The Two Types of Book-selling Success
I found this years ago - and it's proved out again recently. There are two types of writers who become outstanding successes from their book sales. They master two skill sets - tha anyone can learn...
Excerpt from my latest book - now in beta-release (see below…)
Recently, I bought into a good marketing pitch and bought a book that disappointed. I literally couldn’t get through that book. The writing was bad, the editing was worse. I was lost in a few pages, no matter what chapter I tried to read. There was no real structure to the book - only some overlong essays that meandered worse than a river out of its banks.
And it reminded me of what I’d discovered years ago:
There are two notable successes in book publishing - 1) Writers who learned how to market, and 2) Marketers who learned how to write.
In this case, that horrible book confirmed the reverse of this:
Any writer who doesn’t learn marketing will have a tough time selling books.
Any marketer who doesn’t learn the craft of writing may sell a few - but then will make their own brand into a pariah - and so will have a tougher time selling any of their own books thereafter.
Both marketing and writing are fairly simple to learn. You go back to the classics and the evergreen principles are repeated over and over.
Both writing and marketing are based on the fact that we are wired to prefer our stories follow a certain pattern. We like to have our feelings touched, we like to be intellectually challenged, we like to connect. And all of this is inside the simple Greek 3-Act play - true since before Aristotle. Copywriting, Fiction, Non-Fiction - the same rules for effective writing apply to all.
Here’s an excerpt from my newly-released book that approaches this concept:
A Note on Marketers-turned-Writers
What I laid out for you at the outset is still true:
There are two types of book successes -
1) Writers who learn how to market books, and
2) Marketers who learn how to write books.
Each learns the craft of the other, which compliments what they already know. The big But here is – they generally each stay true to their core skill set and just improve what already works for them. And when you talk to them, their core shines through.
Marketers often refer to their writing as “content”. Writers are far more loving in reference to their crafted work.
Writers, at any level of production, live in their “river of interest”. They often start researching and outlining their next book before the last is published.. Writing is about the intimate connections to your readers.
Marketers see books as an additional income source. So they produce books more intermittently. They speak of genres, tropes, A/B tests – all from the view of writing books that will sell. They judge their success in terms of income. There is that joy of creation like an entrepreneur, who builds the legacy of a thriving business – or several.
The approach I've used here started out to rectify the differences between these two areas – but here at the end, my attitude is has become one of savoring both the commonalities and the differences between those two different viewpoints and lifestyles. One isn't any better than the other. They both produce top-selling books that earn them a livable income. To each their own.
To have successful books, you need to know the craft of both – and apply them rigorously. As a professional, this is lifelong learning. You're always improving your craft, whether it's studying someone's marketing success or re-reading something for the fourth time to immerse yourself in the emotional reaction a certain author created on you – and how they crafted that book, story, article, or ad to produce that effect.
All this book's job has been to layout the core basics of what is conventionally called an Operating System. Outside of the marketing-speak that phrase implies – it is really a lifestyle choice. Where you can be as creative as you want and experience that joy to your heart's content – in your writing, in your marketing, and in your own business. That's your journey in joy.