Ra'anan Cohen built two startups with no tech background, taking the first public and growing the second, Bringg, into a unicorn. After he sold, he wrote Confessions of a Unicorn Founder for himself and his kids, with no plan to publish it, until a friend sent the manuscript to Israel's biggest publisher. The book spent over a year on Israel's bestseller list without him spending a dollar on promotion, and he turned down the biggest in-store promotion in the country because he wanted the right readers, not more of them. We talk about the question at the heart of the book, how much is enough, why readers who are a good fit end up spreading it for you, what the publisher did and didn't do, and why he'd tell authors to start talking about their subject a year or two before launch.

Connect with Ra'anan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raananc

Confessions of a Unicorn Founder: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FZKYYZ8X

I'm Cristian, founder of Beehive Book Marketing. I help nonfiction authors market their books and get them published. More at https://beehivebookmarketing.com

00:00 Intro

00:15 Two startups, then a book

03:11 Why he wrote the book

06:51 The manuscript he never meant to send

09:01 How the publisher set his expectations

09:36 What the book opened up

10:37 How the book found its readers

13:42 Product-market fit for a book, and the promotion he turned down

17:03 Why no discounts or coupons

17:56 The right readers, the higher ratings

19:46 How much is enough?

24:35 Who the book is actually for

27:45 What the publisher did, and what's on the author

29:17 Why to start a year before launch

30:42 Why readers look up the author first

31:52 Where to find the book

#BookMarketing #NonfictionAuthors #BusinessBooks #Entrepreneurship

Melanie Johnson is the co-founder of Elite Online Publishing, which she describes as a high-quality concierge service that does the publishing for authors rather than just helping them do it. Before books, she worked in TV as a news anchor and helped run a television station in Dallas. Her answer to what a business book is for: don't let it sit on the shelf. We talk about the ways a book can work for a business, from mailing it to prospects with a personal note to turning it into years of content, why a launch with a TV-sized audience still fell flat, what's changed in publishing over the last ten years, why AI-drafted manuscripts tend to lose their stories, and her 10x10x3 method for planning a first book.

Connect with Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniejohnson-eop/

Elite Online Publishing: https://eliteonlinepublishing.com

I'm Cristian, founder of Beehive Book Marketing. I help nonfiction authors market their books and get them published. More at https://beehivebookmarketing.com

00:00 Intro

00:41 From news anchor to Elite Online Publishing

04:19 What does a book actually do for a business?

05:42 Using your book to get a foot in the door

08:30 Why do some book launches fall flat?

09:07 A famous author's launch that didn't land

12:18 Hiring a general contractor vs. assembling the trades yourself

14:18 What's changed about launching a book in ten years?

15:28 AI, Amazon, and the questions it now asks authors

16:56 Why a book needs stories

17:54 How she used AI on her latest book

19:19 The one thing to get right on a first business book

20:10 The 10x10x3 method

22:25 Where to find Melanie

#BookMarketing #BusinessBooks #NonfictionAuthors #Publishing #Writing

Philip Atkinson is a beekeeper, the founder of Hive Logic, a boutique leadership agency in Switzerland, and the author of Bee Wise: 12 Leadership Lessons from a Busy Beehive. The book became a dialogue: each of the 12 chapters has a reply from a guest expert, and the first reply opens with "I don't agree with Philip." We talk about using bees as a way into better conversations at work, why the launch events weren't about the book, how readers are still talking to each other about it a year on, and why all proceeds go to the charity Bees for Development.

Connect with Philip: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipatkinsonhivelogic/

Bee Wise: https://beewisebook.com

I’m Cristian, founder of Beehive Book Marketing. I help nonfiction authors market their books and get them published. More at https://beehivebookmarketing.com

00:00 Intro

00:37 Hive Logic and what Bee Wise is

01:53 What the bee metaphor opens up

04:17 Why not to be as busy as a bee

04:55 Does a theme cost a book credibility?

07:24 Why 12 experts replied to the chapters

10:16 What the book has opened up, a year on

12:37 Why he wrote it: Friday is Hive Day

15:01 What surprised him about the response

16:41 What he'd do differently at launch

18:44 Why the launch wasn't about the book

20:09 Where to find Philip and the book

#BookMarketing #BusinessBooks #Leadership #NonfictionAuthors

Tom Stearns helps B2B companies fix and scale their sales teams. With co-author Peter Cleary and illustrator Eli Stone, he wrote Graphic Sales — part comic book, part playbook for sales leaders building a prospecting team. I asked him why he chose the comic format, what he wanted the book to do for his consultancy ("It was never book sales"), and how he marketed the launch: advance copies to a tiered list of contacts, a launch event, LinkedIn, and podcasts. He closes with advice for consultants a year out from publishing their first book.

Connect with Tom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomstearns/ · stearns.io

00:00 Meet Tom Stearns and Graphic Sales

01:57 Why a comic book

04:22 A playbook for writing playbooks

06:05 True stories of what not to do

07:16 What surprised him after launch

10:04 What the book was meant to do for his business

14:43 How he marketed the launch

18:57 What's next: podcasts, awards, more comics

25:34 Advice for consultants a year out from their first book

30:17 Where to find Tom

#BookMarketing #BusinessBooks #NonfictionAuthors #SalesLeadership

Hiring a ghostwriter isn't handing the book off. Liz Heflin writes nonfiction business books — and now publishes them end to end through her own press — and she tells clients to plan for 10 to 30 hours of interviews and six months to a year before a manuscript is in hand.

In this episode: when a ghostwriter makes sense versus a book coach versus writing it yourself, the four stages of the process and where your time actually goes, why the return on a business book sits in the offer on the back end rather than the cover price, and how a ghostwriter captures your voice on the page.

Connect with Liz Heflin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-heflin/

🌐 http://beehivebookmarketing.com/podcast

Chapters:
00:00 — Intro
01:15 — When does hiring a ghostwriter make sense?
04:40 — The ghostwriter as accountability partner
06:42 — How much of your time it still takes
07:13 — The four stages: strategy, interviews, writing, edits
09:43 — Six months to a year from kickoff to manuscript
10:27 — Ghostwriter vs. book coach vs. writing it yourself
14:30 — Nobody writes a book in isolation
15:36 — Why paying for it is what gets it finished
16:33 — The real ROI: clients and stages, not copies
18:33 — How a ghostwriter captures your voice
20:04 — Why the first draft never sounds exactly like you
22:05 — Where to find Liz

#bookmarketing #ghostwriting #businessbooks

Most experts treat their book as something to promote. Kory Kirby — a publishing strategist who's taken 100+ books across the finish line — treats it as a product to design first.

We get into why product comes before promotion in the four P's, the "five parts of you" system that turns a book into consulting conversations, and why price and placement (boardroom-only distribution, $300 direct-sold editions) can matter far more than copies sold.

Connect with Kory Kirby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/korykirby/

beehivebookmarketing.com

Chapters:
00:00 — Meet Kory: 113 books, a decade in
01:33 — What separates a book that works from one that doesn't
03:58 — Why Pressed is a product-first book
04:33 — The four P's — and the one everyone skips
06:38 — What actually makes a book a good product
08:34 — The five parts of you: brand → content → platform → conversations → offer
10:42 — When the reason to write a book is too shallow
11:58 — Why the author now matters more than the book
14:51 — The book game is a long, slow churn
15:53 — Originality and cover design in a sea of AI
17:07 — Price: $25 on Amazon vs. $350 direct
19:01 — Placement: the books you can't buy anywhere
20:28 — Where to find Kory

#bookmarketing #businessbooks #authority

Why write a business book — and what does it actually do for your business?

Marina Aris, founder of hybrid publisher Brooklyn Writers Press, makes the case that a book is a funnel, not a keepsake: a way to generate leads, leverage your expertise, and outlast a social feed that forgets you in a day.

In this episode she breaks down her "three L's" — leads, leverage, and legacy — how to plant lead breadcrumbs inside the book itself, the dictation route for experts who swear they're "not writers," why most business books fail to convert, and how a finished manuscript can reach market in 12 weeks instead of three years.

Connect with Marina Aris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marinaaris/


🌐 http://beehivebookmarketing.com/podcast


Chapters:
00:00 — More than a business card
02:38 — Why write a business book: leads, leverage, legacy
05:00 — How a book actually generates leads
08:22 — What "leverage" really means
10:32 — Not a writer? The dictation route around a ghostwriter
13:16 — Why most business books fail to convert
17:40 — Before you write: deciding if a book is for you
21:38 — Legacy, and last advice for first-time authors
23:22 — Where to find Marina & Brooklyn Writers Press

#bookmarketing #businessbooks #authority #publishing