{"id":90823,"date":"2025-08-04T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessesgrow.com\/?p=90823"},"modified":"2025-08-04T08:00:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:00:44","slug":"invisible-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessesgrow.com\/2025\/08\/04\/invisible-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The sad and mysterious tale of my invisible book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cumulative<\/p>\n

I have been so very blessed to be an author that people trust. Against all odds, people actually buy my books, even years after they are published. They have been translated into 15 languages, used as college textbooks, and are found in more than 700 libraries worldwide.<\/p>\n

Except one.<\/p>\n

Today, I submit to you one of my biggest disappointments and professional enigmas: The book that bombed.<\/strong> <\/em>My invisible book. And oh yes, it might have been my best book ever.<\/p>\n

My best work?<\/h2>\n

If you search for the “best marketing books” on Amazon, here are the top five, and the book ratings:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • All Marketers are Liars<\/a> by Seth Godin = 4.5<\/li>\n
  • The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing<\/a> by Ries and Trout = 4.5<\/li>\n
  • The One-Page Marketing Plan<\/a> by Dib = 4.7<\/li>\n
  • Hook Point <\/a>by Kane = 4.4<\/li>\n
  • Building a Story Brand<\/a> by Miller = 4.6<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The average reader rating of any<\/em> business book on Amazon is 4.2, according to ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

    And then there is my 2021 book Cumulative Advantage<\/a>, with a score of 4.7. It stands up to the best in terms of quality, or at least reader appreciation.<\/p>\n

    Many readers\u00a0consider\u00a0Cumulative Advantage<\/em> to be<\/span>\u00a0my best book. And yet it is my lowest-selling book, by far. In the world of business books, you can call a book a bestseller if it reaches 10,000 in sales. My bestselling book, Marketing Rebellion<\/em>, sold 14,000 copies in its first month.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

    And yet Cumulatove Advantage<\/em> has sold only 1,700 books since its release in 2021. This was the very next book I wrote after the mega-hit Marketing Rebellion<\/em>. What the heck happened?<\/p>\n

    I have a theory.<\/p>\n

    The story of the invisible book<\/h2>\n

    \"100I only write a book when it solves a meaningful problem. A trend I noticed in many of my consulting calls was that people often seem to get stuck mid-career. They might experience some success and plateau in their businesses, professional lives, and personal brands.<\/p>\n

    How do you build momentum for a life, a career, an idea? What is the strategy to reach new levels of success when the growth curve flattens out?<\/p>\n

    I came across a concept called cumulative advantage<\/em>. While this concept is well-researched and documented in the field of social psychology, the theory about how momentum works in the world has never been applied to the practical reality of business.<\/p>\n

    Making this connection was an elegant and practical idea that could help many people. I concocted a unique and entertaining way to tell the story of momentum. I compared my career to the supremely successful author Tim Ferriss<\/a>. We had both started as authors at the same time, but he had rocketed to fame. To tell a story of the five steps of cumulative advantage, I traced our paths to answer the question: Why did Ferris know Oprah, and I did not?<\/p>\n

    It was a fun, fast-paced story packed with insights. I knew this was a great book, and based on the rising success of my previous books, I doubled down on my investment in editing, design, and promotion. For the first time, I hired an outside PR firm and an influencer agency. I created a snazzy “movie trailer:”<\/p>\n