Your 5 Most Important Things...

I wish writing a book could be whittled down to five secrets, ten tips, or twelve things you should never do. However the vast arrangement of knowledge, practice, experience, and just plain determination a person needs to be a successful writer is too immense to compile into a single list.
Therefor...Today's list is a gift about self publishing, from writer Jenny Ballif of thewriteshof.com
The 5 Best self-publishing tips I learned at IndiRecon:

list of 5 items
1. The Golden Rule of Marketing is:

“Write a polished, professional, well-edited book that people want to read. Repeat.” If you aren't doing this, nothing else you do can make up for it. There
are an overwhelming number of publicity options available. Pick one or two and do them well. You must have a personal website, and every social media activity
you do should link to your personal site.

2. Keyword Research Can Improve Your Sales.

Through your Author Central page on Amazon you can adjust the keywords and terms associated with your book. On
ubersuggest.com
 you can sift through all searches done on Google in the last 24 hours. This will give you way more data than you need, but can be a great help in choosing
the relevant keywords.

3. Book Cover's Matter

An indie author should not create their own cover, but they can manage the cover design process. Covers tend to be character, setting, or text based. Choose
a style and mood that best fit your genre and be sure it looks professional.

4. If You Want to Be in a Bookstore

Self-publish through IngramSpark, give the bookstore the 55% discount (not the 40%), and make it returnable. Not “return and deliver,” but “return and destroy.”


5. The Indie Author Community is Supportive

If you're new to self-publishing, check out the forum over at
absolutewrite.com.
There's a lot of help and encouragement available in the indie author world.
Indirecon is a self publishing conference sponsered by Alli Cross and her supporters. She has a free on-line conference in the spring and a live conference in October. Go check out Alli Cross and Indyrecon for more information. This is the best time in the history of publication to be an author. Writers have more resources, poss abilities and opportunities to publish both traditionally and independently. Open your self to  all that's available and publish all your good work. Good Luck and keep writing!