First a bit about the awesome Catherine Ryan Howard:

Catherine Ryan Howard is a writer, self-publisher and caffeine enthusiast from Cork, Ireland. SELF-PRINTED: THE SANE PERSON’S GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING (3rd edition) is out now in paperback and e-book and available from Amazon. Follow the #selfprintedsplash on Twitter today (Friday 24th) and/or visit http://www.catherineryanhoward.com for chance to win an amazing prize that will get your self-publishing adventure started!

And now a bit about the third edition of SELF-PRINTED: THE SANE PERSON’S GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING:
“SELF-PRINTED is my self-publishing bible. It taught me how to format, create and upload my e-books and print-on-demand paperbacks. It showed me practical things such as how to build a website/blog and how to promote my books. More importantly, it taught me how to compete with the professionals. Just look at the results – The Estate Series has sold nearly 100,000 copies and following that I got a traditional book deal with Thomas & Mercer too, so I’m now a hybrid author. Jam-packed full of hints and tips all in one place, I’m always referring back to it. In a word, it’s priceless.” – Mel Sherratt, author of The Estate Series and DS Allie Shenton Series

Catherine very generously threw her blog open to self publishing questions, so I asked one:

Q:If you wrote a trilogy, would you release all three on the same day or space their release out to one every month (or other interval)?

And Catherine’s answer:

A: I would space them out at intervals of 6-12 weeks. Releasing them all at the same time wastes opportunities. Whenever you release a new book, you get to feature in ‘New and Future Releases’ on Amazon, and then there’s the KDP Select programme. Although it’s benefits have decreased, it’s still worthwhile if you’ve multiple titles. For instance, I’d release Book 1 and enroll it in KDP Select. Now it has to be exclusive to Amazon for at least 90 days. I might do my five free days to get the ball rolling. At the end of those 90 days (or 12 weeks ish), I’d release Book 2 and have my next set of five free days on Book 1, which I can do now that a new 90 days has started. Release book 3 in 90 days’ time and do the same thing – so for Books 2 and 3, Book 1 is free for five days at release, encouraging people to download and read Book 1 for free and pay for Books 1 and 2. Once you’ve built up a bit of momentum, un-enroll from KDP Select and go for wider distribution with Smashwords, etc.

I blogged about some other reasons why you shouldn’t release multiple titles simultaneously here:

http://catherineryanhoward.com/2012/05/07/how-to-sell-self-published-books-one-at-a-time/

Thanks so much Catherine, for taking the time to answer my question. Best of luck with the third edition of SELF-PRINTED: THE SANE PERSON’S GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING.