Writers write for a million different reasons, and rarely just one. For pleasure. To memorialize. To exorcise personal demons. For posterity. Because there’s a story to tell. But everyone reading this post almost certainly has one reason in common: we write to sell....

There is an oft-repeated comparison between self-publishing and staking a wild gamble on casino games like slot machines or roulette. The thinking goes that once you publish, you’ve paid your money and all you can do is trust your luck. This isn’t new thinking. It’s...