K: Knowledge

This one's a huge catch-all.  The knowledge we need to write.  On one level, of course, all you need is to write.  (And if you don't write, no matter what you know, you aren't a writer.  See this brilliant summary by the ever-clever and profane Chuck Wendig).  So you need enough self-knowledge to know you want to write, and enough self-discipline to sit down and do it.

But it helps if you have some other kinds of knowledge: the mechanics of writing, grammar, proofing.  These things are pretty self-evident, and can be studied if you are weak in any of them.

And then there is the knowledge that I didn't even know I needed when I started this journey: knowledge of publishing and marketing and book design. .  . If you are starting out as an author-publisher, do better than I did and take time now to start learning about all of these.  Join the communities at Goodreads.com.  Start reading blogs (there are about a million that deal with all aspects of writing and publishing).  Start your own blog, do the A to Z Challenge, be a part of communities.

And get someone to make you an exceptional cover, and read my post on editing.

This is what I got when I did it myself

And this is what I got when I paid someone to do it right.