3 secrets
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Reader, Why did the author break up with Amazon Ads? Too many impressions… not enough commitment. 3 Secrets: 1. Get Amazon to recommend your book for free When I’m reading a book and it references another book, I often don’t skip a beat before buying that one too. It’s honestly the #1 way I discover my next read and I know I’m not alone. Funny thing is, there’s more power to this than meets the eye. Knowing readers are likely to buy additional books recommended in your book, you can use this…

Reader, My launch failed, but on the bright side… my mom bought 47 copies. Huge in the household demographicA relevant joke for today 🙂 3 Secrets: 1. Why your book hasn’t taken off (or has) In its simplest form, these two levers are the only ones you have.If your book hasn’t taken off how you thought it would, it’s the result of one of these two factors:1. How many readers you and your team introduce to your book2. How many other readers those readers tell about your bookThat’s it.#1 is…

Reader, We’re stoked to congratulate our very own Joseph Nguyen on coming in at #3 in ALL hardcover non-fiction sold (400K copies) in 2025. I’ve worked with more agencies than I’d like to admit because most of them are rarely ever able to produce the results they promise. Alex and his team are the first agency out of every single one I’ve worked with that has truly under-promised and over-delivered. Within a few months, they have tripled the results of my previous agencies and what I have…

Reader, Today’s 321 is partly inspired by a fantastic interview with Tim Grahl on The Write Anyway Podcast hosted by Sue Campbell. 3 Secrets: 1. How to network with authors more famous than you Successful people want to see other hard-working people succeed. If you can show someone how hungry you are by actually implementing a piece of advice they have, they are more likely to be invested in your journey. After all, it’s their advice on the line. Step 1: Ask whoever you want to be friends…

Reader, andddddd we’re back! How can I serve you this year? What do you want more of? Let me know 🙂 before we get to the first 321 of 2026…. horseback riding at Petra over Christmas with my childhood best friend Colleen okay, okay, now back to book marketing… 3 Secrets: 1. The Lean Startup’s Viral Engine of Growth but make it books… In the Lean Startup by Eric Ries, the Viral Engine of Growth is when your product grows because users bring in more users automatically. You’ve achieved…

Reader, happy to be back home with the family in Virginia for the holidays 🙂 *right before baby Elouise had a blowout all over my mom’s new couch* Wishing you all a happy and healthy holiday season 🙂 3 Secrets: 1. Releasing a new book in 2026? Getting everyone in your launch team to leave their review on launch day is like herding cats. Anyone who has released a book before knows that launch day has enough going on. So instead of trying to do it all on launch day… Create a Google Form or…

Reader, there’s this guy I’ve been learning from for years now. His name…Ed Rush if you clicked on his name above, you may have noticed that his book, The 21 Day Miracle, has almost 1,500 Amazon ratings his most recent book, God Talks, is currently selling 20-30 copies a day based on what I just told you, you might be surprised to hear that Ed failed kindergarten! you might also be surprised to now hear that Ed ended up becoming one of the top fighter pilots in the world, graduating from…

Reader, The San Diego Library hosts weekly swing dancing lessons. A friend suggested we go try it out. After breaking my brain trying to understand the 6-count footwork, I left the room and went exploring… andddd stumbled upon The Harvey Rare Book Room, which I didn’t even know existed… Amazing! A genuine excuse I could give my dance partner not to keep dancing. Obviously I HAD to explore it! who knew we had the world’s smallest book here in the San Diego Library! and so I present to you…

Reader, little photo dump from the last month. our U.S. team, Laura, Steve, and I – attending Author Nation in Vegas at the start of November. meeting one of my favorite book marketing humans, Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy learning new windsurfing tricks from a former Olympian in the sport, Patti Kiley, here in San Diego 3 Secrets: 1. Using the crap out of your Amazon real estate Did you know you own real estate? well…on Amazon anyway. and most don’t use it the way they should YOU can engineer…

Reader, **TOMORROW @ 11AM PST/2PM EST** Kary Oberbrunner is the most knowledgeable person I know on protecting your IP, intellectual property, as we head into 2026. He even presented on IP protection to the USPTO on a special panel which was later presented to Congress in a 2024 report. I’m grateful to have Kary joining our ShelfLife community tomorrow morning for a free session on making sure your IP is protected as an author. Just reply to this email to reserve your free ticket. I learned…

Reader, 1,000,000+ copies of Longitude have been sold. Yes….a book about those horizontal lines on the globe. I wanted to know how and why. Dava Sobel joined me on Before The Bestseller over the last two weeks which also inspires today’s 321. I rarely know what the gravy of a conversation will end up being and these ones were no exception. talking to Dava it became clear how important it is to chose the right publisher, should you chose to go that route. I provide today’s 321 to give you an…

Reader, Do you read non-fiction? Between Before The Bestseller (where I interview some of the top authors in the world),my work at ShelfLife (where we directly work with some of the top authors in the world), and my own thirst for interesting stories and perspective, I pretty easily get through a book a week. SO I’ve launched a 321 for fellow big-time readers! Each week, I’ll be sharing what I’m currently reading, along with my honest, uncensored, personal lens of a bogan-Australian whose…