Writing a second, third, or any multiple number of business books creates another volume of sales for an author. That's fairly obvious, even to the casual observer. When a person writes another book, that's another item to sell. There is now much more to the sales story to consider than just the latest offering.
What is less obvious at first glance, is the strong possibility that every additional book published boosts the sales of the author's previous works. Along with the expected sales of the new publication, older books find their way back onto the business best seller lists as well.
Todd S. of 800-CEO-READ has discovered some compelling evidence that writing a new book or sequel will revive the sales of a previously published work. In effect, an author may be getting two books sold, instead of one. The sequel provides the marketing power to fuel the revival.
Todd says:
There seems to be phenomenon that a business book author's first book gets a bump when the second comes out. I can't show you data (yet), but I have heard this often anecdotally from authors and publishers. I am sure there is also a popularity threshold for the first book has pass, in order for this to be true.
Intuitively, the idea makes a great amount of logical sense. When a reader discovers the sound advice offered by the author in the most recent book, the buyer is very likely to purchase other works by the same author. I know that I have done that on more than one occasion, and I doubt that I am alone. Trusted business book authors often sell all of their collected works to the same person.
The advertising and publicity surrounding a newly published book often rubs off on previous volumes as well. Very often, the author will be described on the cover of the latest book as the writer of a previous edition. Demand is then created for more sequels by the same writer.
Todd S. may be onto something big here in the world of business book publishing.
We all await his further research, into the revival of previously published books, upon the arrival of a new volume.
Authors and would be authors will be especially interested in this publishing and book sales phenomenon.
