A great post. I agree that marketing is the hardest part. I’ve found that Amazon’s KDP Select is one of the best ways to market my books. In return for making your title exclusive to Amazon they will allow you to promote it free of charge for up to 5 days in any 90 day period. I would also echo David’s warning regarding paying large sums to companies which offer to publish your book for you. I spent almost £600 with a self publishing company when my first collection of short stories, The First Time was published. I would have been better self publishing myself (the path I have followed with my subsequent books).