The Failed Book Launch That Made Me a Bestselling Author

Below are the stories and lessons from my 100 Days to 10,000 Copies book launch campaign for my new book - Easy Discipline. If you want to launch a book (or any product) but hate stories, skip to the lessons… But why are you an author then?

[Day -4,016] – April 15, 2015

The publication day of my first book, Rejection Proof. I was on my “book tour,” speaking in a public library in a city I don’t remember. In front of me were four old ladies in their 60s and 70s. After mustering all the smiles I could fake, I finished my talk and signed their books.

Three copies sold (one lady left without buying).

Earlier that day, my literary agent had called me in a panic. Rejection Proof came out that morning; there was no buzz, no conversation, no sales. My pre-orders were about 200.

It looked like the book I spent 18 months writing was dead on arrival. The low six-figure advance Penguin Random House invested in me looked to be money down the drain for them. I mean, it went to my pocket. That’s how author advances work. But life is not just about money. I felt like the biggest failure and fraud in the world, letting my publisher down. My emotions ranged from never wanting to write again to wanting to change my name and move to Nepal.

In the Himalayas, no one would know I was a failed author.

[Day -655] – June 27, 2024

Well, things have turned out differently from what that day projected. Rejection Proof didn’t die after the putrid start.

Over the years, the book has sold close to 200,000 copies in 15 languages worldwide.

(How? 1. It was a really good book. 2. You will see later in the marketing lessons.)

It did so well that it not only earned back its advance a long time ago, it also landed me my second book deal. This time from Simon & Schuster, another “Big Five” publisher.

The book is called Easy Discipline.

Writing began!

[Day 0] – April 13, 2026

Almost another two years have passed, I finished the manuscript. And I was 100 days away from launching Easy Discipline.

This time, I needed to treat the book launch seriously. No more humiliating book tours, hopefully no more panic calls from my agent, and definitely no more checking flights to Nepal.

I was determined to launch Easy Discipline to become a bestseller (New York Times, USA TODAY, The Tofu Maker Chronicle. I don’t care. Get me on a list.)

So, I publicly declared to the world (basically my newsletter subscribers) that I would sell 10,000 preorders in 100 days.

[Day 1]

It’s time to get to work. My plan was a series of weekly guerrilla marketing moonshots.

• Following the concept of the Million Dollar Homepage (if you remember it back in the day, welcome to middle age), I commissioned my wife Tracy to vibe-code a Public Wall made of 10,000 squares, where every square can be claimed by someone who uploads a pre-order receipt.

• I would send emails to pitch myself to get on the most popular podcasts in the world.

• I would restart my YouTube channel to talk about my book.

• I would train my kids to play tennis with Easy Discipline principles, so they could win tournaments.

• I would enter and go deep in the World Series of Poker, and wear the Easy Discipline t-shirt at the final table.

• I would panhandle my way to the World Cup Final.

You might laugh, and you should.

[Day 46]

Almost halfway through the 100 days, the wall said 443 copies sold. 4.4% of my goal.

None of my moonshots worked. YouTube sucked. Steven Bartlett and Tim Ferriss said NO. And my bank accounts screamed at my poker performance. In fact, I didn’t even start some of these moonshots. I hated some of the actions so much that they went directly against my own principles: shooting for results without embracing the process is Hard Discipline, the opposite of Easy Discipline.

Moreover, the low number on the wall became an embarrassment. This was exactly the feeling of speaking to four old ladies trying to sell books, except without the confinement of that anonymous library. It was to the world, with a public wall number hanging over my head.

I started imagining all my newsletter readers laughing at me, day and night, before dinner and after sex. I mean, why didn’t they all buy a copy? If they had all pre-ordered, I would have made the number and then some!

Why did I have to make the insane goal public? Did I just commit career suicide as a writer?

For days I didn’t want to get out of bed.

But if there is one action in my life that gives me the most bang for the buck, it’s this: marrying well.

Remember I share a bed with a superwoman called Tracy? She flies with phones, not with capes.

As a person with the extraversion of Oprah Winfrey, the people skills of Estée Lauder, and the heart of Mother Teresa, Tracy loves calling people and making sales.

She saw I was down and said, “OK, let me call someone.” Then she would call one of my past speaking clients, or a former colleague. Thirty minutes of Zoom later, she would say, “I just sold 150 copies to Google.”

“Which Google?” I asked, as if there were 30 Googles running around.

Then Mitsubishi bought 100. And Florida Realtors bought 200. The wall number started to climb.

[Day 100]

Last day. In the morning, the wall said 2,853. What do you write when you are on your last day and at less than 29% of your stated goal, however ambitious?

Should I write a failure post-mortem? Apologize for my folly? Or admit that 2,853 was genuinely good by absolute numbers? (I mean, it was more than 10x Rejection Proof’s pre-order numbers.)

After long thought, I remembered the poem: Do not go gentle into that good night... rage against the dying of the light. So I wrote a piece, “I Will Reminisce When I’m Dead.” It was less of a letter to my readers, and more of a rallying cry to my soul.

I sent the letter at 1pm. (See how bad I was at this newsletter thing? Which idiot procrastinates until the afternoon to send the launch day email?)

Three hours later, Tracy called me. She said, “Something happened. In the past three hours after your email, over 300 copies came in. We just crossed 3,000. You should write another email to tell people your momentum.”

“Well, maybe I will”... and yes I did. I wrote another email titled “You Thought I Was Done. So Did I.”

Nothing works like a deadline and momentum. The floodgates stayed open. At midnight, the wall froze. The number said 4,126.

It was still not 10,000, not even half of it. But 4,126 preorders took the campaign from “genuinely good” to “top 1% of all published books,” according to my agent. (This time there was no panic on his end of the phone.)

But 1,273 on the last day? That’s a miracle! My people finally showed up for me, like Gandalf at dawn with his cavalry.

[Day 107]

A week later, an email from my publisher landed in my mailbox: “EASY DISCIPLINE is a USA TODAY bestseller!”

Indeed, #6 in Self-Help, and #95 in ALL genres: novels, romance, erotica, furniture installation manuals.

11 years later, it was redemption. No more feelings of letting my publisher down. No more wanting to sew myself inside my comforter. I was genuinely happy, for the team and the people who believed in me, who invested in me, who helped me.

[Day 115]

Another email from my publisher. This time they are reprinting the book, with “National Bestseller” on the cover. They wanted me to pick a design.

I like emails like these.

My book launch was a failure, but a beautiful failure.

Now, here are eight lessons for book launches and ambitious goals in general. If you want to fail like me, keep reading.

Lesson 1: Every Marketing Tactic Is Either Fancy or Boring. You Need Both

Fancy – high potential, low hit rate, exciting, making you dream about going viral and starting movements. Examples: social media, guerrilla marketing stunts, big-name podcasts, TED talks, etc.

Boring – safe, behind-the-scenes, day-to-day. Examples: corporate bulk purchases, email lists, speaking engagements, family/friends/community support, events, etc.

I promised earlier I’d tell you how Rejection Proof survived an abysmal launch. Here is how:

Fancy:

• Rejection Therapy videos became a social media trend with 100M views on TikTok. Every time someone does a viral video, it becomes ambient marketing for my book.

• I also gave a wildly popular TED talk, with over 11M views. If 0.5% of viewers bought my book, that’d be 55K copies.

Boring:

• After my TED talk, I became a prolific professional speaker, with over 400 keynotes over 10 years. Every time I speak, I sell books.

Fancy sets your ceiling. Boring sets your floor.

Lesson 2: Build Your Floor Before Raising Your Ceiling

For the Easy Discipline 100 Days launch, I started with the fancy moonshots you just read about.

Big mistake!

Fancy, by definition, is risky. All my moonshots failed, and I could not engineer viral hits with a 100-day deadline.

That’s when boring came to the rescue: Tracy’s phone calls to corporate clients for bulk purchases, my tying book buys to speaking events, etc.

My 4,126 all came from boring.

Yes, you can bore your way onto the bestseller list.

Lesson 3: Ask, Get Rejected, and Ask More

Boring tactics such as corporate bulk buys require lots of 1-on-1 asks. Most people won’t say YES, or even bother to respond. Rejection is the default.

But there are also people who want to help. They want to feel like being part of something special. They are the exceptions. And exceptions move the wall numbers.

For example, corporate purchases usually take a long lead time, even 6-8 weeks (I lost 1,500 copies because the timing was too short). But the people who bought were willing to move mountains and move fast. Some even used their own credit cards first and got reimbursed by their companies later. Those people are heroes.

What you need is to ask, however uncomfortable. Give those exceptions a chance to say YES. Give those heroes a chance to save the day.

Lesson 4: An Insane Goal Works, But Might Drive You Insane Too

When I asked my publisher how many preorders would make them dance, they said 5,000 copies. I said, how about doubling that, to 10,000?

Without the insane goal, there would be no wall, no moonshots, no speaking like crazy, and no bulk buys. It took every ounce of energy and creativity out of me.

But be careful: insane goals are a double-edged sword. When the results aren’t showing, the pain of the gap takes over. You are tempted by every distraction imaginable to relieve the pain. Giving up becomes an easy way out.

Go big game hunting! But pack your first aid kit.

Lesson 5: Do Things You Enjoy

Lesson 4 is why you should build your plan based on things you love to do. When you aren’t getting satisfaction from immediate results, you should get it from the actions.

I did not like YouTube and social media; doing them hoping for results made me miserable. But I enjoyed speaking and writing, and doing them made me happy. Tracy LOVED talking and making connections, and she could not NOT call folks.

Whatever you do, start with things you love. (This happens to be the first principle of Easy Discipline.)

Lesson 6: Public Accountability Is Your Friend

Most people hide their goals. If they win, they celebrate. If they lose, they pretend nothing happened. No harm, no foul. And that’s why most people fail.

Making your goals public works amazingly well. The public pressure and your desire to conform to your declared identity will force effort out of you.

In fact, I took accountability to another level by building the live wall. 443 at day 46 was public whipping. And that’s how we did everything we could to get to 4,126 fifty-four days later.

Lesson 7: A Deadline Is Your BFF

If public accountability is a groomsman at the wedding between you and your goal, a deadline is the best man, wedding planner, and photographer rolled into one.

I set my campaign to be 100 days. 31% of my sales came in on the last day, because my readers knew it was now or never, and they rushed to both help me and claim perks while they could.

So whatever goal you have, set an end date. Nothing demoralizes like a forever goal. And nothing galvanizes like a finish line, both for your tribe and yourself.

Lesson 8: You Can’t Schedule Fire. But You Can Build the Machine

I will give you a confession no “National Bestseller” author will tell you. The goal for 100 Days to 10,000 Copies was never just a number, but for the book to have a chance to catch fire on its own. I wanted Easy Discipline to enter the ether, to generate organic conversations, to explode.

So far, it hasn’t yet. Tracy and I generated almost every sale on our own. Three weeks in, there are only 14 Amazon reviews, albeit all raving ones.

I grieved this. But I also took solace.

After all, Inner Excellence didn’t catch fire until a Philadelphia Eagles player read it on the sideline. And Rejection Proof didn’t catch fire until the TED talk 18 months later.

Easy Discipline will have its own explosion.

I don’t know when or how, but one of the moonshots will land.

And before that, I have built a machine.

That machine already printed the National Bestseller badge. And I will continue to sell books – one speech at a time.

If you know an author about to launch, send them this. It’s the post I wish someone had sent me in 2015.

PS. Hey Coach Joe Mazzulla. I know you are busy coaching the Boston Celtics. If you ever feel the urge to show up on ESPN to tell the world how Easy Discipline has helped your coaching philosophy, please don’t fight it.

You are in the book!