May 18, 2026
How to Self Publish a Book on Amazon in 2026: KDP Guide
Learn How to Self Publish a Book on Amazon with a 2026-ready KDP glossary and step-by-step tips on metadata, pricing, and marketing. Read now.
TL;DR
You can self publish a book on Amazon for free using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), which supports eBooks, paperbacks, and hardcovers through a print-on-demand model. The process involves setting up a KDP account, formatting your manuscript, choosing pricing and royalty options (35% or 70% for eBooks, 50% or 60% for print after June 2025 changes), selecting categories and keywords, and hitting publish. This glossary covers every term and concept you’ll encounter from account creation to your first royalty payment, so you can make informed decisions and avoid common mistakes.
Self-publishing a book on Amazon is free, straightforward, and open to anyone with a manuscript. That’s the good news. The confusing part is the wall of jargon you hit the moment you log into your KDP dashboard. ASIN, KENP, bleed, expanded distribution, KDP Select, BISAC codes. These terms aren’t decorative. Each one represents a decision that affects your book’s discoverability, earnings, or professional presentation.
This guide explains every term you’ll encounter when you self publish a book on Amazon, organized by the stage of the publishing process where you’ll need it. Think of it as a reference you can bookmark and return to. Each entry includes a plain-language definition, why it matters, and a practical tip to help you get it right.
Quick-reference: 10 terms authors search for most
| Term | What It Means | Jump To |
|---|---|---|
| KDP | Amazon’s free self-publishing platform | Platform & Account |
| ISBN | Unique book identifier for print editions | Book Setup & Metadata |
| ASIN | Amazon’s product ID, auto-assigned to eBooks | Book Setup & Metadata |
| KDP Select | 90-day Amazon exclusivity agreement | Distribution & Exclusivity |
| Kindle Unlimited | Amazon’s subscription reading program | Distribution & Exclusivity |
| KENP | How Amazon counts page reads for KU payments | Distribution & Exclusivity |
| Royalty Rate | Percentage you earn per sale | Pricing & Royalties |
| Print-on-Demand | Books printed only when ordered | Book Formats & Production |
| Amazon Ads | Pay-per-click advertising within Amazon | Marketing & Discoverability |
| Bleed | Print area beyond the trim line | Book Formats & Production |
Platform & Account Terms
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Amazon’s self-publishing platform that lets you publish eBooks, paperbacks, and hardcover books at no cost. KDP currently holds roughly 80% of the eBook market, making it the single most important channel for self-published authors. It does not support magazines, periodicals, calendars, or spiral-bound books.
Why it matters: Publishing through KDP gives you full rights to your book, which traditional publishing houses rarely allow. You retain creative control and can unpublish or update your book at any time.
KDP Bookshelf
Your dashboard inside KDP. This is where you create new titles, upload files, track sales, and manage all your published books. Think of it as your publishing control panel.
KDP Account Setup
Before you publish anything, you need to provide tax information, bank details for royalty payments, and verify your identity. KDP (along with IngramSpark) uses a combination of email address and mobile phone number to authenticate who’s accessing the account.
Practical tip: Jane Friedman, a well-known publishing industry authority, has noted that getting KDP’s verification system to confirm your identity can be a real challenge, especially if you’re hiring someone to help manage your account. Set up your account yourself, and only grant access deliberately.
Amazon Author Central
A separate platform from KDP where you create your public author page on Amazon. You can add a biography, photos, blog posts, editorial reviews, and A+ Content. This page appears when readers click your author name on any of your books.
A+ Content
Enhanced product page content available through Author Central. This lets you add formatted text, comparison charts, and images to your book’s Amazon listing, going beyond the standard description. It’s free to use and can improve conversion rates.
Book Setup & Metadata Terms
ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number)
Amazon’s unique product identifier, automatically assigned to every eBook you publish. You don’t choose it or pay for it. Every product on Amazon has an ASIN, and for eBooks, this replaces the need for an ISBN.
ISBN (International Standard Book Number)
A 13-digit number that identifies your print book globally. KDP offers free ISBNs for paperbacks and hardcovers, but there’s a trade-off worth understanding.
| Option | Cost | Imprint Listed | Bookstore Sales | Wide Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free KDP ISBN | $0 | “Independently published” | Unlikely | Limited |
| Your Own ISBN | ~$125 for one, ~$295 for 10 (via Bowker) | Your custom imprint name | Possible | Full control |
If you plan to sell only on Amazon, the free ISBN works fine. If you want your books in brick-and-mortar bookstores or want a professional imprint name, buy your own. This is one of those decisions that’s hard to reverse later.
You don’t need an ISBN for eBooks on KDP. Amazon assigns an ASIN instead.
Imprint
The publisher name displayed on your Amazon listing and on the copyright page of your book. If you use KDP’s free ISBN, your imprint automatically reads “Independently published.” Purchasing your own ISBN lets you use any imprint name you choose, which can look more professional and helps if you want to build a recognizable publishing brand.
BISAC Codes
Industry-standard genre classification codes maintained by the Book Industry Study Group. When you set up your book on KDP, your category selections map to BISAC codes. These codes influence where your book appears in Amazon’s browse categories and how it gets classified by other retailers and libraries.
Amazon Categories (3 Category Slots)
When publishing on KDP, you can select up to 3 categories for your book. These categories, along with your keywords, tell Amazon where to “shelve” your book in its virtual bookstore. Choosing the right categories directly affects whether the right readers find you.
Common mistake: Picking overly broad categories where you’ll be buried among thousands of titles. A thriller author, for example, is better off in “Thriller > Political Thriller” than just “Thriller.”
Amazon Keywords (7 Backend Keywords)
You get seven keyword slots when publishing on KDP, and each can be a multi-word phrase (not just a single word). These keywords drive discoverability in Amazon’s search algorithm.
Common mistake: Many authors fill these slots with single generic words like “book” or “novel.” Instead, use specific phrases like “detective mystery series for adults” or “cozy small-town romance.” Think about what your ideal reader would actually type into Amazon’s search bar.
Book Description / Blurb
The sales copy that appears on your Amazon detail page. This isn’t a summary of your book. It’s a pitch designed to convince browsers to buy. For fiction, think movie-trailer energy. For nonfiction, focus on the problem you solve and the transformation you promise.
Metadata
The collective term for your title, subtitle, author name, keywords, categories, and description. Getting metadata right is one of the most important things you can do when you self publish a book on Amazon, because it determines how and whether readers find your book.
Detail Page
The product page on Amazon where readers see your cover, read your description, check reviews, and make a purchase decision. Every format of your book (eBook, paperback, hardcover) ideally lives on the same detail page.
Book Formats & Production Terms
eBook (Kindle)
The digital version of your book, read on Kindle devices and the Kindle app. You can upload your manuscript as EPUB or DOCX. Amazon converts it into its proprietary format for delivery.
Paperback (Print-on-Demand)
A physical softcover book printed only when a customer orders it. No inventory, no upfront printing costs, no boxes of unsold books in your garage. Amazon handles printing, shipping, and customer service.
Hardcover
Available through KDP since approximately 2021. Hardcovers carry a higher production cost, which means a higher minimum list price, but they also command premium pricing and appeal to readers who want something permanent on their shelf.
Print-on-Demand (POD)
The business model behind KDP’s print offerings. Rather than printing a run of 500 or 1,000 copies and hoping they sell, Amazon prints each copy individually when ordered. This eliminates financial risk for the author but means per-unit costs are higher than bulk printing.
Trim Size
The final physical dimensions of your printed book (for example, 5.5" x 8.5" or 6" x 9"). Trim size affects your page count, spine width, and overall production cost. Choose a trim size that matches reader expectations for your genre. Literary fiction and memoir typically use 5.5" x 8.5". Larger nonfiction or children’s books often go bigger.
Bleed
The area beyond the trim line that gets cut off during printing. If your book has images, graphics, or colored backgrounds that extend to the edge of the page, you need to set up bleed (typically 0.125" on each side). If your interior is text-only, you probably don’t need bleed, and skipping it slightly reduces your printing cost.
Spine Width
The thickness of your book’s spine, calculated based on page count and paper type. This matters for cover design because your back cover, spine, and front cover are all one continuous image file. KDP provides a Cover Calculator tool that generates the exact template dimensions you need.
Cover Calculator
A free tool on the KDP website that generates a print-ready cover template based on your book’s trim size, page count, and paper type. Hand this template to your cover designer so the spine text and overall dimensions are precise.
Manuscript Formatting
Preparing your interior files to meet KDP’s specifications for margins, fonts, headers, footers, page numbers, and image resolution. Poor formatting is one of the most common reasons books look unprofessional or get flagged during KDP’s review process.
One author blogging about her self-publishing experience wrote that she “quickly realized it would take a LOT of time to figure it out for myself, and maybe still not get it right,” so she paid a professional to format her book. That’s a common and reasonable choice, especially for print editions where spacing and layout directly affect production costs.
If formatting, ISBNs, and metadata feel overwhelming, Alpaca Authors’ book publishing packages handle editorial, cover design, ISBN setup, and global distribution to 40+ platforms so you can focus on the writing.
Kindle Create
Amazon’s free formatting tool. It imports Word documents and lets you add basic styling before exporting in a format optimized for Kindle. The output only works for Amazon, so if you plan to publish on other platforms too, you’ll need a different tool.
Formatting Tools Comparison
When learning how to self publish a book on Amazon, choosing the right formatting tool matters more than most beginners expect. Here’s how the main options stack up:
| Tool | Cost | Platform | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kindle Create | Free | Windows, Mac | Amazon-only eBooks; beginners |
| Reedsy Book Editor | Free | Browser-based | Basic eBook and print formatting |
| Atticus | $147 (one-time) | Windows, Mac, Chromebook | Combined writing and formatting; cross-platform |
| Vellum | ~$250 (eBook + print) | Mac only | Premium formatting with polished output |
| Scrivener | ~$49 | Windows, Mac | Writing and organizing; export to Word/EPUB for formatting elsewhere |
Practitioners on Reddit and author forums consistently recommend Vellum for authors committed to professional-looking output (if you have a Mac) and Atticus as the best cross-platform alternative. Kindle Create works for pure beginners publishing only on Amazon, but you’ll outgrow it quickly if you want to go wide.
Pricing & Royalty Terms
Royalty Rate (eBook)
Amazon offers two royalty tiers for Kindle eBooks:
| Price Range | Royalty Rate |
|---|---|
| $0.99 to $2.98 | 35% |
| $2.99 to $9.99 | 70% |
| $9.99 to $200 | 35% |
The 70% rate is the sweet spot, and it’s a strong reason to price your eBook at $2.99 or above.
Royalty Rate (Print Books, Post-June 2025)
This is the most significant recent change to Amazon’s self-publishing economics, and many competing guides haven’t caught up yet.
Starting June 10, 2025, print book royalties changed:
| Price Point (Amazon.com) | Royalty Rate Before June 2025 | Royalty Rate After June 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| $9.98 or below | 60% | 50% |
| $9.99 or above | 60% | 60% (unchanged) |
The practical takeaway: Unless you have a specific strategic reason, price your paperback at $9.99 or above to maintain the 60% royalty rate. Reedsy’s regularly updated guide advises authors to avoid the sub-$9.99 price range entirely.
Printing Cost
A per-copy fee deducted from your print royalties before you get paid. It varies based on page count, ink type (black-and-white vs. color), trim size, and the Amazon marketplace where the book is sold. KDP shows you the exact printing cost in your pricing dashboard before you publish.
Delivery Cost
A per-megabyte fee deducted from eBook royalties when you choose the 70% royalty option. Books with lots of images will have higher delivery costs. Text-only novels typically cost just a few cents per delivery.
List Price
The price you set for your book on Amazon. Amazon may occasionally discount this price to customers, but your royalty is always calculated based on your list price, not the discounted price. You’re not penalized when Amazon runs a deal.
Minimum List Price
The floor price KDP calculates to ensure your royalties cover printing costs. You cannot price below this number. For paperbacks with higher page counts or color interiors, the minimum list price can be surprisingly high.
Royalty Payment Timing
KDP pays royalties monthly, approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which they were earned. Sell books in January, get paid around the end of March.
Distribution & Exclusivity Terms
This section covers one of the most important strategic decisions you’ll make when you self publish a book on Amazon: whether to go exclusive or wide.
KDP Select
A 90-day renewable agreement where you make your eBook exclusive to Amazon. In exchange, your book is enrolled in Kindle Unlimited and you get access to promotional tools like Kindle Countdown Deals and Free Book Promotions.
The catch: While enrolled in KDP Select, you cannot sell your eBook on any other platform, including Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, or your own website. This applies only to eBooks. Your paperback and hardcover can still be sold elsewhere.
Kindle Unlimited (KU)
Amazon’s subscription reading service. Readers pay a monthly fee and can read unlimited enrolled books. Authors get paid per page read, not per download.
The economics: Page reads currently pay around $0.004 to $0.005 per page. A 300-page book read completely earns roughly $1.20 to $1.50. In October 2024, Kindle Unlimited paid out $54.8 million total to self-publishers, so there’s real money in the program, but it rewards specific genres and series-heavy catalogs.
KENP (Kindle Edition Normalized Pages)
How Amazon standardizes page counts across different formatting styles to calculate KU payments fairly. A page in a large-font romance novel and a page in a dense nonfiction book are “normalized” so payments are based on actual content consumed, not formatting tricks.
KDP Select Fund
The global pool of money Amazon allocates each month for Kindle Unlimited payments. Your share depends on your total KENP reads relative to all other enrolled authors. This number has grown consistently over the years, but your per-page rate can fluctuate month to month.
KDP Select vs. Going Wide: A Decision Framework
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all choice. Genre matters enormously.
| Factor | KDP Select (Amazon Exclusive) | Going Wide (Multiple Retailers) |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Romance, LitRPG, Military Sci-Fi, serial fiction | Nonfiction, memoir, cookbooks, children’s books |
| Reader behavior | Series-binging, KU subscribers | Readers who buy, own, reference books |
| Revenue model | Page reads + sales | Sales only, but across more stores |
| Risk | All eggs in one basket | Slower build, more diversified |
| Promotional tools | Countdown Deals, Free Days | Varies by platform |
One author on Vocal.media shared a cautionary tale: “I chose KDP Select because I kept hearing that beginners should start with Amazon. I accepted that advice without questioning it, and that was a big mistake.” The author had no existing audience, one standalone book, and no series pipeline, which is exactly the situation where KDP Select provides the least benefit.
Position: If you write in a KU-heavy genre and plan to publish a series, KDP Select is likely your best bet. If you have a standalone nonfiction book or a genre where readers buy rather than borrow, go wide from the start.
Wide Distribution / Going Wide
Selling your book on multiple platforms: Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble Nook, Google Play, and others, in addition to Amazon. This diversifies your income and protects against depending on a single retailer’s algorithm or policy changes.
Aggregator
A service like Draft2Digital or PublishDrive that distributes your book to multiple retailers from a single upload. Aggregators simplify wide distribution but typically take a small percentage of your royalties.
Expanded Distribution
A KDP option for print books that makes your paperback available through additional channels beyond Amazon’s own store, including online retailers and some institutional buyers. The royalty rate is lower (typically 40%), and you have less control over pricing and availability. Many experienced self-publishers prefer using IngramSpark for non-Amazon distribution instead.
If you want distribution across 40+ platforms without managing multiple accounts, Alpaca Authors’ publishing services include global distribution setup as part of their packages.
Marketing & Discoverability Terms
Practitioners on Reddit’s r/selfpublish consistently warn that uploading your book is not the finish line. As one frequently repeated piece of advice puts it: “Authors think publication is the end of their work. In reality, it’s only the beginning. Without marketing, a book will remain invisible.”
The vast majority of books published on Amazon KDP sell fewer than 100 copies over their lifetime. This usually has nothing to do with content quality. In most cases, authors lose sales because of poor discoverability, weak covers, bad metadata, or zero marketing.
Amazon Ads (Sponsored Products)
Pay-per-click advertising that places your book in Amazon search results and on competitor product pages. You set a daily budget and bid on keywords. When a shopper clicks your ad, you pay. When they don’t, you don’t. Amazon Ads is the single most effective paid channel for driving book sales on the platform, but it requires ongoing optimization.
If you’d rather not manage campaigns yourself, Alpaca Authors offers book marketing packages that include Amazon Ads management, social media campaigns, PR, and reader outreach.
Best Sellers Rank (BSR)
A number assigned to every book on Amazon based on recent sales velocity. A lower number means more recent sales. BSR updates hourly. A book ranked #5,000 in the Kindle Store is selling significantly more copies than one ranked #500,000. BSR is relative, not absolute: it tells you how you’re doing compared to other books, not how many copies you’ve sold.
Bestseller Badge
The orange “#1 Best Seller” or “#1 New Release” tag that appears on your listing when you rank first in one of your selected categories. This badge dramatically improves click-through rates. Choosing less competitive (but still relevant) categories increases your chance of earning it.
Look Inside
Amazon’s preview feature that lets potential buyers read the first several pages of your book before purchasing. This is why your opening pages, your title page, copyright page, table of contents, and first chapter, need to look polished.
Pre-Order
Listing your book on Amazon before the release date. Pre-orders accumulate early sales that all count on release day, which can give your launch-day BSR a significant boost. For eBooks, you can set up a pre-order up to one year in advance. For print, the window is shorter.
Kindle Countdown Deal
A KDP Select promotional tool that temporarily discounts your eBook while showing a visible countdown timer on the listing. The urgency signal can drive a spike in sales. Available only to books enrolled in KDP Select.
Free Book Promotion
Another KDP Select tool that lets you offer your eBook for free for up to 5 days during each 90-day enrollment period. Useful for building readership on the first book in a series, generating reviews, and increasing visibility.
Book Reviews
Customer reviews are critical social proof on Amazon. Books with more (and better) reviews convert browsers into buyers at a higher rate. You cannot pay for reviews or offer incentives in exchange for them. You can ask readers to leave honest reviews, but Amazon’s policies on this are strict and enforced.
Post-Publishing & Troubleshooting Terms
Proof Copy
A physical copy of your paperback or hardcover ordered for review before you make the book publicly available. Always order a proof. Screen previews don’t catch everything. Text alignment, image quality, and spine placement can look different in person.
Review Period
When you click publish, it can take up to 72 hours for your book to go live on Amazon. During this time, KDP reviews your book for content and formatting compliance. If your book doesn’t pass, you’ll receive an email explaining what needs to be fixed.
DRM (Digital Rights Management)
Copy protection for your eBook. When you publish on KDP, you choose whether to enable DRM. Once enabled, it cannot be removed without unpublishing and republishing. Most indie authors skip DRM because it doesn’t meaningfully prevent piracy and can create friction for legitimate readers trying to read across devices.
Quality Notifications Dashboard
A section within your KDP account that shows content quality flags Amazon has detected in your published books. These might include spelling errors, formatting issues, or image quality problems. Addressing these flags promptly prevents your book from being suppressed in search results.
Format Linking
Ensuring your eBook, paperback, and hardcover editions all appear on the same Amazon detail page. This happens automatically when the title, author name, and other metadata match across formats. If your formats end up on separate pages, readers may not know all editions exist, and your reviews won’t consolidate.
Beyond Amazon: Related Concepts
IngramSpark
A print-on-demand distributor owned by Ingram, the world’s largest book wholesaler. IngramSpark gives you access to bookstores, libraries, and retailers that Amazon’s distribution doesn’t reach. Many self-published authors use both KDP (for Amazon sales) and IngramSpark (for everywhere else). If you’re planning to publish a book for broad distribution, understanding the KDP and IngramSpark dynamic is essential.
Audiobook / ACX
ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) is Amazon’s platform for producing and distributing audiobooks. It connects authors with narrators and distributes finished audiobooks to Audible, Amazon, and Apple Books. Audiobooks are the fastest-growing segment of the book market, and adding an audio edition can significantly expand your readership.
For a deeper walkthrough, see our complete guide to self-publishing an audiobook, including costs and distribution options. And if you’d prefer to hand off the production process entirely, Alpaca Authors’ audiobook packages cover narrator casting, recording, mastering, and distribution to 45+ platforms.
Author Copies
Discounted copies of your own print book that you can order at printing cost (no royalty included). Useful for book signings, events, gifts, or sending review copies to media outlets.
Scam Awareness: Protecting Yourself
This topic doesn’t appear in most guides about how to self publish a book on Amazon, but it should.
KDP is a self-service platform. Amazon does not assign you a personal publishing representative. If someone contacts you claiming to be from “KDP Publishing” or “Amazon Publishing Services” and offers to help publish your book for a fee, that’s a scam.
In the comments on Jane Friedman’s blog, one author described initially believing they were working with a KDP representative via email, only to realize later that the person was unaffiliated with Amazon and eventually stopped responding. This happens regularly to new authors who don’t yet know that KDP is entirely self-service.
How to protect yourself:
- Amazon will never email you offering to publish your book for money
- All legitimate KDP communication comes from @amazon.com or @kdp.amazon.com email addresses
- If someone contacts you about publishing services, verify them independently before paying anything
- Stick to well-vetted service providers with transparent pricing and clear deliverables
Common Mistakes When Self-Publishing on Amazon
Understanding the glossary is half the battle. Avoiding these frequently repeated mistakes is the other half.
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Skipping professional cover design. Your cover is your primary marketing asset. It’s the first thing readers see in search results, ads, and social media. A homemade cover signals amateur quality, regardless of how good your writing is.
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Using single-word keywords. Filling your seven keyword slots with generic words like “fiction” or “romance” wastes your discoverability potential. Use specific multi-word phrases.
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Ignoring the June 2025 royalty change. Pricing your paperback below $9.99 now costs you a 10-percentage-point royalty cut. Price accordingly.
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Publishing without a marketing plan. Practitioners across Reddit, YouTube, and author forums agree on this point more than almost anything else: publishing without marketing is the single most common reason books fail to sell.
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Choosing KDP Select by default. Exclusivity is a strategic decision, not a default setting. Evaluate whether your genre and publishing plans actually benefit from it.
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Not ordering a proof copy. The digital preview tool is helpful but imperfect. Physical proofs catch issues you won’t see on screen.
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Neglecting metadata after launch. Your categories, keywords, and description aren’t set-and-forget. Revisit them periodically, especially if sales stall.
For more publishing guides and strategies, browse the Alpaca Authors blog.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to self publish a book on Amazon?
Publishing through KDP is free. There are no upfront fees to upload and list your eBook, paperback, or hardcover. Your costs come from optional (but often necessary) investments in professional editing, cover design, and formatting. These can range from a few hundred dollars for basic services to several thousand for comprehensive packages.
Do I need an ISBN to self publish a book on Amazon?
For eBooks, no. Amazon assigns a free ASIN. For paperbacks and hardcovers, KDP offers a free ISBN, but it lists your imprint as “Independently published.” If you want a custom imprint name or plan to sell through bookstores and non-Amazon retailers, purchase your own ISBN through Bowker.
How long does it take for my book to appear on Amazon after I publish?
Up to 72 hours. KDP reviews every submission for content compliance and formatting. In many cases books go live within 24 hours, but plan for the full 72-hour window, especially around your launch date.
Should I enroll in KDP Select or go wide?
It depends on your genre and publishing strategy. KDP Select works best for series-driven genres with heavy Kindle Unlimited readership (romance, LitRPG, military sci-fi). Going wide is usually smarter for standalone nonfiction, memoir, cookbooks, and children’s books where readers prefer to own and reference their copies.
How much can I earn per book on Amazon KDP?
For eBooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99, you earn 70% royalty minus delivery costs. For print books priced at $9.99 or above, you earn 60% minus printing costs (after the June 2025 change). A $14.99 paperback with a $4.50 printing cost would earn roughly $4.49 per sale. Kindle Unlimited page reads pay approximately $0.004 to $0.005 per page.
Can I sell my book on other platforms if I publish on Amazon?
Yes, unless you enroll your eBook in KDP Select, which requires Amazon exclusivity for 90-day periods. Your print books can always be sold on other platforms regardless of KDP Select enrollment.
What formatting tool should I use?
For Amazon-only eBooks, Kindle Create (free) works for beginners. For professional-quality output across multiple formats and platforms, Atticus ($147, cross-platform) or Vellum (~$250, Mac-only) are the most recommended tools among experienced self-published authors.
What’s the biggest mistake first-time self-published authors make?
Treating publication as the finish line rather than the starting line. Without a marketing strategy, even well-written, beautifully formatted books remain invisible. If you’re planning to self publish a book on Amazon and want it to actually sell, build your marketing plan before you hit the publish button.