01 Jun 6 Benefits of Getting Your Book on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller List
ANNOUNCEMENT: On November 7th, 2023, an announcement was made that the Wall Street Journal bestseller list had been dropped.
I also wrote an article about this here: Wall Street Journal list stopping the bestseller list.
Original article below before the announcement was made:
Wanting your book on the prestigious Wall Street Journal Bestseller list is actually a great goal to have and in this post I’m going to share with you the top 3 direct benefits as well as the top 3 indirect benefits that many of my Wall Street Journal bestselling authors have experienced.
I have been working with clients to write, publish and launch books to various bestsellers lists since 2013 and I have seen first-hand what it can do for all types of entrepreneurs and business owners such as coaches, consultants, speakers, CEO’s, doctors, lawyers, financial experts, trainers, healers and more.
Some might tell you that you should focus on sales and NOT bestsellers lists, however, I disagree with that logic simply because you need a lot of sales (5000+) in order to hit a bestseller list like The Wall Street Journal; so the two go hand in hand.
Let’s talk about what these amazing benefits are for hitting this list.
Top 3 direct benefits to hitting the Wall Street Journal bestsellers list:
- VISIBILITY: It’s a crowded marketplace and everyone is vying for attention. How are you going to stand out? Hitting a top-tier bestsellers list like the Wall Street Journal will give you massive visibility (and credibility) which will allow you to reach people who don’t know you and bring them into your world.
- MORE MEDIA ATTENTION: The media loves authors and they especially love “bestselling authors” because they can use the book as the topic and focus of their story. Once you have a bestselling book you will have doors of opportunities opening to you that you didn’t have before.
- NEW CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS: Depending on what type of business you have, once you have a book on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list, as a result of that increased visibility, new clients and customers will seek you out. It is the difference between being the hunted rather than the hunter. There’s a reason why many non-fiction business owners have a goal to hit this prestigious list and it’s because they know their business will grow as a result.
The Wall Street Journal has approximately 3.2 million subscribers and many of those subscribers are looking for new books to read; wouldn’t you want your book on that list?
Now let’s talk about 3 of the indirect benefits to hitting the Wall Street Journal bestsellers list:
- INCREASED SALES AND INCOME: Many of my bestselling authors have increased their prices as a result of the exposure they get from having their book on these popular bestseller lists. Depending on what you are selling, many entrepreneurs and business owners can only take on so many clients, so they have to increase their prices because of higher demand. Author Perry Marshall said that he increased his consulting fees 500% when he published and launched his first bestselling book.
- YOU ARE NO LONGER THE BEST KEPT SECRET IN YOUR INDUSTRY: You can’t own an idea if nobody knows it’s yours; that’s why writing a book and sharing your ideas is the best way to show your authority and point of view. Getting your book on a prestigious bestseller list like the Wall Street Journal is a great way for people to know who you are.
- A NEW STRATOSPHERE OF RECOGNITION: Once you write a book and become a bestselling author you will attract fans of your work. People will recognize your name and associate you with your bestselling book. A percentage of those people will be the DIY type people who will read your book and implement it and others will become your clients because they see you as the expert and consequently want to hire you to help you implement the ideas in your book.
It goes without saying that you need a high-quality book if you want to hit a prestigious list like the Wall Street Journal.
There are two ways to write a book:
- Write about a topic you like without doing any keyword research, knowing the data or having a profit path.
- Writing a book to market based on data and what keywords people are searching for AND having a profit path for your book before you publish it.
I’m bringing this up because I’ve worked with 300 authors helping them get their book published and launched and I’ve seen so many entrepreneurs waste time writing the wrong book.
What is the wrong book?
The wrong book is one that isn’t planned out properly to get results.
Here are some of the reasons entrepreneurs write books:
- To generate new leads
- To generate new clients for their programs
- To get more media attention
- To start a movement with their message
- To make more money
If you don’t know what your reason is for writing a book, then you may write the wrong book.
I wrote a book, Backwards Book Launch: Reverse Engineer Your Book and Unlock Its Hidden 6-Figure Potential and in that book I talk about how to put the profit path of your book first, before you write the book. Most authors think about it after they’ve published a book.
The worst thing you can do is write the wrong book that doesn’t have a purpose and then invest money in getting on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller list.
Know why you are writing the book and what result you would like. You don’t have to pick just one “reason”, you can have several like generating new clients, new income, media attention and making more profits.
Having a bestselling book can achieve all of these and more, but only if you write the right book and plan it out.
Having worked as a paralegal in the litigation field for 17 years I understand what it takes to win cases and a book is no different in my opinion. You don’t just accidentally win a case; it takes proper planning and thought to win cases.
You don’t want to guess what book to write; you want hard data to understand what the market is looking for.
I’ll give you an example of a client that came to me last year and wanted to write a book on English Cottage Gardens. After our first call I told her that I would do my research and get back to her.
I discovered that English Cottage Gardens was not a high searched keyword phrase on Amazon nor were there any books making profits on this topic. I knew from our call that my clients goal was to create a business and make money from her book.
I ended up stumbling upon some highly searched keywords on Amazon which were “container bed gardening” and “raised bed gardening”. I reached out to this person and said I would not take her on as a client if she did a book on English Cottage Gardens because she would be disappointed and would probably not make any money with her book.
So I gave her the option to write a book on “container bed gardening” and “raised bed gardening” and then I would take her on as a client. 12 weeks later she had a bestselling book and has built a successful business around her book with several streams of income. She is so happy that I didn’t let her write the wrong book.
It takes a lot of time, energy, resources and grit to write a book, so why waste your precious time writing the wrong book? If you want to write a book, just to “write a book” then go for it.
But if you’re an entrepreneur or business owner you must strategize your book like you are trying to win a legal case.
I love working with clients to help them plan and strategize the right book for their business; it’s actually a lot of fun to do.
Years ago when I was running Facebook ads to an automated webinar I was doing some testing on images. I told my business coach I had found the most amazing image for my Facebook ads. Do you want to know what his reply was?
“Michelle, it doesn’t matter what you like. All that matters is the data.”
What he was saying is that it was all about what image people clicked on. The funny part was that most images that became our winning images for the Facebook ads had nothing to do with business, writing or books. The winning images were beach settings, islands and sunflower fields.
If you're confused, don’t feel bad, I was too at the time. I learned from working with my coach that those images got clicked on because it made people “feel happy and feel good” so if they liked the image, they clicked on the ad.
The market decides what it likes…not you. That’s why you must understand data and numbers if you want to write a book that gets results AND that hits bestsellers lists.