The BS Lie Authors Need to Stop Telling
This one might just piss you off.
TL;DR
Here’s the lie: “If my book changes even one person’s life/mind/perspective, it will all have been worth it.”
I call BS.
And you should too.
“If my book changes even one person’s life/mind/perspective/underwear, it will all have been worth the trouble.”
I used to believe this. I’ve even said it.
But it’s total BS.
A little over a year ago, I was catching up with one of my first ghostwriting clients. I loved working on his book. At the time, I also had the amateur naivete to think that maybe it could break out into “real” bestseller status: USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and—do I dare say it—the (un)holiest of publishing grails, the New York Times.
The book released. There was no fanfare. Only a trickle of reviews.
I felt like I had failed the author. Granted, I don’t do anything with marketing, but I still blamed myself.
So when we caught up, I was sweating internal bullets when I asked, “So, how are things going with the book?”
“Great!” He was beaming. But how could this be???
He then went on to tell me that while not many people buy it from ye olde Amazon, he regularly has businesses who buy the book in bulk for their staff, and even a nun at a Catholic university who includes it as part of her syllabus. It’s also provided him with opportunities to do more in-person speaking, which was one of his goals all along.
The point is this: Maybe he’s not impacting one million people with his book (yet), but he’s impacting dozens at a time. Not one at a time.
In recent years, I’ve come to hate it when authors say, “If only one person reads my book…”
For one, because it’s not true. Not deep down. I’ve yet to meet someone who pours their heart and soul into a year-long book project and then is walking on cloud 9.5 because their mom read it and liked it.
But second, because it’s such a limiting mindset. It’s a scarcity mindset. You’re selling yourself short.
In some ways, this seems like a contradiction, because in my own book Start With Story, I discuss the importance of treating your book as a 1:1 conversation with your reader, not as a megaphone to an anonymous crowd. People like to feel like one in a million, not one out of a million.
But when you take the 1:1 approach, you give yourself a better shot at reaching the million.
So can we go ahead and collectively admit this one is total BS? That it’s better to be humbly honest and say, “I want my book to reach thousands.” Which can totally happen, by the way. Sell 5,000 books and you’ll be in the top 1% of all authors.
Let’s kill the lie. Let’s cut the BS.
And go get that book into as many hands as possible. Because more readers = more ROI. More ROI = more impact and influence.
Now, here are this week’s content ideas:
What’s a lie/myth in your industry you’d like to kill?
When’s the last time you changed your mind about something/someone?
What’s your biggest unpopular opinion? And why?
On a scale of Eye Roll to Brandishing a Sword, how do you respond to BS when you hear it?
Which book do you recommend more than any other?
And if you’re a subscriber, I’ve got bonus content ideas for you down below.
Still looking for content ideas? Visit my Stan Store to Go from Zero to 100+ Content Ideas with 25 Questions.
Until next time, keep changing the world—one story at a time.
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