Lessons Learned From Writing A Bestselling Book | Ep. #419

In Episode #419, Eric and Neil discuss the lessons Neil learned from writing a New York Times best-selling book. Tune in to learn Neil’s rather large disappoint AFTER writing his book and why being on the bestseller list doesn’t actually guarantee you more sales leads.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 00:27 – Today’s topic: Lessons Learned From Writing A Bestselling Book
  • 00:35 – Neil’s book, Hustle, hit the New York Times’ best-seller list
  • 00:56 – Neil learned from writing his book that it was a waste of time and money—he assumed it would grow his brand but it didn’t
    • 01:03 – “I think I did it wrong”
  • 01:08 – Neil had amazing co-authors, but he also learned that he should’ve written the book by himself
  • 01:15 – Hustle is for the general public, so it didn’t reached Neil’s target market
  • 01:24 – Neil’s was on the bestseller list for three consecutive weeks but it didn’t get him any sales
  • 01:45 – The topic was the biggest mistake for Neil, because it didn’t relate to what he does
  • 02:30 – The hardest part of writing a book is dealing with publishers
  • 02:40 – Writing a book is a lengthy process
  • 03:04 – Neil had a launch team
  • 03:14 – The difference between corporate sales and a launch team
    • 03:25 – ResultSource will distribute the book in major book stores
  • 03:37 – Eric is now switching from writing to marketing
  • 04:20 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Crazy Egg which is a visual analytics tool
  • 04:44 – That’s it for today’s episode!

3 Key Points:

  1. When writing a book, make sure that it reaches your target audience.
  2. If you can write your book by yourself, do it.
  3. Being on the New York Times’ bestseller list won’t guarantee a positive ROI for your brand.

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Full Transcript of The Episode

Speaker 1: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with a guile and experience, to help you find success in any marketing capacity. You're listening to Marketing School with your instructors, Neil Patel and Eric Siu.

Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.

Neil Patel: I'm Neil Patel.

Eric Siu: Today we're going to talk about lessons learned from writing a bestselling book. As many of you know, or maybe many of you that don't know, Neil actually has a book called Hustle. It did hit the New York Times bestseller list. A lot of people talk about writing a book. I've interviewed people on the podcast before, and they say after you write a book, it's a game changer. Generally, I think we've seen a lot of our friends release books too. Neil, what have you learned from writing Hustle?

Neil Patel: Not much, other than it was a waste of time and money, assuming you're trying to use a book to grow your brand. I think I did it wrong. But in general, I had amazing co-authors. But I learned that if I really wanted to increase my brand and change my business, I probably should have wrote a book by myself. The other thing too is, that book is called Hustle, appeals to general audience. It doesn't appeal to 'the businesses' or the marketing audience that I probably normally go after. I was on the list three weeks in a row. I have to say, just because you're in the New York Times Best Sellers, doesn't mean you're going to get more business speaking biz or make more money. I learned that the hard way. I put in over a year into that book.

Eric Siu: Yeah. Why do you think you should have written it on your own?

Neil Patel: Because then it would have branded me more so versus branding everyone. But, I don't even think that was the biggest mistake. The biggest mistake was the topic. Hustle isn't related to what I do, right. That's just about general entrepreneurship. People pay me for marketing related stuff, for marketing software or speaking about marketing. They don't pay me to learn about entrepreneurship.

Eric Siu: Got it. Then, in terms of it taking a year ... From what I understand and the book I'm working on right now, I'm actually working with somebody that you recommended. He's like, "Yeah, this is probably a three-year journey." I'm writing it myself right now. But I'm wondering, how did you condense it into one year? What happened?

Neil Patel: I had a team, I had two other people who helped with the writing. I helped with the ideas. The promotion, I did most of the promotion stuff. But it was more of a divide and conquer type of relationship with my co-authors. That's what allowed us to get it all done within a year. The hardest part with publishing a book is dealing with the publishers. They are slow, they want a lot of changes that may not make sense for your audience. Even when they say they're going to get things done, they don't usually get them done on time. But yeah, either way it's a lengthy process. With that lengthy process, it doesn't ensure that even having a New York times Bestselling book, which I had for three weeks in a row, doesn't ensure that you're going to do well from it.

Eric Siu: Got it. Final question. We can go on and on about this. But, I hear a lot of people talk about a launch team. Did you have a launch team when you were launching the book?

Neil Patel: I did, but I did way better just from the corporate sales than the launch team.

Eric Siu: Got it. I lied, final follow-up question. What's the difference between corporate sales and launch team?

Neil Patel: I had a lot of companies buy $100,000 worth of books. When you have multiple companies doing that, it really adds up. You can use a company called ResultSource. They'll distribute the books throughout all the major bookstores, and that will ensure that you hit the New York times Best Selling list.

Eric Siu: Okay, yeah. The one thing that's been communicated to me when writing this thing, now I'm switching from writing to marketing now. They're saying, "You actually have to get endorsements from other companies, whether it's going to do workshops for one day and charging 15, 20 grand or so." But for us, we need to get endorsements of up to 250K or something like that, from what I'm understanding. I don't know this world that well, I'm just doing what I'm told right now. These resources are pretty helpful. You said it was resultsource.com?

Neil Patel: I don't know if it's resultsource.com, but the company's name is ResultSource.

Eric Siu: Got it, okay. Great. That's it for today. If you want to go write a bestselling book, these are some of the critical lessons that Neil has learned. I'll see if I have a bestselling book in a year or so, and we can come back to this. But anyway, before we go, we have a one-year annual subscription of Crazy Egg, which is a heat mapping analytics tool I should say. If you want to get in on this giveaway, we're giving away one-year annual subscription, just go to singlegrain.com/giveaway to learn more. You can actually get multiple entries for this. We're giving away one of these every single week, for the next year. Again, singlegrain.com/giveaway. We will see you tomorrow.

Speaker 1: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of. Don't forget to rate and review, so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow, right here on Marketing School.

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