3 secrets, 2 links, 1 book

Reader,

Last week, we had Eric Ries of The Lean Startup (2,000,000+ copies sold), on Before The Bestseller.

He thinks of book marketing like a startup.

3 Secrets
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​1. Kickstarter can benefit you in more ways than one.

Eric’s kickstarter was record breaking. That was over a decade ago. Is kickstarter dead?

​This author doesn’t think so.

If your book is a movement and you have a strong network, Kickstarter is the way to go.

Interview with Jayson Gaignard out in September but here are a few notes to guide you with Kickstarter now:
-For a bulk buy option, give people an option to buy a bunch of copies but not have to warehouse 150 books they don’t know what to do with. Some people will want to support at a higher level but not want to become your storage facility so instead offer them to sponsor the bulk buy but you’ll do the job of distributing those copies to readers.
-Use the kickstarter to test what’s going to move the needle. Jayson was able to test which lists and what activities created the most buzz for the kickstarter. Then, when he launches in September, he already knows what marketing assets and relationships are going to be most effective.
-Doing a kickstarter allows you to do research on who your ideal reader is. Jayson was not expecting the fact that women were far outnumbering men when it came to supporting the kickstarter. Now he knows more about who his book resonates the most with and can now spend time focusing on where that ideal reader spends their time.

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2. “Can I address the small podcast thing?”

Before The Bestseller has around 500 listeners. Why in the world would 2,000,00-copy-sold author Eric Ries join us for an episode?

In his words:
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There’s something very special going on.

What’s powerful about it is not how big it is, but the connection you must obviously have with these listeners – they trust you in a way that 99.99% of the worlds population don’t.

To me it’s obvious if you want to make a connection with people you have to go where they are and sometimes that means doing it like shaking individual hands.

To me the size of it isn’t important, it’s the intensity of the audience’s connection that matters.

Smaller shows = Bigger bonnection

In summary: It’s more absurd for people to do something before it’s popular so there must be a stronger connection there.

“Don’t think about it is a chore to go on smaller shows. I’ve been on Good Morning America and you’re just a small segment of their thing. What matters is the strength of connection. People listen to a smaller show because they’re interested in something specific and that’s someone I’m really happy to talk to.”

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3. Can you hand your boss a blog?

A book encapsulates a set of ideas under a name, give it a label, to make it a thing.

A book is old technology that’s survived centuries.

Eric saw his job as to create legitimacy of the book so someone could take this to their boss and say, “there’s this new idea, and we should do it”.

IF that’s the type of non-fiction you’re writing, how do you create that legitimacy.

Case studies. Decades of implementation data. Bringing together your ideas into a succinct thing that someone can say, “Oh yes, we’re doing the Lean Startup methodology.”

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2 Links

1. Listen to the full episode with Eric here where we talk about what he focuses on during a book launch and how he views his job differently than most authors.
2. See how Jayson Gaignard set up his Kickstarter here. He admits using Claude to do some of the page creation which worked out pretty well…​​

1 Book

How has Costco been able to maintain their brand despite the invasion of private equity in every other part of the economy?

How can we be sure the AI tools we’re using aren’t owned by companies focused on corporate greed?

The answer is governance.

And good governance is incorruptible.

​Incorruptible. Instead of linking to Amazon, Eric requested I link to it on Bookshop.org to support local bookstores.

Dense read but mandatory for any founder.

4 stars.

Alex
​BeforeTheBestseller | ShelfLife​
alex@getshelflife.com
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