My last book launch bombed.
Built an audience. Got a six-figure deal. Wrote a great book.
Did everything you’re supposed to do . . .
But it bombed. Which sucked.
I thought about what happened and wrote about it. Then asked people if they wanted to know my mistakes.
After three days of manually replying to over 1,300 messages on LinkedIn, it was clear that:
- Many people want to write books (which is super cool).
- Writing and selling a book has never been more confusing!
What's I'll be covering . . .
I’m not an exceptional person, but I am a grower. I do have the ability to look at my shortcomings and improve for the future.
I’m not special––just stubborn enough to analyze my failures, iterate, improve, and build a roadmap I’m happy to share.
Learning about others’ mistakes is cool. If you haven’t, read about mine here.
This newsletter is about what I’m doing differently this time. Which I’ll share with you in real time as I prepare to launch my next book, Unhinged Habits, on January 27, 2026.
Specifically, a few topics I’ll cover are:
- How the heck to choose a book title and cover (this drives me nuts!)
- Getting microinfluencers on board WITHOUT coming off sleazy or desperate.
- Leveraging AI as a late-stage developmental editor (a CRAZY powerful secret weapon).
- How to turn your book launch into a narrative people actually want to follow.
- Guerilla marketing tactics that don’t require a massive budget or existing platform, just hard work.
I’ll bring in other expertstoo. Like Alex Wieckowski ––with over a million followers, he’s a top book influencer and will share keys to social media promotion that sells books.
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I don’t sell advice on how to sell books.
I'm just a guy who feels that I have something valuable to share with others in this noisy, busy, burned-out world who are trying to break through.
Maybe you’re like me.
My goal’s to publish this thing twice a week. I don’t know how it works. I just started using LinkedIn. There’s a lot going on here. It’s confusing. But the first step is starting. And so, here we are. Together. How friggin' cool is that?
I hope you subscribe via LinkedIn. I don’t know how to subscribe to a newsletter on Linkedin. I’ve never done it. But I hope you know how to do it and subscribe to this newsletter. Maybe add a comment how to do it if you know how for others if you also know how to add a comment.
Want to make today’s note quick. My kids will wake up soon. I can only write before they wake up. After that, the day gets busy.
Here are answers to questions I expect:
1. Why am I doing this, really?
It’ll take a lot of time and won’t make me money, at least not directly.
I’m doing Behind the Book for two reasons:
a) It’s part of my marketing strategy. In my last book, I shared a pivotal philosophy:
“People who buy, buy lots”.
Basically, who do one thing usually do a lot of that thing and not much of other things.
An extension of that principle is that people who write books are people who read books and also people who have audiences of people who read books.
I hope giving you a behind-the-scenes look at my next book intrigues you to buy a copy or two or twenty when it’s released. Because you’re a book person. And book people like books.
b) Writing helps me make sense of the world. This newsletter will force me to clarify my marketing approach and hold me accountable to my marketing plan.
2. Why listen to me?
“Hi, I’m Jon. My last book launch bombed. I’m writing a newsletter about marketing a book. You should read it.”
Lol. stellar pitch dude.
Ok, so my last book launch bombed. That’s true. But it wasn’t my first book. It was my first traditionally published book, and my 12th book.
I self-published Ignite the Fire in 2011 at age 24. It’s a book for personal trainers and has sold over 105,000 copies.
From there, I built a blog with 4-6 million annual unique visitors, developed 8 digital products, three membership sites, hosted 5 conferences, and wrote the first online fitness textbook. I also own a SAAS business for some reason . . .
I’ve generated over 200,000 customers and $40million in online sales from self-published books.
That’s weird to write. But you probably don’t know who I am and track records matter.
3. Yes, I have advantages coming in.
Money (enough). Reputation (contextual, but there). Platform (not here, but via email list and IG). Important to admit that I have assets coming in.
Some strategies will require those things, others won’t. I’ll also discuss how to build them up, particularly the platform. Like I’m (trying) to do to a new audience here on LinkedIn where you’ve never heard of me.
Authorship outside my niche has been harder to break through than I anticipated. Hence the bombed book launch.
I’m having to scratch and claw my way up in a new space like I did at 24. It’s fun in a masochistic kinda way.
Reputation, I’ve come to understand, is highly contextual.
What we perceive as "global status" is actually a collection of micro-reputations, each confined to its own ecosystem. Your authority isn't a portable asset you carry from space to space—it's deeply embedded in the relationships, history, and social proof you've built within specific communities.
Building a reputation takes sweat equity, hustle, travel, and networking more than money. Of course, there are good and not-so-good ways to do it.
With that in mind, I’ll also be sharing:
- Ways to manage email contacts.
- Methods to stay in touch and build a stellar network.
The good: Anyone can do this, regardless of resources. This isn’t a money thing. Money is an amplifier. It’s fuel, not the fire. Most people’s strategy is so bad that money doesn’t matter. Ironically, throwing money at a bad solution is a trap rich people fall into that gives people without money an advantage. Basically, even if you have money, it’s good to act like you’re broke sometimes.
The bad: What I'm doing is hard. Books are hard. They take time. It will often feel like nothing is happening and everybody else is succeeding and dating supermodels and living on private islands smelling hibiscus, eating caviar, and wearing fuzzy slippers. Comparison’s a bitch.
Time is my biggest constraint.
Real talk: Most book advice assumes you have unlimited time and zero responsibilities. I don't.
Time is my biggest constraint.
I have three young kids and aging parents. Fitness is important to me. I own two businesses (though I don’t operate either). I’m not a thirty-year-old with no responsibilities. I can’t commit to long 12-hour days, so I have to keep that in mind.
Oh, and I’ll be living in Indonesia for three months in January when Unhinged Habits is released.
That means podcasting to promote the book isn’t happening. Which is a constraint.
We’re going to be talking a lot about useful constraints.
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Hope you follow along.
This isn't another generic "how to write a book" newsletter from someone selling writing advice.
This is a real-time, unfiltered journey of an author determined to get it right—messy details, strategic pivots, emotions. . . Somebody thinking not in weeks or months or even years, but in decades.
And I hope you follow along.
Pretty sure you can subscribe to this newsletter so you get a notification when there’s a new one. I don't know how. But hopefully you do.
One final thought for today:
Books matter. What you know and who you are matters. You should write a book. For you. Selfishly. At least first. Then, try to get it out into the world. I hope what I'm doing here helps.
Cool.
Cooler than a polar bear's toenails cool.
That’s all for now.
-Jon
P.S. Want an Ai Editing Guide?
I created a document with the best performing prompts and processes I discovered using AI as a late-stage development editor. It was stunningly useful so I made it free and public. If you’d like a copy, please click here.
P.P.S. Would love to hear about the book you’re working on (or book idea) in the comments. If you want to add what you’re hoping to learn from this newsletter, that’s cool too.
P.P.P.S. I invite you to send me a connection request.
P.P.P.P.S. How many of these before it gets annoying? Prob this many.
