Harvey Mackay is a New York Times bestselling author. When he wrote his first book – “Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition” – he knew he needed to have a formidable marketing strategy if he wanted to persuade his publisher to print more than the customary 10,000 copies of his book.
You’ve probably heard it said that you need to have a platform from which to market your book. This can include having a large targeted following on Facebook; having a large number of contacts on LinkedIn; having a large email mailing list or database; or, as in the case of Harvey Mackay, a large rolodex. Now an actual rolodex may seem somewhat antiquated in today’s high-tech society but the principles are evergreen.
Plus Harvey Mackay’s rolodex isn’t just a collection of names. He regards it as a chronicle of his life.
When you’re busy actually working on your manuscript it’s very easy to forget just how many roles there are within the publishing industry. There are:
- Editors
- Printers
- Publishers
- Literary agents
- Journalists
- Lawyers
- Writers
- Book store owners
And more.
Well Harvey Mackay’s rolodex included representatives from all these areas. Plus he had high level contacts in large companies who were committed to developing their staff.
Still, when he asked his publishers to consider printing more than 10,000 books they looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. Remember now that he was a first-time author. But then he took out his Rolodex and starting describing his connections and how he saw them fitting into his marketing strategy. They thought to themselves that he might just be onto something. It took a lot of persuading but he managed to get them to see his point of view. They realised the potential of Harvey Mackay’s vast database and saw how he could leverage it to sell a lot more than 10,000 books.
Something which is proven to increase sales is the offer of an iron-clad guarantee. It helps people to feel secure about their purchase. But when Harvey Mackay published his first book, guarantees on books were unheard of. He argued with his publisher William Morron Publishing Company for 4 weeks to include a guarantee.
The guarantee on his latest bestselling book, “Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No One Else Will Tell You” is worded similarly to the guarantee for “Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive” and is as follows:
Remember, you can’t simply read this book! You have to study it, underline it, highlight it, and take notes. If you do not have a job after six months, I will refund you your purchase price.
And then inside the book there are further details about how to claim a refund. Harvey Mackay is often asked how he can make a claim like that. Well, the following statistics speak for themselves. To date, 5 million copies of “Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive” have been sold and only 18 people have requested a refund. And of these 7 were his best friends!
“Swim with The Sharks: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate and Outnegotiate Your Competition” is a business classic. It was on the New York Times #1 bestseller list for 54 weeks and was named the #1 Business Book in America in 1988. It has been translated into 37 languages and distributed in 80 countries.
”Use Your Head to Get Your Foot In the Door” is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Amazon Bestseller.
