How To Write, Sell Or Publish A Best Selling Book
Over the last five years that I’ve been studying the publishing industry (both mainstream and self-publishing), there are a collection of blog posts and articles that I have found hugely helpful. Many of them are quite long and detailed, but if you are planning to write a book, there is a BIG value in taking the time to read them all. I have compiled the best articles into a list below and segmented them into several categories to make it a bit easier. The aim is to also keep this list continually up to date so the last updated date is included at the bottom of this page.
PUBLISHING + MARKETING A BEST SELLER
- How to publish a bestseller 3.0 – James Altucher
- How to write a best selling book this year – Definitive list and resource guide – Tim Ferriss
- How to sell lots of books and still miss the best seller lists – Deepak Chopra (note – this also happened to me for Likeonomics!)
- How to write and launch a best selling a book – The Making of Likeonomics – Rohit Bhargava
- Unmarketing podcast on the secrets of book publishing – Scott Stratten
- How to buy your way to the top of best seller lists – Mitch Joel
- The right and wrong way to market a book – Ryan Holliday
- How Lioncrest Publishing is flipping the usual distribution model – Tucker Max
- How to write a book – The Making Of Personality Not Included (including charts and positioning slides) – Rohit Bhargava
- The inside story of Kevin Small and gamifying the best seller lists – Wall Street Journal
COVER DESIGN
- 8 Cover Design Secrets To Manipulate Readers – Derek Murphy
- Interesting post on the evolution of book cover design from 80s to now – Elizabeth Bird
WRITING & EDITING
- How to write a best selling book – Eric Spitznagel
- Fascinating research into how “statistical stylometry” can help predict bestsellers – Stony Brook University
- Sample Book Proposal To McGraw-Hill For Personality Not Included – Rohit Bhargava
LOGISTICS & BASICS:
- Full List of BISAC Subject Headlings For Business Books – BSIG
- How to use keywords and metadata to aide in book discoverability – Joanna Penn
Page last updated October, 2014
ABOUT INFLUENTIAL SPARKS
This is one among a series of curated lists of some of the best marketing advice and resources available on the web. It was inspired by an activity that many of us already do of saving the most useful things that we read in order to refer back to them later. Rather than have them buried in some bookmark folder or on a productivity tool like Evernote, my aim was to gather them publicly and then continually update them to provide a valuable compilation for others as well on a topic that may be of interest.
If you have a suggestion for this list or would just like to get in touch with me – you can email rohit@trustimg.com.