In case you haven’t heard, I have a new book coming out called Betting On You: How to Put Yourself First and Finally Take Control of Your Career. The journey of writing a book has been both straightforward and surprising. Throughout each step of the process, something happened to my health or my family, making it a journey for sure.
The easiest part of it all is writing the book; the business of publishing, on the other hand, is extremely complex. Beyond the many surface-level considerations, there’s the whole secondary market of getting your books into the hands of people.
Scott Stratten is a marketing genius who knows all about this process. He is a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, author, and the founder of The UnMarketing Movement. He has been where I am now, at the beginning of a book launch. So, I asked Scott what he could reveal about the book industry that isn’t talked about.
He said that there are many different ways that sketch comes into publishing. A lot of it has to do with vanity metrics, such as publishing your own book with yourself on the cover.
When it comes to behind the scenes sketchy things in publishing, though, there are author claims and bios. People will take a lower fee for a big client just to add their logo to their profile. Other times, authors will claim to have been nominated for an award that they weren’t nominated for. Additionally, the book industry has no agreed-upon unit for sales, so there is no way to tell which books are true bestsellers.
I’m talking about these topics—and more on my own book publishing journey— in my weekly newsletter. I’m also sharing a video to help you think about your week ahead. You can sign up here.