Getting Lucky
“I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have” -Coleman Cox
Dr. Shefali released her first book The Conscious Parent in 2010, and it didn’t sell for years. She was passionate about her message and constantly told people that Opera needed to hear about it. Eventually her intentions spread and she made it onto Super Soul when someone she spoke to happened to have a connection. (This is a friendly reminder to tell someone about your book today and what you hope to achieve with it).
The Four Agreements also exploded when Ellen Degenerous recommended the book to Oprah on her show in 2001. The book shot to the top of the charts.
Over 10 years later, in 2013 (after Oprah had launched Super Soul Sunday) she again promoted the book in an interview with author Don Miguel Ruiz and the book once again shot to the top of the charts.
This time – it stayed there.
You can’t plan for Oprah to promote your book for you. But you can plan on seeding enough copies in the wild for serendipitous handoffs to occur.
Seeding copies is putting yourself in a position to get lucky.
Ever wonder how Rich Dad Poor Dad became the #1 personal finance author of all time?
Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki initially sold his book in a carwash.
A carwash…
A reader who purchased Kiyosaki’s book at the carwash sent it to a friend – who was a leader of a tightly knit organization with thousands of people.
It soon became mandatory reading for the organization who also began to fly Kiyosaki around the world to speak to their members.
All it can take to make your book, brand, or life big, is one person to believe in your story but to get to that one person, you need to put yourself in a position to get lucky.
“Robert Kiyosaki on Self Publishing School Podcast (episode 56, June 3, 2020, Spotify).”
3 Secrets
1. Start your book marketing plan by writing down answers to the following questions in a notepad on your computer or a notebook.
How big is your email list?
Who are you close with who have their own lists?
What gatekeepers do you know?
Who do you know with podcasts?
Who do you know that’s been on podcasts?
What events are going on right now that you can be relevant to?
Who do you know that you can text to leave a review?
Do you know anyone who has a physical store you can put your book in?
How many followers do you have on the various social media platforms?
What organizations are you a part of or can contact to give away copies to?
2. After you’ve taken inventory, you’re going to break down your seeding goal we set at the start of this book into each tool.
The goal here is to now set mini goals for how many copies you’re going to move from each tool. Let’s use an example of 10,000 copies as the goal:
Street Team Goal: 100
Podcast Guesting Goal: 500
Paid Promotions Goal: 500
Organic/Earned Friends & Partners Goal: 2,000
Email List Goal: 1,000
Bulk Corporate Buy Goal: 2,000
Amazon Ads Goal: 2,000
Facebook Ads Goal: 400
Instagram Paid Influencers Goal: 1,000
Events Goal: 500
Total: 10,000
3. Talking about one of those tools: Podcast Guesting
Spiderwebbing
What’s one way to network your way to the top “dream” podcasts and shows? If you’re serious about making it onto the podcasts with thousands of listeners then make a list of all the guests who have appeared on it. Then, figure out which of those guests have their own shows. That can be your initial target list and if you’re bringing it as an amazing guest for those shows, you may be able to get an introduction to your dream show. Still too competitive? Go a level deeper. Figure out what shows those middle show hosts have been on, and start there.
2 Links
- 500,000+ copies sold author Nir Eyal on Self-Publishing, Email Lists, Street Team, and Organic Growth. Listen here.
- My favorite Christmas playlist on Spotify to work to
1 Quote
“I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have”
-Coleman Cox
