When we released our debut novel ‘Sugar & Spice’ what seems like eons ago now, we never dreamed that it would make the top 100 in the Amazon paid store.

We never even thought we’d sell 100 books, let alone reach the top 100, but we did. It took us roughly 160 days.

‘Snow White’ was released 20 days ago and this morning, I awoke to find us sitting at number 98.

We might not stay there, who knows, but it was still a nice sight to wake up to.

We’ve learnt a lot since then – loads.

I was interviewed yesterday by a journalist for an article on the rise of Kindle and digital publishing and he asked me that very same question: What do you know now that you didn’t know when you started out?

The experience of uploading our second book to Amazon was very different. The first time round we stumbled through the process like a blind-folded drunk on ice and made some BIG mistakes.

The result? ‘Sugar & Spice’ sat bobbing around the lower echelons of the Amazon charts unnoticed for weeks, months even. Then when it did start selling, we also had problems and the climb was arduous, pedestrian.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. This time, we did everything differently:

Paid for a cover in advance, promoted before the release. Blogged, tweeted and facebook’ed’. Had it proof-read and professionally converted for upload. All things we had done ourselves the first time. Sure, it costs you money, but it pays for itself almost immediately.

Those few things sell books – fact.

We are learning all the time and when we release ‘Rapunzel’ before the end of the year, we’ll be even wiser (and older!).

Ok, these things don’t guarantee success, but they sure help. 😉