Book Marketing Breakthrough 04 - Adopt an Evergreen Model

Rosa Lee Beeland edited the most popular self-help book of all time - making its author world famous for the ideas he'd borrowed from earlier bestselling books. Right time, right model...

Dec 15, 2024

Lesson 4 – Adopt An Evergreen Model

It was in 1936 when 31-year-old Rosa Lee Beeland met an author who would change her life and the state of self-help publishing forever.

Possessing an exceptional beauty and keen intelligence, Rosa Lee distinguished herself early in life. She'd been working as a secretary in advertising for over six years and had completed two years of business school.

She had few expectations of finding a husband when she signed up to attend a Knoxville lecture by a visiting speaker. She determined what she expected in a husband some sixteen years prior - but no one had ever filled that bill.

Napoleon Hill had returned to the lecture circuit after he'd wrapped up his duties in Washington D C. In the lecture that day, he rather frankly and publicly stated to the Knoxville, Tennessee audience that he was in search of his “dream girl.”

Rosa went directly up to the stage front after that lecture finished, to personally talk with Hill. They set up a time to talk at length the following day.

“When I arrived he met me at the elevator, escorted me to his study, and without inviting me to be seated, started immediately to tell me his story,” Beeland would write later. “We talked for more than five hours. We compared notes and spoke very plainly and frankly. Before I left we were engaged.”

Marriage happened a few months later. Without any money, the newlyweds took over a small Hell's Kitchen apartment in New York City from one of Napoleon’s sons, Blair, who also gave them a $300 loan.

Almost immediately Hill and Beeland (now Mrs. Hill) would begin work on a textbook he tentatively called “The Thirteen Steps to Riches.”

Rosa Lee was a tireless companion, editing Hill’s thoughts into more coherent sentences. She worked day and night typing and arranging Hill’s manuscript. Rosa worked hard in editing Hill's work, helping his thoughts flow and feeding in her own ideas. By most accounts, this book was as much a product of his new bride’s mind as it was Napoleon’s.

And after at least three complete rewrites, they presented the work to Hill’s former publisher, Andrew Pelton.

Pelton was reportedly reluctant at first, convinced that there was no longer a market for the self-help prosperity books. Like the one he'd published for Napoleon a decade earlier – one that earned his first book-publishing dollar in 1928. It was now the middle of the Great Depression and many Americans had little money for food, let alone a hardcover book that told them everything was going to be great. As well, this new book seemed at first glance to be just a rehash of his earlier text.

At Rosa’s insistence, Pelton gave the manuscript a more thorough reading. After that, he then finally relented. However, he agreed to publish it with one condition—that the title be changed to “Use Your Noodle to Win More Boodle”. Hill objected, but the publisher was firm. "Unless you come up with something better by tomorrow, that is how it's going to be printed."

Hill related later that he was awakened early the next morning with the title "Think and Grow Rich."

The book was published under that title, and found a hungry audience in 1937. Most Americans didn’t turn to popular media to remind them of their troubles. They wanted books and movies and radio programs to provide a glimmer of hope; a reminder that things could indeed get better. At least they could spend a few hours forgetting their own problems and live vicariously through the wealthy people they saw on the silver screen or the successful people chronicled in books who came from nothing.

A book that was designed to relieve the ever-present fear of Depression poverty filled the needs of a nation and became Hill’s greatest work – selling out its first print run in three weeks. By the end of the Depression, it had sold 1 million copies and had made Napoleon Hill a fortune of over $1 million (around $22 million today).

Even today, it is considered the greatest self-improvement book of all time (outside of the Bible itself) with more than 30 million copies sold worldwide.

An Earlier Model in New Clothes

The model Hill and his wife followed wasn't a new one.

New Thought was popular at the time, and advertising in its Chicago magazines was an effective way to boost book sales and lecture attendance.

The ideas in Hill's earlier successful book, Law of Success, were closely modeled on Charles Haanel's Master Key System. Hill also duplicated Haanel's model of a correspondence course followed by a full book release.

Haanel himself used elements in his book that were common to Wattles' 1910 Science of Getting Rich and also Troward's first two books, both published in 1909. The idea of changing your thinking to attract wealth wasn't a novel one. James Allen in “As a Man Thinketh” had covered that thoroughly in 1903.

Think and Grow Rich was a new format for the data and model he'd used earlier in both Law of Success and his unsuccessful Magic Ladder to Success.

This runaway success was both proof of the timeworn concepts, and the right book at the right time, written and edited specifically to appeal to a fear-ridden reading public – one in dire need of an optimistic approach to living.

Both W Clement Stone and Earl Nightingale credited “Think and Grow Rich” for their success. Nightingale actually got the idea he later used in his “Strangest Secret” recording from a late chapter in Hill's book. Even then, Nightingale pointed out a long list of earlier philosophers who had discovered the same idea independently.

There are countless other examples of this book's influence readily found through a simple Internet search

The continuing recommendations for this book really points to both the timeless principles that Hill and Reeland re-wrote and edited into an appealing book, suitable for a wide audience in dire need of it.

The bottom line to Success – or the lack of it – is explained by what model people are using.

Book Marketing Success Model

In my own search for effective book marketing models, I discovered Tim Grahl and his book, “Your First 1,000 Copies.”

What Tim Grahl accomplished from his tiny home business in a small Virginia town was something even the big marketing firms seldom achieve. He had five clients on the NYT and other bestsellers lists simultaneously. All by himself.

How he learned to market books was by doing the web design for authors and studying how the most successful authors achieved their marketing results.

The pivotal moment for him was working for was Ramit Sethi, who was about to publish “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” and needed someone to run his website as he built up the marketing for that launch.

As Grahl pointed out in his “Running Down A Dream”:

“He didn’t have a big name publicist. There was no money for ads in the papers. He wasn’t doing a thirty-city book tour. He didn’t do any of the things the big publishers did. Or at least what those publishers said they did on the back of the advanced reading copies of their big titles.

“And yet, he orchestrated a campaign that had the book debuting on The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists, the two most well-known bestseller lists in the entire book industry. This was an unattainable goal for most authors, and yet he had pulled it off.”

After that, Grahl started working for other authors. He gravitated to them, kept his eyes open as he did their website work and distilled what he learned.

In doing this, he participated in all the actions they wanted to do. He then kept track of the metrics – how many books did these actions actually sell?

Out of these, he uncovered a pattern that worked for every author. And shifted his business to directly consulting on marketing author's books.

Meanwhile, he continued learning, and continued weeding out anything that didn't give stellar results.

So his clients' books soared in the bestseller lists.

Eventually, he wrote his own book about the working model he'd discovered. In this book, Grahl distilled his studies into a four-part system:

1) Permission: Build a list of subscribers, by having a website and offers that enabled them to sign up.

2) Content: Produce regular writing that attracts the type of subscribers who appreciate your book.

3) Outreach: Go on podcasts to reach more audience to sign up on your site. Also, collaborate with other authors so they recommend you as well.

4) Sell: You have to ask your readers to buy. Meaning: you have to build offers for your subscribers and make them available.

Grahl started his book by providing a working definition for marketing from his years of experience:

Marketing is two things: (1) creating lasting connections with people through (2) a focus on being relentlessly helpful.

He goes on to note that book marketing is a long-haul process. Because people can get your book, but they won't necessarily start reading it until maybe years later. Once they do – providing your writing is any good – they'll then start recommending it.

This is where you get word of mouth working for you, and the flywheel effect begins to turn for you.

The renowned editor Shawn Coyne pointed out to Grahl that word of mouth becomes truly effective for books when 10,000 readers have gotten a copy of your book and read it. (It turned out that several publishers have found this datum independently of Coyne's own studies.)

Of course, the average sales of any book – including both self-published and traditional – is about 250 books.

Grahl's system breaks through this barrier. It just takes a while. You have to build that big list of subscribers as a first action.

All your articles and newsletters build relationships with those readers.

Meanwhile, you're continuing to reach out to new potential readers through your outreach.

And – you're asking them to join your journey, to become part of the community around your books.

At some point, you'll realize you've got a business on your hands. And that's when you have to learn how to be a creative entrepreneur as well as a creative writer.

Business Model

One day, I found a post on Substack (by an author who goes by Yana G Y) which opened doors for my own marketing. She told the core principles that made her success – which she distilled from other successful writers:

1) Have a clear offer.

2) Show up consistently.

3) Build your community.

Again, Yana is a marketer. She helps authors earn income from their writing.

You can see how her model builds on Grahl's elements – but discovered these independently. Book marketing is based on having a book to sell. That's your clear offer.

On Substack, you earn income by inviting people with the offer to pay for a subscription to your newsletter.

Her three steps above then expands simple writing-marketing into an entrepreneur strategy.

Study your own theme in your regular writing – how you help others consistently. Distill your writing into an offer (a book, or a subscription.) Meanwhile, interact and form a community around your works.

The Non-Fiction Model

Too curiously, that business model and Grahl's book marketing model also align to W. S. Campbell’s formula for effective non-fiction (which itself was based on the Greek 3-act play):

1) Hey!

2) You!

3) See?

4) So…

Meaning:

Get their attention
Make it personal to them
Show how it works
Give them a call to action.

And since we are all wired for this type of story, especially in marketing, it’s then not surprising that I first got a lead on this in Eugene Schwartz’ “Breakthrough Advertising”.

Copywriting uses the same technical devices as fiction and non-fiction. You can use the craft of these three interchangeably.

Book marketing, per Tim Grahl again, is simply:

Build a list of subscribers.
Regularly contacting with them through newsletters and posts
Getting on podcasts and collaborating with other authors to entice their readers/listeners over to your website, where they can opt-in.
Sending them “asks” for their help. As well, employing them to enlist other people they know to help spread the word about your list (again, via an offer.)

Then the cycle turns again. In his model, you see the Consistency and Community elements. What’s missing is the understood element of having a completed book to pitch – your clear offer.

Combined Writing Model Principles

Combining these models above gives you an effective entrepreneurial engine:

0) Have an offer that is attractive. Know your sweet spot and produce material that's valuable, that solves problems.

1) Promote an interesting offer to get subscribers. Enable your website to convert them. Make more offers that convert based on feedback.

2) Involve those subscribers with continuing articles and stories to bring them further into your community.

3) Engage with them to participate, answer their questions. Prompt them with additional “asks”.

4) In addition to supporting you financially, persuade them to reach out to their friends and associates so they can also join your list – this is the flywheel effect.

Meanwhile, you're producing more offers that are irresistible.

And so, you use successful writing models to run your entrepreneurship. That is how you enable and control your own book sales.

Through growing your business – as an entrepreneur...

How This Can Help You

This course evolved while I was wrapping up the first three books in this series - and became part of the fourth book (see below.)

In that fourth book are three mini-courses — this is just the second lesson of the first course in there. The reason for this last book is to give you actionable material to get you started simply. And speed your own progress.

Coming soon should be a chat thread on this course, where you can ask me anything about what I cover here. Meanwhile, DM me with your questions, or leave comments below.

And you can always buy me a coffee…