Do You Need to Write Another Book?
“If people don’t know about your book, they can’t purchase it.” —John Miller
John Miller began his career selling leadership training to managers, executives, and leaders. He sat in over 10,000 hours of workshops and soon realized that people were asking the wrong questions. This epiphany pushed him to start teaching leadership training, and he later self-published a book around the phrase he coined, “the question behind the question.”
In this episode of “Authors Who Lead,” I talk with John about his book, QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life, how this led to other books, and how he sold so many copies.
You Are the Only Salesperson for Your Book
During our interview, John emphasizes that you are the best person to market and sell your own book because you are the one that “owns it emotionally.” You wrote it, believed in it, and are excited about it.
As authors, we need to ask two questions: “Why would people buy my book?” and “Why would people buy it for others?” Before John self-published QBQ!, he first published a book that was almost 300 pages long. John then asked himself the QBQ questions regarding his ideal reader.
The leadership market wanted shorter books that employees could easily read, so John split that book into several books. He ended up selling more copies of the shorter books than the original one.
In this podcast, John also shares with us:
- How QBQ, or the Question Behind the Question, can create success in your professional and personal lives.
- Why successful people will just solve a problem instead of finding out who is to blame.
- The story of Jacob Miller and what successful leadership looks like.
- How he sold over 50,000 copies of his first self-published book.
- How he went from self-published to publishing with Penguin Books.
What was your biggest takeaway from this episode? Are you wondering how to sell more books? Or if you should write more? Share in the comments below!
That’s all for this week. If you have a message inside of you that needs to be written, today is the day to start. Don’t delay—take action.
Episode Resource:
Connect with John here:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Get a copy of John’s book here:
QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life
Kindle
Hardcover
Listen on:
