Nearly every conversation with our authors starts the same way: “I want my book to be a bestseller. How many books do I need to sell?”
Fair question. Bestselling status usually starts somewhere north of 4,000 copies. So here is the math we walk them through.
Everything sells about seven books. A podcast interview? Seven. A webinar? About seven. A panel, an author newsletter, a conference breakout session — seven. Scott will admit he is being a little cheeky with the number — one appearance might sell seventy copies, another might sell zero, and maybe the honest average is nine. It is not 400, though, and nothing sells a thousand books in one shot.
Everything sells seven books. Not 4,000, seven. — Scott Jeffrey Miller
Now divide 4,000 by 7. You get 571. That is the real number behind every bestselling author we congratulate in The Publication Brief — 571 things: webinars, podcasts, radio, print and digital interviews, Q&As, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn Lives, social posts, direct mail pieces, book signings, email sends, newsletters. Those authors did not get there on one big break. They did their 571 things, and bestselling status is the certificate for that work.
There is also a contrarian view, and we hold it with a straight face: it may not matter how many books you sell. Roughly 95 percent of what a nonfiction book earns never comes from book sales. It comes through keynotes, coaching, consulting, and courses. By that measure, what matters most is how few books you can sell — provided they reach the right people, in the right circumstance, with the right problem, the right decision-making authority, and the budget to bring you in to solve it.
Chasing the list, or chasing the right hundred readers? Either way, that is the conversation at our next Write. Publish. Launch. session.
