Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts

by Ryan Holiday

Overview

The book that Inc. says "every entrepreneur should read" and an FT Book of the Month selection...

How did the movie The Shawshank Redemption fail at the box office but go on to gross more than $100 million as a cult classic?

How did The 48 Laws of Power miss the bestseller lists for more than a decade and still sell more than a million copies?

How is Iron Maiden still filling stadiums worldwide without radio or TV exposure forty years after the band was founded?

Bestselling author and marketer Ryan Holiday calls such works and artists perennial sellers. How do they endure and thrive while most books, movies, songs, video games, and pieces of art disappear quickly after initial success? How can we create and market creative works that achieve longevity?

Holiday explores this mystery by drawing on his extensive experience working with businesses and creators such as Google, American Apparel, and the author John Grisham, as well as his interviews with the minds behind some of the greatest perennial sellers of our time. His fascinating examples include:

• Rick Rubin, producer for Adele, Jay-Z, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who teaches his artists to push past short-term thinking and root their work in long-term inspiration.
• Tim Ferriss, whose books have sold millions of copies, in part because he rigorously tests every element of his work to see what generates the strongest response.
• Seinfeld, which managed to capture both the essence of the nineties and timeless themes to become a modern classic.
• Harper Lee, who transformed a muddled manuscript into To Kill a Mockingbird with the help of the right editor and feedback.
• Winston Churchill, Stefan Zweig, and Lady Gaga, who each learned the essential tenets of building a platform of loyal, dedicated supporters.

Holiday reveals that the key to success for many perennial sellers is that their creators don’t distinguish between the making and the marketing. The product’s purpose and audience are in the creator’s mind from day one. By thinking holistically about the relationship between their audience and their work, creators of all kinds improve the chances that their offerings will stand the test of time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143109013
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/18/2017
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	398,510
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ryan Holiday is one of the world's foremost thinkers and writers on ancient philosophy and its place in everyday life. He is a sought-after speaker, strategist, and the author of many bestselling books including The Obstacle Is the Way; Ego Is the Enemy; The Daily Stoic; and the #1 New York Times bestseller Stillness Is the Key. His books have been translated into over 30 languages and read by over two million people worldwide. He lives outside Austin, Texas, with his family.

Read an Excerpt

The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence. —Cyril Connolly
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Perennial Seller"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Ryan Holiday.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I The Creative Process: From the Mindset to the Making to the Magic 15

Part II Positioning: From Polishing to Perfecting to Packaging 61

Part III Marketing: From Courting to Coverage, Pushing to Promotion 107

Part IV Platform: From Fans to Friends and a Full-Fledged Career 173

Conclusion: What's Luck Got to Do with It? 219

Afterword 229

A Gift for You 231

Acknowledgments and Sources 232

Index 243

Editorial Reviews

04/24/2017
Following in a long tradition in the self-help genre, Holiday (The Obstacle Is the Way) brings a contemporary sensibility to the subject of making and marketing creative work. In clean, inspiring prose he lays out a process of setting goals, being diligent, making the product sell, and building a career out of what you love. Throughout the book, Holiday presents a playfully varied slate of examples of success: Seneca, Winston Churchill, Iron Maiden, and Kanye West, to name a few. Seeing Holiday’s ideas presented in a logical, step-by-step fashion is tremendously helpful. His injunctions include the following: be clear about what you are doing and what need it meets; think long-term, not short-term; pay attention to detail; be open to criticism; and test ideas. Creating is only the beginning and taking charge of marketing is just as important, he insists. The key here is building a “platform” for reaching an audience, which can mean anything from performing in small clubs to doing an author tour to compiling an email list. Holiday has a tendency to be repetitive and drift into buzzwords and cliché—“be your own CEO,” “an unaimed arrow rarely hits a target”—but he builds a compelling road map to sustainable creativity. (July)

Publishers Weekly

A Financial Times Book of the Month Selection

The book may find a cult following on Madison Avenue the same way his work on stoic philosophy, "The Obstacle is the Way," did in the NFL.
 —Steve Rubel in AdvertisingAge

“How to create lasting success in a world of flash-in-the-pan hits and how to extend the proverbial 15 minutes of fame to a decade or even a century.”
—The Financial Times
 
“The book every entrepreneur should read this year.”
—Jeff Haden, Inc.

“Every artist aspires to create timeless, lasting work and this book is astudy on what it takes to do just that. Ryan Holiday has written a brilliant, inspiring guide to ignoring the trends of the day to focus on what matters and what will lead to real impact. If you want to write, produce, or build something amazing, read this book.”
—JAMES FREY, bestselling author of A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning

“As a showrunner or any kind of artist, you have to know when to stick to your guns and trust your gut, when and whom to ask for help, and how to define and lean into your brand. This book gets to the core of each of those elements in an attempt to help creatives be successful for along time.”
—DAVID ZUCKERMAN, television writer and cocreator of Family Guy, American Dad, and Wilfred

“My first book took five years for it to become a bestseller. It sells more now than it did ten years ago. You won’t find a better guide to create something that lasts than Perennial Seller! Ryan Holiday is one of the great marketing minds of our time!”
—JON GORDON, bestselling author of The Energy Bus

"Ideas are a dime a dozen, but those who put them into practice are priceless. [In Perennial Seller], Ryan shows you how to become one of “those” through his simple and cutthroat strategy for what it takes to be a successful creative in the modern world. This book couldn’t be more timely!”
—JAKE UDELL, founder of TH3RD BRAIN; manager of Grace VanderWaal, Gallant, ZHU, and Krewella

“In an era of disposable hot takes, Ryan’s writing blends thoughtful and thorough contrarianism with delicious anecdotes to back it up. Perennial Seller continues that tradition.”
—RICKY VAN VEEN, cofounder CollegeHumor and Vimeo, head of global creative strategy at Facebook

“I said this about Ryan Holiday’s last book, but I’ll say this now about this book. This is his best book. This will be a perennial seller. Everything in here is so true and it is a guide to creativity in the real world.”
—JAMES ALTUCHER, author of Choose Yourself

"Ryan Holiday is more than a marketing genius—he is an extraordinary thinker whose instincts deliver him deep into the human condition. I’ve been lucky to work with Ryan, and his goal is unwavering—to help creators make work that lasts. Perennial Seller is the perfect distillation of his ideas, and that rarest of gifts—a road map to success and an insight into life.”
—ROBERT KURSON, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers

"Autodidact extraordinaire Ryan Holiday strips away the ridiculous obsession with contemporary bestsellerdom and gets to the heart and soul of individual genius, creating timeless classics that change people’s lives year after year after year. For those of us who wish to summon the courage and forgo instant validation in favor of deep and original creation, this book offers not just the Why, but the How. A must-read for creators of all persuasions.”
—SHAWN COYNE, cofounder of Black Irish Books, author of The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know

“Fashion, like most industries, is all about what’s popular right now, yet at the same time the best designers and creators aspire to make and sell things that will last more than just a single season. Holiday’s new book is the ultimate road map to making your work and your message stick.”
—AYA KANAI, chief fashion director for Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, Redbook, and Woman’s Day

"At this moment, it’s easy to think of music as no more than ephemeral content. For this reason, it’s more important than ever to make work that stands the test of time. This book is a complete and current handbook for writing classics. Perennial Seller clears a path through the noise. If you are interested in creating work that stands the test of time, then Perennial Seller is a must-read.”
—JUSTIN BORETA, The Glitch Mob

“Every artist who wants to create a thriving career that outlasts fads, trends, and technologies needs to read this book. It’s a formula for becoming a classic and legendary.”
—MICHAEL RAPINO, CEO and president, Live Nation

From the Publisher

05/15/2017
The saying goes, "if you build a better mousetrap…." What's not said is that this doesn't happen by itself. That's where Holiday's (founder, marketing firm Brass Check; The Obstacle Is the Way) book comes into play. In four parts, this work covers the basics: creating, positioning, marketing, and platform. This is not especially new ground: Jim Collins dealt with similar material in Built To Last, and a more academic approach can be found in Clayton Christensen's Seeing What's Next. Most of the examples here deal with consumer products and services. The one weakness concerns the implications of path dependence. On the plus side, Holiday understands the new world order of marketing in a social context. Buzz doesn't happen by itself. However, unlike the proverbial shoemaker, Holiday uses the methods he promulgates. While politics aren't a focal point, there are significant implications for political contests offered. VERDICT The world order has changed—old school marketers take note.—Steven Silkunas, Fernandina Beach, FL

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