Earlier today, I was listening to an interview with James Clear. 

‍

For those who are unfamiliar with who that is, he is the author of the book Atomic Habits, which is a NYT #1 Bestseller that has sold more than 10 million copies. If you’re trying to make a new habit or break a bad one, this is most definitely the book for you. 

‍

But despite how compelling James’ approach to habit development is, I actually find his marketing skills to be more interesting. In the interview, he discussed his marketing strategy for the release of the book. He explained that he didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary in terms of marketing, but he aimed to do more than the average author does for a book release. A normal author might spend 6-12 months preparing for a release, but he ended up spending closer to 15-18 months preparing for the release of Atomic Habits. 

‍

His strategy went something like this:

‍

• Podcast Tour - It’s pretty standard for an author to do a podcast tour when they’re launching a new book. But James took it to the next level. He found every possible interview-style podcast that was relevant to the lessons of the book, narrowed the list down to 300 podcasts, and then emailed every single one individually. About 75 podcasters responded, and he spent about 2 months recording podcast episodes with those 75. The crucial part is that he asked the podcasters to launch those episodes during the week of the book release, which almost all of them did. He then went on to do another 25 podcasts the month after the release of the book.

‍

• Email List - An email list is typically the single greatest tool that any creator or brand can use to reach their audience. James’ email list had about 450k subscribers at the time of the book release, which is already quite impressive. Before the book release, he sent several excerpts from the book, including one email that featured the entire first chapter. The goal was to hook people in, so that when release day came, they would be excited to purchase the book. On release day, he sent an email to his mailing list with a clip of an interview he did on CBS This Morning (because nothing says “I’m credible” quite like an interview on mainstream media). 

‍

• Influencers - Again, it’s pretty standard for an author to send copies of their book to influencers in the hope that they’ll like the book and then promote it. Instead of finding influencers in the self-help space, James decided to pick communities that already have a lot of word of mouth (i.e., people love to talk about it). So he made a list of 15-20 of these communities, and then narrowed it down to 3: crossfit, venture capital, and parenting advice. He found 30 influencers in each of those communities, sent them custom individual messages, and then if they opted in, he sent them a book. He never asked any of the influencers to post about the book or even promote it, but because the book was actually helpful, they ended up posting it to their social media anyway. If, for example, you’re part of the crossfit community, this created an effect where it felt like everyone in your universe was all of a sudden reading this book at the same time, which then made you want to read it too. 

‍

In my opinion, this is an outstanding marketing approach and the results prove it. Instead of taking shortcuts (like advertising) that will yield less favorable results, James focused on highly specialized outreach to get his book in front of new audiences. 

‍

There’s two important lessons that can be learned from this:

‍

1. Do everything at the same time. Instead of spreading out a marketing campaign over several months, James created a groundswell where all of a sudden it felt like everyone was reading this book within the first few weeks of release. Create a lot of energy in a small window. 

‍

2. Do everything at a larger scale. Instead of picking 10-20 podcasts to get on, James reached out to 300 of them and ended up getting on 100. And instead of picking 5-10 influencers to send his book to, he ended up sending 100 copies. 

‍

As I think about how to build more awareness for the projects I’m working on (both personally and professionally), I’ve realized that sometimes the best path forward is the one that requires the most tedious, painstaking work. 

‍

There’s a Jerry Seinfeld quote that I love that’s relevant to this topic: “If you’re efficient, you’re doing it the wrong way. The right way is the hard way. The show was successful because I micromanaged it—every word, every line, every take, every edit, every casting. That’s my way of life.”

‍

Sometimes, you just have to do things the hard way, like emailing 300 podcasters and over 100 influencers to see if they’ll have any interest in your book. 

‍

In the end, there are no shortcuts in life.