Should have mentioned this in my earlier comment as well, but 80,000 Hours has advertised on the Tim Ferriss Show, which is immensely popular. Trying to get Will on as a guest there would be huge.
Failing in that (or in addition to it?), we might think about trying to get mentions in large online newsletters (e.g., Tim’s Five Bullet Friday, James Clear’s 3-2-1, Mark Manson’s Motherf*ck Monthly, ensure Ryan Holiday gets a copy that he might be willing to mention on his monthly reading list, etc.)
DRT
Karma: 8
Here are a few things I’ve seen done successfully in other book launches:
-I’d imagine there were things left on the cutting room floor in the writing process; giving pre-orderers a bonus chapter or additional notes could be a good incentive to order early.
-Offer signed copies of pages from the galleys or signed/personalized book copies to people who order a sufficiently large quantity or a lottery for all who preorder.
-Will’s already offering a few people a Zoom session, but what about a live Zoom Q&A (or a series of 2-3) for everyone who preorders one or more copies?
-Anyone who buys over 25 copies (or some other high threshold) could be eligible for a two-day trip to visit the FTX campus and meet Will/SBF/Nick B for dinner?
Ah, right, yes! I think there’s potentially a place for both. If I think about a promotion strategy, there’s something to be said for ensuring the book has a big initial print run/has a shot at the NYT bestseller list or similar.
On a parallel path, we should also aim for this to be a sustained seller, growing to sell hundreds of thousands or even millions of copies. Endorsements and podcast appearances can help, but nothing achieves that kind of momentum without also having word of mouth.
To maximize our potential surface area for those critical person-to-person referrals, you probably want to figure out how to distribute as many copies as humanly possible. If the Gates Foundation wants to buy 500 copies, we shouldn’t care too much that it won’t be the correct type of sale for the NYT chart—that kind of distribution pays back in other ways.
I focus on both upfront ‘pop’ and long-term sales because most book launch efforts are very short-lived. If they don’t sell well to start, they kind of flame out. If we have a plan for both short-term hype building and long-term sustainable and growing sales, we might be able to succeed at hitting big sales milestones even without a bestseller list appearance.