ADVANTAGE: Harnessing Cumulative Advantage in the Winner Takes All Publishing Market

by Joe Solari

What you do in the next few seconds could change your publishing career forever.Please grace me with your attention and keep reading, I promise I’ll educate you about publishing right here, right now, in this book's description.Lesson Attention is a precious commodity.The fact you’ve read this far into a book description is a feat of marketing, but it’s still not a sale.You face this identical challenge when you try to sell your books to a new reader. You must overcome the obstacles of scarcity of attention and choice overwhelm.These two obstacles kill most new sales opportunities.If you get the chance to capture someone’s attention, can you hold it long enough to build the trust for them to give you more attention willingly?Think about the decision you face right now about buying this book.Is it worth the money?That question is it worth the time to read and think about may be the biggest deal killer as you are weighing it against current and future obligations.This leaves potential readers of your book right where you are now contemplating if they should buy or keep browsing. That feeling is choice overwhelm.When faced with too much choice or uncertainty in outcome, the obvious choice becomes not to decide.Most book descriptions follow the idea of identifying the problem, then allude that the book holds the solution. Finally, make a strong call to action to get you to buy the book.My approach is different. My only hope at this point is for you to read this entire description and come away knowing that when you choose to buy either now or eighteen months from now, you’ll do so, knowing that my brand delivers what I say it does.I’ll do this by working to build trust with you.Let’s keep going on this trust-building exercise with the next lesson.Lesson What can crush obstacles like scarcity of attention and choice overwhelm?There is one market force that determines the winners and losers in publishing. You see, publishing is a popularity market sometimes called a winner takes all market.Publishing concentrates most of the sales to a favored few and leaves the rest out in the cold.Don’t believe me?Look no further than the rankings on Amazon.To attain a rank of 100,000 in the store, you need to sell a book a day. With over 8 million titles out in the kindle store, the math shows only 1.25% of the titles sell more than a book a day.This economic force is more potent than any algorithm or book sale gambit in the market. It has been picking winners and losers since publishing started.I can teach you how to harness this power. Let’s start right now with this question…Is your book marketing all about selling more books or building a sustainable publishing business?If your answer was “I want to sell more books!” Understand that while this is the dominant strategy and has short-term results, it can cause long-term detriment to your business building a trusted brand.What Advantage is all about is how you can align with the market forces to build your cumulative advantage deliberately. The methods differ from direct marketing and focus on brand, a reader's connection with character and story, and community building.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

236 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2020

Reviews

[DoodleBug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not very well articulated. Some sections were so vague as to be useless. Solari promised specifics and failed to deliver them.

[Talena Winters · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a no-holds-barred overview of the current state of the publishing industry and how authors can still make a career doing this, even if they're starting from scratch. I loved how he laid out the precise aspects and motivators that go into making a successful community, and ways to make hosting one feasible for busy authors.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator was very pleasant.

[Jincey Lumpkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is filled cover to cover with highly useful info. It honestly gives you the unadulterated truth about the self-publishing market. Data is plentiful, and the methods the author uses to explain his hypothesis and strategies is so incredibly vivid and helpful. You will walk away with a much better understanding about what you’re getting into and ways in which you can focus on *relationships* with the people who read your books, as opposed to being hyper focused on transactions. Highly recommend.

[Paul Sating · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great! Very helpful, with practical tips. It's not a tell-all, but Joe doesn't promise that. For the serious career-focused writer, this is a book you need to get your hands on. Can't recommend enough.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to shift your focus from selling books to capturing readers.

This was painful to read in parts. Like, "Of course writers are emotionally manipulative with their work. But did you have to say so quite so crudely?" For the most part, I though it was good. The ending got oddly specific about what steps to take, with stuff that I thought I could easily outdo, but maybe that was the point--not to give away any killer ideas on the specific level for a mere ebook.

If you'd like to dig into the psychology of making your customers happy rather than banging on pot lids and yelling, "Buy my book!" (or taking out countless, unproductive ads!), try this book.

Recommended for indie writers.

[Victoria Tait · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really resonated with me.

As a relatively new author I have been struggling to learn how to make Ads work to sell my books.

Joe draws on simple analogies that I could understand. And for those who like to know the facts and research behind his theory, he provides that as well.

Unlike many theorists, Joe provides a step-by-step guide to implementing his competitive advantage theory.

After reading this book I have begun to spend more time creating content for my audience, and less money trying to make Ads work.

[Robert Waugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book. Will listen to the audiobook again at some point. Kept hearing "human gibbons" instead of "human givens."

[Lisa Daily · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Fascinating take on publishing. Solari has some really big (and shocker: different!) ideas here, which I found absolutely intriguing. There's a ton of research from a variety of different disciplines, which he puts together in a really eye-opening way. Overall, there were several dozen passages I highlighted in this book, and I am in the process of re-reading it now to try to absorb a bit more now that I have a better understanding of the main concepts. I also came away with several ideas I'd like to implement in my own work, and the book also reinforced some of the writing/branding work I've done on my own. Why 4.5 stars instead of 5? First, the writing was often dry and pretty repetitive. (And I was grading on a curve.) While non-fiction books frankly do not need to be held to the same standards of writing that novels do, I think this book would have benefitted from a better editor. There was a ton of lead up, a lot of proof of concept, and then BAM! it seemed like he rushed through the big info on how to implement all of this for yourself, in your own writing career. (Which is, let's face it, why any author would be reading it in the first place.). In some ways it felt like the equivalent to reading a romance where the first three hundred pages are the couple staring longingly at each other, with some definite sparks flying, but then they don't get together until the very last page and when you finish you're not even sure if they actually did. The ideas on how to implement the concepts for yourself were vague, and I started to wonder if maybe he was better at spotting the similarities between his big-time author clients without having yet mastered how to execute it for someone else. I'll let you guys know if I feel differently after my second read-through.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complètement convaincue par le message; je n'avais presque pas besoin d'autant de détails et d'arguments, tellement ça me paraît évident.

Des pistes concrètes sont données à la fin du livre, et je compte bien les suivre. Mais ça reste parfois assez abstrait, et pour cause : chaque auteur doit créer son image et sa communauté de façon authentique et hyper-personnalisée, et le résultat sera forcément unique. Je pense quand même qu'on aurait pu avoir un peu plus d'exemples concrets pour aider à partir la réflexion. Je crois qu'il ne mentionne chaque auteur avec qui il a discuté (et ils ne sont déjà pas si nombreux) qu'une seule fois dans le livre, chacun dans des chapitres différents. On a donc à chaque fois un seul exemple assez concis, qui peut être très éloigné de la situation de l'auteur qui lit.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there were a lot of thought provoking ideas in this book, my two biggest criticisms were: 1) the author meticulously lays out his thesis and supporting research for each point/assertion, I found myself nodding and agreeing and thinking "okay, yes, makes sense" and then he would say "now, before I get to specifics of how to apply this lesson, let me provide an entire additonal chapter of research and proof to convince you." I felt like I was being beat over the head long after the author had already convinced me of each point, and b) when we finally get to the "application" section, like most books of this type, it's completely missing specifics and concrete examples. This is a particularly frustrating trope of the genre, alas. I will gladly pay 1000% more for a single publishing/author marketing book that includes actual specifics of how to apply the lessons/theory.

[Sue Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good concepts but I’d like more examples

This is an insightful book and it resonated with me in many ways.. The idea of building cumulative advantage by building community IS crucial to authors wanting to grow their business. The reducing royalties and increased cost of advertising within KU mean that authors need to look for avenues beyond the ZON. Advantage gives insights on how authors build reader upon reader and create a sustained community that grows organically. On the down side Advantage could do with more practical examples. Just as I was trying to grasp concepts and was looking for some concrete examples, the author moved on to the next idea. So in that regard it was a bit frustrating. But this book made—and continues to make—me think. And that’s always a good thing.

[Valerie K. Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really fresh, different and inspiring. It provided a new perspective on how to market correctly and not manipulate folks into buying your book. He talks about a new concept of virtuous marketing and I really like it! It has a bunch of business insights and advice. But it was written for us writers, not business people.

It's mostly geared for fiction writers, but us nonfiction writers can glean quite a bit from it.

I started with his online course, then his business book, then read Advantage. So a lot of what I learned is from all three sources.

I would really like to interview this gentleman someday!

[Tara Taffera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I head Joe speak at a conference and the info I learned was invaluable. I had high hopes for his book and it did not disappoint. I am an author writing book 4 and this book was a consistent reminder that it’s a journey we need to stick with. The main point of this book is building community and it was spot on! A warning thought that in the beginning you may feel like I did that it didn’t deliver with the nuts and bolts info you sought. But I’m the last third it really delivered and I highlighted almost every sentence i read. I can’t wait to put this into practice and build my community.

[M.E. Roche · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a ton of great information in the early part of this book, but as it progresses, it is clear that one must read and re-read the earlier sections. Understanding your brand (what makes you stand out) and your community (your readers/your customers) is paramount. Sounds easy at first blush, but articulating it isn't so easy. Understanding the concept of "cumulative advantage" is also going to take time. It's not clear if one can accomplish this without the assistance of someone like Mr. Solari.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A New Kind Of Indie Publishing Roadmap

Advantage by Joe Solari isn’t just another in the long list of those books telling writers how to sell their stories. It goes beyond the others to teach authors what they need to build a profitable, lifelong writing career with rabid fans who buy book after book.

[A.M. Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

This look at the psychological side of readers and how to appeal to them is well worth reading.
I'd love to see a few more examples, but I've developed a few ideas already.

[Mel Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alternative Book Marketing

Maybe the best book marketing book I have read. His method makes sense and does not depend on buying ads.

[Lola D · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s probably some good advice here if you can figure out what the hell he’s telling you to do

[Leo Petracci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

Love it. This book is the theory to accompany any author’s experimentation in the field. Thanks Joe- huge fan of your work here.