When Hard Work Is Just the Beginning
Finding Your Author Business Sweet Spot/s
What to do when you’re doing everything but nothing’s working consistently
Soul Mission by Joshua Becker is time-traveling, spiritual, sci-fi/fantasy, speculative fiction that has a middle-aged devout Jewish dad with OCD and insomnia finding himself on a series of unexpected, mostly terrifying, journeys to key points in Jewish history, perhaps with missions he doesn’t fully understand: Berlitz Germany in the 1200s, a 1945 Green Bay Packers game with the first Jewish Miss America, the Holocaust, the Spanish Inquisition, 1911’s Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in NYC, the David v Goliath Biblical slingshot showdown.
Sounds good, right? I’ve read it. It is.
Here are excerpts of an email I received from Becker who’s been taking my advice on outreach and working incredibly hard on it.
Excerpt 1: The Spreadsheet Approach
“Almost daily, I email synagogue book clubs or synagogue administrators (who don’t have a book club), as well as some other non-Jewish book clubs/organizations. I have a meticulous spreadsheet of over 165 book clubs/organizations that I’ve reached out to. If I don’t hear from an organization in about a month, I usually follow up with another email and/or phone call. I have about a 2% success rate of having my reach-out eventuate into a presentation.”
Excerpt 2: The Sunday Exploration Strategy
“My family is relatively new to New Jersey, so we like to spend our Sundays visiting new towns in New Jersey. I make sure to bring a few copies of my book along. If the town has a bookstore, I ask the associate to carry my book. This led to a store carrying my book, and the bookstore owner and I discussed a potential private book event.”
Excerpt 3: The Social Media Experiment
“Prior to the publication of my book, I was not on social media whatsoever (save for LinkedIn every now and again). I’ve been posting often about my book, particularly on Facebook (but also on Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp groups, and WhatsApp status/updates). I’m not sure if I’ve actually sold any books through social media, but I do notice that it brings a certain notoriety to my book, particularly with many likes to a book signing I held at American Dream Mall.”
Excerpt 4: The Summary
“I’ve consistently tried social media, approaching bookstores, thinking outside the box for venues to sell (e.g., candle stores), reaching out to as many individuals who I know personally, Judaica stores, and book clubs and organizations from various walks of life, including Jewish, public libraries, transcendental groups, interfaith groups, and others. I don’t think I’ve hit a ‘sweet spot,’ i.e., one that consistently delivers a high rate of results, yet.”
Here’s What I See
First, let me acknowledge that Becker is doing more outreach than 95% of authors ever attempt. Spreadsheet tracking. Consistent follow-up. Casting a wide net. Creative venue exploration. Willingness to try multiple channels. This is real work and commitment and both matter.
But here’s the thing: Now that he has mastered commitment and consistency in his outreach, it’s time to add a layer of strategy.
The 2% Success Rate Isn’t Actually a Problem…or THE Problem.
Cold outreach to organizations typically converts at 1–5%, so 2% is firmly within normal range. The issue isn’t the conversion rate—it’s that he’s continuing to invest heavily in a channel that requires massive volume to produce modest results.
Without any additional refinements, three presentations from 165 contacts means Josh will need to contact roughly 55 organizations to book one event. If each contact takes just 15 minutes to research, personalize, send, and follow up—and that’s running one efficient, disciplined ship—that’s 13.75 hours of work per booking, not counting the time to prepare for, travel to and from, do the event, and handle post-event tasks!
Is that the best use of his time? It’s not awful when he was just starting out and experimenting, but probably not for the long run. It makes sense once this kind of data is collected to see if warmer routes to success are available.
The Sunday Strategy Worked
Notice what happened with the casual, in-person bookstore approach: Personal visit, conversation with an employee, book carried, event discussion. That’s a real relationship forming in real-time. This too is data.
He didn’t say how many stores he’s visited, but let’s say it was ten. One out of ten Sunday visits created more concrete opportunity than 165 cold emails. And it was combined with other life goals (family time and local touring), which I think is key for many authors staying in the nasty, brutish, and looong game of bookselling and marketing.
Social Media Is Consuming Time Without Producing Results
“I’m not sure if I’ve actually sold any books through social media” is an eyebrow raiser. He’s posting across four platforms with no confirmed sales and vague notoriety that may or may have not converted to revenue.
Likes don’t pay bills. Notoriety often doesn’t equal book sales. If you can’t draw a line from an activity to revenue, you may be spending time better spent elsewhere.
Is He Standing in a Sweet Spot?
The bookstore visits are working. Personal connections are working—i.e., reaching out to people he knows personally. In-person events at venues like American Dream Mall are getting attention.
At least one sweet spot isn’t hidden. It’s right here in the data and the anecdotes. He just hasn’t recognized and harnessed it yet because he’s diligently trying multiple things. Nothing wrong with that, but make a point of always coming back to adding a strategy component, another level of refinement and testing; and/or collecting data on your next big hunch or adjacent approach.
Do not stand still or become a devotee of hard work for the sake of hard work. Diligence flogging a dead horse. Collect meaningful data and take the next step from there.
What Becker Should Do…And What You Should Do If You’re in Similar Shoes
1. Stop everything for one wek and analyze your data.
Go through every marketing/sales/outreach activity you’ve done in the past 3–6 months. For each one, ask:
Did this produce a sale, booking, or meaningful connection?
How much time did it take?
What was the return on that investment of time?
Would I do this again? Should I do this again?
Be ruthless. “It might work eventually” is not being on the right track. “I got likes” doesn’t tell you the right things. Sales, dollars, bookings, media coverage, and warm leads are.
2. Identify your top three activities by results.
Based on Becker’s email, his top three activities are probably:
in-person bookstore visits,
personal network outreach, and
in-person events at high-traffic venues.
Things like continuing cold emails and a multi-platform social media practice should be questioned.
3. Double down on and refine what’s working; eliminate or drastically reduce everything else.
Given he has limited time for book marketing, Becker should probably:
Increase…
Bookstore visits in more New Jersey/regional towns. He’s already doing this. Make it the priority and see if there aren’t multiple useful in-person connections he can make with every Sunday outing. Stay attuned to local publications that could cover him, his book, and future events; look for posted event flyers for creative partnership inspiration.
Personal network outreach. Warm connections convert better than cold. Ask friends and family. Co-workers. Those he knows from his synagogue and neighborhood.
In-person events at malls, JCCs, synagogues, and the like where he can meet readers face-to-face (and eventually ask for leads too! And to be on his mailing list).
Check out this list for creative event partnership options:
Reduce to minimal…
Social media to one platform, one post per week maximum—or eliminate entirely if no obvious sales in 90 days.
Cold email outreach to organizations. Test ten highly targeted ones per month instead of mass volume.
Eliminate…
Random venue exploration unless there’s a clear strategic fit.
Posting across four social platforms with no conversion tracking.
4. Test one high-potential channel at a time every 90 days.
Knowing that Josh has a full-time job and other obligations, I’d advise: Pick the bookstore+ strategy under “Increase” (above). Every Sunday, visit a new town armed with creativity and gusto, and explore all the options you can discover. Bring books. Talk to bookstore, gift shop, and museum staffers. Build relationships. Track results.
After 90 days, evaluate: Did this produce sales? Did it produce relationships that led to speaking opportunities? Did it open doors to other connections?
If yes, keep doing it. You’ve strategized and it worked; now optimize (analyze, refine, leverage, maximize all elements). If no, try something else for 90 days.
5. Warm outreach beats cold outreach every time.
Instead of cold-emailing 165 book clubs, Becker could do things like:
ask current book club contacts for introductions to other clubs;
ask synagogue administrators they know personally for referrals;
leverage American Dream Mall event attendees to connect to their book clubs; and
turn every in-person event into a relationship-building opportunity that leads to referrals.
One warm introduction is worth 50 cold emails.
6. Track revenue, not activity.
The danger of having a meticulous spreadsheet of 165 contacts is that it feels like progress. You’re working! You’re tracking! You’re following up! I’ve advised this approach with client-authors and used it in my own businesses countless times. Some successful, some not. Almost always, it provides useful data and a strong suggestion about a next direction.
If, for example, those 165 contacts produced three bookings and minimal sales, the spreadsheet is tracking the wrong thing.
Track revenue instead:
How much did bookstore visits generate this month?
How much did personal network outreach generate?
How much did social media generate?
How much did cold emails generate?
Let revenue tell you where to spend your time.
The Bigger Lesson
Hard work is necessary but it’s not sufficient. Strategic work is what builds sustainable author businesses.
Becker is working incredibly hard. Now it’s time to work strategically.
The sweet spot he’s looking for isn’t mysterious. It’s visible in his own experiences and results. He just needs to pay attention to what’s actually working, eliminate what isn’t, and focus his considerable work ethic on the channels that produce results.
If you’re in similar shoes—doing lots of things, not seeing consistent results—stop. Analyze. Focus. Double down on what works. Cut everything else.
It could be that the sweet spot you seek—or your first sweet spot of several—is already in your data. You just need to look at it honestly and act accordingly.
Tell Us in the Comments
Have you found one or more sweet spots for your author business model yet? What activity produces the most consistent results for you—and what have you eliminated because it wasn’t working?
DIY PR for Authors with Tristra Newyear Yeager
Join our Beyond the Margins event series for our next free Zoom Power Hour for all authors. Learn simple PR strategies from Tristra Newyear Yeager, a PR veteran with 20+ years helping creative people get press — and a published author who’s done it herself. Discover how to find your story angle, time your campaign, pitch journalists, and build media relationships that matter. March 18, 1pm-2pm CT.