know that you’ve published anything?
Read! Read what other writers are writing. Read in your genre and read outside your genre.
Treat this like a business, because you know what? It is a business. What does this mean? That means keeping track of the money you spend and the money you earn. It means treating others in this business with respect. And it’s a good idea to have a one, three and five year business plan (I’ve got a sample business plan here on my website).
Keep your goals realistic. You’re very unlikely to hit a top list with your first book—yes, it has happened, but I can probably count how many time on two hands.
Be strong! Writers are sensitive people. We bruise easily; get depressed easily. If you know you’re going to be hurt if you get a bad review, don’t read your reviews! If you know that you’re going to get depressed if you have low sales numbers, don’t dwell on them. Just focus on writing the best book you can.
Take negative comments as a call to action. When people tell me that something I’ve written is bad, I want to know more. What was bad and why? How can I fix it? The same goes with my on-line presence and even how I format books. I take all criticism as something constructive, a way to learn and improve what I do. You should too!
Keep writing! The more books you have published, the more you’ll sell.