When I first set out for a book deal, I was apprehensive鈥攁nd for good reason: by all accounts, it鈥檚 tough to sell a book these days.

There鈥檚 a reason people think of the word 鈥渟truggling鈥� when they think of writers, and I鈥檝e been on a mission to prove to myself that this doesn鈥檛 have to be the case.

I either got lucky or happened to have hit on something because, after a nerve-wrangling month, my agent let me know that Hay House鈥攁mong a couple of other publishing houses鈥攎ade an offer on my book and soon I had a bidding war, which inspired a solid book deal.

Still, I was clear about one thing: it wasn鈥檛 just luck or my idea that helped me rise to the top of the pile: the fact is I have a large email list, a great deal of interaction on social media and marketing experience. My agent and publisher affirmed that these were key factors in my success.

So, what do you do if you have a book living inside of you, and you don鈥檛 have such assets to sell yourself to publishers? How, in short, is the person with the story to tell but a lack of tools to tell it, supposed to take advantage of the fact that publishing a book pushes careers into the stratosphere?

I asked Anna David, CEO of Light Hustle Publishing, to shed some light on the self-publishing process. Anna David is a master at facilitating the process, and I knew she鈥檇 have answers. In fact, some of her recent business projects include Darren Prince鈥檚 international bestseller, Aiming High: How a Prominent Sports Agent Hit Bottom at the Top and the soon-to-be-released The Gorga Guide to Success by Real Housewives of New Jersey star Joe Gorga.