Quick Links: What I Learned from Launching My First Best Seller

Today’s post is written by Jeff Goins. Jeff is the best-selling author of four books including, The Art of Work. His award-winning blog, Goinswriter.com, is visited by millions of people every year. Get his free book marketing cheatsheet here.

So you want to launch a bestseller. Great. Every writer does. But the truth is, before you can launch a best-selling book, you have to write a best-selling book. Here’s what I mean.

When my recent book, The Art of Work, became an instant bestseller, people asked me how I did it. They wanted to know the secret marketing tactic or promotional strategy I used. And those were the wrong questions to ask.

For the longest time, I wanted to be a best-selling author. I built my tribe, learned how to market, and assembled book launch teams. But it never happened. What was I doing wrong?

After four books, I finally did get a book on the bestseller lists. But it had nothing to do with timing or practice. With my fourth book, I actually learned how to write a book I believed in that would sell well. And any writer can do this, if they understand the process.

Just a couple quick notes, though, before I begin:

1. This process works for writing nonfiction. I’m not a fiction author, so I can’t speak to that. This works for writing how-to, advice, self-help, memoir, business, and just about any other form of nonfiction.
2. This is not about how to game your way onto a bestsellers list. I tried that. It didn’t work. This is about how to write a real bestseller, a book that continues to sell tens of thousands of copies every year.

3 Lessons I Learned from Launching my First Best-selling Book

So with that said, I want to share with you my process, what I learned from watching other authors succeed and then applied to my own writing journey. I wasted years trying to figure this out, but hopefully you won’t have to do the same. Here are three things I learned from launching my first best-selling book: