Four Lessons Learned From Becoming a Bestselling Author

Four Lessons Learned From Becoming a Bestselling Author

Do you think that becoming a bestselling author can support your business growth? The answer is a clear “YES”! But there are a few things to consider making this happen.

I just became 5x bestselling author with the book “Zeitmanagement lernen und Fokus steigern”. This book is about time management and productivity and was in the making for more than 9 months. Reaching the bestseller status is not a coincidence. There is a clear strategy behind this launch. I’d love to share some insights and lessons learned with you.

1) Don’t underestimate the work

Don’t think that writing a book is something you can just do in a snap. This takes time! Find the right topic, do your research, write regularly, stay in touch with the publisher, provide requested materials like press releases, biography, and other marketing material.

For me, it was important to write high quality content. Because I hate to read books where you could just read 5 sentences and then you got the essence of everything else that is written there. I don’t like fluff; thus, my biggest challenge was to fill the required minimum word limit.

Also, you need to make sure to structure the content logically for your readers. And find your own writing style. It definitely pays off to write regularly e.g. in an own blog or for other publications.

It is not an easy stroll. Publishing a book – like any other product you will launch – is an entire project and requires coordination, dedication and effort.

2) Have a Strategy

A fundamental question to ask yourself is what you want to use the book for. Will you use it as a marketing tool? Shall it highlight your expertise? Do you want to generate new clients from it?

Depending on your strategy, you will have to consider some aspects during the creation of the book already. If you want to use it for generating new clients, you should pick a topic that is aligned with your business activities and that can tie into the other products of your business. This would allow you to use the book as a starting point of a product ladder and upsell clients more easily with the other follow-up products.

Some people also just want to use the book launch for branding. Being an Amazon bestseller gives you credibility! People will look at you and your expertise differently. This can help you win new customers and get more eyeballs on your offers.

A book can also be a great tool to give away as a gift or to use for a raffle.

3) Your Network is essential

You won’t become a bestseller if nobody buys your book. To manage the entire process, you need to activate your network. Of course, you can also run ads and other marketing measures. But you cannot manage the purchase behavior of strangers as well as the one of your friends, followers, and supporters. If you ask your followers to support you at a certain time, they will do it.

BUT: This requires that you build a network first!

I invested more than 3.5 years to grow and nurture my network. When somebody needed my support, I was there. Comment, engage, communicate, and build meaningful relationships. You cannot only start a week before you launch. Building a network takes time.

This was one of my biggest takeaways: If you invest and add value to other people’s life, they will return the favor when you ask them to! I was really overwhelmed by all the positive responses and feedback! I did not expect such a massive support and feel blessed to have such amazing people in my life.

4) It’s up to you!

Nobody will do it for you! You want to be a bestselling author? Then you need to take the lead! I wrote more than 150 people, posted in various groups, shared across all my profiles with a countdown and reminders. Just telling people once is not enough! You need to be active and you need to monitor the progress. I did not sleep the entire night after the promotional measures. I needed to stay awake to track hourly, how the ranking changed and whether we hit our goal or not.

If I had leaned back and just waited, I might have not been a bestselling author now. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Such a project can be overwhelming and if you have never done that, you should get support in. I did! And that was the best decision ever! Because this allowed me to focus on connecting with my contacts while somebody else keeps an eye on the numbers and the timing.

Becoming a bestselling author can be a great tool to grow your business. But if you want it, you need to go get it.

These are my four biggest takeaways from our book launch. I hope they will help you to get this done as well!