You always see some books in a bookshop no matter what the current craze is or which wave is sweeping the YA section. These books will, of course, depend on the country, the culture etc. But you can be sure that the same candidates will occupy the shelves over generations. Each new generation is discovering these timeless classics that their mothers and perhaps grandmothers loved and they in turn, are loving them.
So how do you go about creating such a work? Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday not only answers this literally million dollar question but in doing so, also destroys some of the popular myths about creation of work and its marketing. The subtitle of the book is The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts. Books are just one example. The principles described in the book hold true in not just every field of art but also extend to products such as the iPhone or even Google services.
Ryan Holiday is the bestselling author of several books, including The Obstacle Is The Way which became hugely popular amongst professional sports players and coaches because it was helping them win. I came to know about Ryan’s work through the blog of Tim Ferriss. Tim’s blog is a treasure trove full of interesting recommendations for books, documentaries and much more. I have given away most of my books in favour of e-books but I am keeping the physical copy of The Obstacle Is The Way.
Creating something that provides value requires not just hard work but often blood, sweat and tears. There are no short cuts here. You may be lucky and create something that goes viral for a week or few weeks but to create something long lasting is a different game altogether. Ryan gives several examples – from Star Wars to Seinfeld to illustrate this point. What’s the reason that out of all successful sitcoms over the years, people still remember the lines and characters from Seinfeld? It’s because you can still relate to them. As Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, said, “Focus on the things that don’t change.”
After you create something unique and valuable, your work is only half finished. Many artists are of the opinion that after putting everything they had in creating something, their job is over. They will simply release it and wait for people to discover it. Some may even feel that marketing their work somehow contradicts their artistic creativity and temperament. This is a fatal mistake, especially in today’s world where people are bombarded with new products 24/7. Who knows how many great works have been lost into oblivion because of wrong or misguided marketing strategies?
There are several different aspects here such as positioning and packaging, and the book deals with each of them in detail. “You can’t judge a book by its cover” is a nice and popular phrase but in fact, that’s what we do most of the time. The cover, the title are important not just for books but also for movies, products and organizations. For instance, Charity:water is an organization that builds wells in developing countries. The first thing that you notice is the unusual name which means that the organization is split into two : one that builds wells and another that handles administrative costs for the charity. What this means is that 100 percent of your donations go to building wells.
Social media is full of announcements of new books, new movies, new music titles every minute of every day. What chance a new work has of standing out against this onslaught? Ryan discusses several innovative strategies to make this happen. And most of these do not require a huge advertising budget. One of these is to give away your work for free – partially or completely for a limited period of time. One example of this strategy is the rapper Soulja Boy who uploaded his own songs to pirated sites but renamed them as latest 50 Cent and Britany Spears singles. Or there is Paulo Coelho who pirated his own books to Russia. Sure enough, Coelho’s sales in Russia rose from ten thousand copies to one hundred thousand copies in one year, driven largely by the piracy. This strategy is in stark contrast with traditional publishing model where they try to sell every copy to maximize the revenue. Ryan himself sent hundreds of free copies of his book The Obstacle Is The Way to athletes, coaches and managers.
A related strategy is to give away work at a low price. Barring few exceptions – well known brands like Gucci or Armani, for instance – low price works like a charm. According to Amazon data, the cheaper a book is, the more it sells. The reason Raymond Chandler became so successful was that he was one of the first authors to embrace the low priced paperback format at a time when most authors resisted it. A whole new class of readers who could not afford hard bound books discovered Chandler.
Your work does not stop with completion of one project. In the third part of the book, Ryan discusses strategies for building your faithful fan base who will not just buy your next work but also recommend it to others. This requires time, dedication and effort but it’s immensely rewarding in the long run. Examples abound ranging from Iron Maiden to Lady Gaga where faithful fans spread the word of each new release.
In a world where most advice is about how to make your product go viral quickly, Perennial Seller stands out because it focuses on long term success. Ryan’s experience of running many successful marketing campaigns and his background in Stoic philosophy result in a unique long term strategy for writers, artists and entrepreneurs.
