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Reader,
My launch failed, but on the bright side… my mom bought 47 copies. Huge in the household demographic
A 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 book
2. How many other readers those readers tell about your book
That’s it.
#1 is built over time through list building, influencer relationships, paid ads, and everything else we try to bring to you in these newsletters.
#2 is almost entirely predetermined by the time you hit publish and holds more leverage than #1.
Let’s use a simplified example to show why #2 has so much leverage.
3 books are each introduced to 100 readers at launch.
Readers of Book 1 (blue) each tell two other readers.
Readers of book 2 (red) each tell one other reader.
Only half of readers of book 3 (yellow) each tell one other reader.
Here we see that by month 4, Book 1 reaches 3,100 readers. Book 2 has reached 500 total readers. Book 3 has yet to hit 200 total readers.
Book 1: 16 months to 1 million readers
Book 2: 834 years to 1 million readers
Book 3: Never reaches more than 200 readers
Now, yes, this is an oversimplification.
It assumes every reader will read the book in the month they’re introduced to it (a book might sit on a shelf for a year before it’s actually read).
It also assumes all readers are equal, when in reality your book will spread among certain pockets of readers faster depending on their background.
Either way the takeaway here should be clear…
You MUST study what increases the chances of a reader sharing your book. And YES, you can influence those chances through your book design.
The Miracle Morning (2M+ readers) changes a daily habit; waking up becomes the trigger for message stickiness.
The Coaching Habit (2M+ readers) is a 50-page book disguised as a 200-page book, which decreases the time it takes a reader to digest and recommend it.
Go for No (500K+ readers) is precisely titled and written for a bulk order marketing strategy (increasing value/relevance to superspreaders)
$100M Offers (5M+ readers across the series) is almost an adult picture book, with explanatory doodles for every topic, so you learn the content without even needing to read.
Longitude (1M+ readers) was published to be physically beautiful, with shocking brocade and an extremely giftable design.
2. A reader is your IDEAL reader
Mom’s purchase doesn’t help!
Why did Rob Fitzpatrick only need to seed 1,000 copies of The Mom Test or Write Useful books?
Because his 1,000 were purely people whose problem he was solving.
I think of promoting your book to your college friends—or getting your friends to buy it—like I think of creating an author website: it’s instantaneous gratification, but a week or two later, you realize it did nothing for you.
Now maybe you are actually solving your family and friends problems but the point is that unless you’re actually putting your book in the hands of people whose problem you’re solving, those people won’t recommend your book and there will be no further word of mouth.
3. Whatever social media platform you use….
Every author I interview who drives book sales via social media (especially LI), all said the same thing: Every post you do on LinkedIn should be teaching something. One quick way top authors create content is by thinking to themselves, “what’s a recent conversation I’ve had with a client or follower and what did we talk about”.
Ask yourself, would I be willing to pay $10 for this post?
If the answer is no, it’s not worth posting.
2 Links
- Before The Bestseller Podcast Update: New episodes airing second week in February, including new guests like Eric Ries of the Lean Startup and welcoming back some old guests too, like Nir Eyal talking about his new book, Beyond Belief. In the meantime – here’s our 3rd most popular episode ever: BTB143: The Guide to Going Viral | Brendan Kane. Listen here.
- Eradicate social media noise by replacing your entire news feed with an inspiring quote: News Feed Eradicator
1 Quote
“Take a simple idea and take it seriously” -Charlie Munger
with love and sincere appreciation,
Alex
BeforeTheBestseller | ShelfLife
alex@getshelflife.com
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