Three Weeks Post Launch: Still (Mostly) Flying
It’s been three weeks since the official publication date of Never Ask for the Sale: Supercharge Your Business with the Power of Passionate Ambivalence (Hachette Balance). The most accurate way I can describe the week is that it felt like being shot out of a cannon.
First, the week. Whoa. There was so much activity (all had been tee’d up months ahead and released at once) and so much quality learning. I aired my fears about launching and marketing the book (a book about sales that argues against direct selling!) in this great podcast interview with Leah Pearlman. Since I worked through my thinking with Leah, I was in a pretty good mental space for what was to come.
One thing I learned about launching a book is that a massive amount of the action is on social media (unless you’re Elizabeth Gilbert, who began her day with Oprah for the official book club announcement). In seven days, I spent 25-30 hours posting and engaging with posts of others, responding to every comment, endeavoring to be helpful and present. For me (and I think most authors), there was no lavish book tour crossing the nation. I did have five launch events in seven days, speaking to hundreds of wonderful folks IRL, but Good Morning America did not reach out for comment.
That’s a-okay, because something else happened. I was stunned by the reaction from people I know and people I don’t. I had done all the right things, assembling a book launch team, preseeding galley copies with some influencers, and inviting folks who knew the book to share their thoughts, but I could not possibly have prepared myself for the quantity or the quality of posts across LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
The most meaningful posts talked about a connection between the poster and me. In some cases the referenced time was last week, and in some cases it was over a decade ago. There were SO many photos of people holding books, stacks of books on couches, books in ridiculous animated videos. Golly. There was Cameron, a tech founder whom I first met when he rented my guest room in Boulder a decade ago. There was Aviva, who shared ways in which I’d been talking about the central thread of the book, Passionate Ambivalence, as far back as 15 years ago in the MergeLane accelerator. There was Carolann, who video’d herself reading aloud about a sales persona named “Peep” to her dog Peep (the persona’s namesake)! There was Connie, whom I hadn’t spoken to in 14 years, who just shot me a text of her holding the book. Within days, we’d reconnected and recommitted to friendship.
I had a lot of learning about how I wanted to position the book broadly. I work with a terrific marketing lead, and a couple days after launch, she posted on my behalf with a book on a porch with a caption about how grateful I was for the overwhelming “love and support” of my network for this book. This is a fine (and common) thing to say, but in seeing it, I realized it was NOT how I wanted to position the book. I quickly rewrote it to focus on the ROI I hoped the book would deliver to readers. That has been my goal all along, to use the book as a tool to help splendid people reach the highest version of themselves. The book reminds readers to not think of customers or investors as “doing you a favor.” They are getting an opportunity. That is Passionate Ambivalence.
In week two and three, I heard from or saw posts of friends and strangers who were using Passionate Ambivalence in real life. Two had used it for salary negotiations. Two had used it to land a new gig and a new customer. Woohoo!
Wave one of this activity helped me see something incredibly important for me. I think I’ve always wanted in some part of my mind to be “famous,” whatever that is. What this week showed me is that, while I am not famous in the way of a celebrity, I have built a life around thousands of medium-strength ties, and those connections matter to me. Since that is exactly what has happened, I presume that is exactly what I always wanted. It was joyful to become so conscious of that purpose and its fulfillment.
The initial response also helped to quell a fear I had. “Why on earth was an executive coach writing a book about sales?” No one seemed to bat an eye. It turns out writing this book was every bit as natural to other people as it was to me. I have been a lifetime seller, and apparently other people know that. There’s an alchemy, an “of course” to this book being my book. That feels incredible.
Wave two, which began exactly one week after launch, emerged with the awareness that a LOT of people are reading this book. Yikes. I mean there’s an audio version of Never Ask, and one of my best friends was listening to it at the same time as my brother and my Duke Law School contracts professor! These days have been gloriously (it turns out) packed with reflections of people who had read the published book. I got a LinkedIn message from a loose tie that read only “Whoa! Chapter 4.” I received texts from good friends who had gifted copies to their friends, and their friends were texting about how much they were loving the book, how much it felt like it was written just for them, how it had landed with them at the perfect time.
Now it might seem strange to you that an author would live a whole life and then write a whole book and then be stunned that people like it. But that’s just how it’s been over here. Up to this point, only the publishing house folks and people who knew me really well had read the book. So now, here’s my whole heart, and feel free to review it with just two clicks. Eek. But… People like it! People feel it’s personal! People feel like it’s a coaching session with me on natural (vs ick) selling! Holy heck. I know the book is not for everyone. I know reviews will be balanced. But for now, this has all been some good stuff.
I had dinner with a few friends on my publication date. One of my close friends reminded me to be mindful of upper limits (an issue I cover in the book and in this blog about writing the book). She reminded me that the morning after my recent wedding (a huge high), I ended up in the ER with a numb face and a fear that I’d had a stroke (I hadn’t). She reminded me to stay grounded, to do grounding things (laundry, dinners with friends). I’ve endeavored to do that. But when you get shot out of a cannon, there is going to be a downward arc. I’m mostly prepared for that, and I’m still motivated to look at this effort as a long game. Books by not-famous people take time. You plant seeds. You water. They sprout. You maybe plant more seeds (obviously I am not a gardener), and if your seeds are good, you may end up with some meaningful landscaping. That’s the playbook right now. More events. Book clubs (interested?). Get reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.
Also, inasmuch as I said here that I don’t think of book sales as favors to me, the author, I DO want to thank the many, many people who were involved in the creation of this book, in spreading the word about it to the world, and in sharing my conviction that superb people can learn how to sell naturally and to great effect. I cannot thank these people enough, and I will keep trying.If you are a person who is writing a book, read this series on, well, writing a book. And ping me on LinkedIn if you’d like a run down of our pre-launch Launch Team sequence. Happy to share what I’ve been learning.
Any thoughts, feelings, or blurts? Share them here.