Charlie Hoehn: Write Something People Want to Read
Charlie Hoehn, a 3-time New York Times bestselling editor, shares secrets to writing and marketing unforgettable books. He covers crafting compelling titles, designing effective covers, structuring content, leveraging feedback, and using AI, aiming to help authors make their ideas stick and achieve success.
Deep Dive Analysis
17 Topic Outline
Writing for a Specific Audience and Embodiment
Importance of Real Feedback and Iterative Book Development
Traditional vs. Self-Publishing Trade-offs
Economics and Challenges of Self-Publishing
The Art and Nuances of Book Cover Design
Crafting a Compelling and Memorable Book Title
The Critical Role of Book Structure and Table of Contents
Effective Chapter Structure for Nonfiction Books
Strategic Editing for Reader Engagement and Retention
Understanding Book Sales Percentiles and Reality
Navigating Compliments, Criticism, and Emotional Impact
The Complexities of Hitting the New York Times Bestseller List
Leveraging AI in the Writing and Production Process
Effective Marketing Strategies for Authors: Pre-Launch and Launch
Creating Evergreen Content and Post-Launch Engagement
Qualities of a Shareable and Enduring Book
Innovation in Book Creation and Category Design
5 Key Concepts
Writing for One Reader
The most powerful and interesting books are written with one or two specific, real people in mind, rather than a general audience. This approach, paradoxically, tends to help the book reach a much wider audience because it feels more personal and relevant.
Author as the Book
For prescriptive nonfiction, authors must embody the transformation or knowledge they are trying to codify into a book. They should write from a place of having already become or grown into the subject, rather than writing as if they are still becoming that person.
Curse of Knowledge
Authors, due to their expertise, often struggle to meet readers where they are. What seems remarkable to the author might be confusing to the reader, and what the author finds boring or trite might be fascinating to the target audience.
Book as Software
Treating a book like software means being willing to revise and update it based on reader feedback, similar to how software is released in versions. This allows authors to address negative reviews and continuously improve the product over time.
Category Design
This involves creating or revitalizing a niche or genre for a book, making it stand out as a unique and novel offering. Successfully designing a category can lead to a 'winner-take-all' scenario where the book dominates its new space.
10 Questions Answered
The most effective way is to write for one or two specific, real people, focusing on their questions and challenges. This paradoxically makes the content more relatable and interesting to a wider readership.
Authors should teach the core concepts in real-time, ideally having coached or helped at least three people achieve the transformation the book aims for. They can also show their table of contents to target readers to gauge interest and identify areas of confusion or disinterest.
Traditional publishing is generally recommended if an author can secure an advance of $100,000 or more, as this indicates the publisher has enough skin in the game to invest significantly in the book's success and distribution.
A great book cover is iconic, bold, and differentiated, instantly communicating the book's essence and compelling the target reader to pick it up. It should align with the book's story and evoke the right feelings from the intended audience.
Book structure is critically important and should be solidified as the table of contents before writing a single word. It acts as the foundation, guiding the reader from 'zero to hero' through clear milestones and sub-steps.
Authors should allocate 100% of their editing time to the front of the book, specifically the introduction and the first chapter. This is crucial for hooking readers and ensuring high retention, as most readers drop off early.
Most books sell less than 1,000 copies over their lifetime, placing them below the 90th percentile. Selling 10,000 copies is a significant achievement, and 100,000 copies puts a book in the 98th-99th percentile of all books ever published.
Hitting the New York Times list is complex and involves selling a high volume of copies (e.g., 10,000-20,000 in a week), distributed geographically, with a certain percentage being e-books that are actually read. It's an editorial product, influenced by various factors beyond pure sales, including traditional PR and social engagement.
AI is excellent for idea generation, structuring suggestions, and cleaning up transcripts from conversational inputs. It can significantly speed up the first draft process by transforming spoken words into structured text, but it is not a good writer for entire books.
Shareable books often visibly transform the reader in a way others notice, tap into a cultural 'zeitgeist' with a contrarian message rooted in timeless concepts, and are authored by someone who genuinely embodies the book's message rather than projecting a false persona.
44 Actionable Insights
1. Write for Specific Readers
Address your book to one or two real people, or even yourself, rather than a general audience. This approach makes the content more powerful and interesting, paradoxically leading to a wider reach.
2. Solidify Table of Contents First
Do not write a single word of your book until you have a solidified Table of Contents. This structure acts as the foundation, mapping the exact steps and milestones to guide your target reader from ‘zero to hero’ and making the writing process significantly easier.
3. Test Table of Contents with Readers
Before writing, present your Table of Contents to real target readers and ask for feedback on which sections are ‘hell yes,’ ’eh,’ or ’not relevant.’ This data validates your structure, ensures it meets reader needs, and removes guesswork from the writing process.
4. Embody Your Book’s Message
Become the embodiment of your book’s message before writing it, speaking from a place of having already achieved the transformation you describe. This authenticity prevents projecting a false bravado and resonates more deeply with readers.
5. Write for Lower Expertise Levels
Target readers who are on lower rungs of expertise than yourself, aiming to pull them up to your level. Writing for peers or those above you will not create a good book, as you cannot push someone further than you have gone yourself.
6. Front-Load Best Content
Allocate a significant portion of your editing time to the first 50 pages, ensuring the introduction and Chapter 1 contain your most compelling stories and impactful messages. This strategy maximizes reader engagement and retention, as many readers drop off early.
7. Prioritize Practicality Over Theory
Avoid burying your best content or starting with extensive historical theory; instead, front-load your book with practical, actionable insights. Readers are often busy and looking for immediate solutions, so ‘hit them with your best stuff right here’.
8. Craft Emotionally Resonant Titles
Focus on creating a book title that evokes curiosity, FOMO, or other strong emotional reactions, making it easy to remember and recommend. This is the most critical marketing decision as word-of-mouth drives sales for most successful books.
9. Design Fun, Memorable Titles
Create titles that are fun, easy, and memorable to say, almost a ’tip of the tongue’ phrase that gets triggered regularly in conversation. This conversational ease is crucial for driving word-of-mouth recommendations.
10. Test Titles for Conversational Impact
Before finalizing a title, test it by saying it aloud and observing people’s reactions to ensure it sounds natural and appealing when recommended. A title should not be embarrassing to say, as this can hinder recommendations.
11. Systematically Test Book Titles
Employ multiple methods for title testing, such as Google Ads for click-through rates, identifying ‘unlock phrases’ used with clients, scoring titles against criteria (FOMO, memorability), using AI tools, and utilizing platforms like PickFu.com for audience polling and feedback.
12. Align Title with Reader Expectations
Analyze feedback from title tests (e.g., PickFu) to ensure your chosen title accurately sets reader expectations for the book’s content. Misaligned expectations can lead to negative reviews, even if the book is otherwise good.
13. Hire Specialist Cover Designer
Invest in a professional book cover designer who specializes in covers, rather than a general designer or cheap service. A bold, iconic cover is a direct representation of the book’s quality and instantly communicates its message, compelling readers to pick it up.
14. Create Iconic, Bold Covers
Strive for iconic, bold, and differentiated book covers that claim the most courageous visual representation possible. While genre guidelines are helpful, avoid making your cover too derivative, as it will blend into the sea of other books.
15. Get Real-Time Reader Feedback
Engage with clients or an online audience to intimately understand their questions, challenges, and obstacles. Then, observe their struggles and successes firsthand to ensure your book effectively addresses their needs and provides tangible transformation.
16. Teach Transformation First
Before writing your book, ideally, you should have coached, consulted, or helped at least three people achieve the transformation you plan to codify. This ensures your methods are proven and effective, providing a solid foundation for your content.
17. Co-Create Structure with Readers
Engage in an interactive, communal process of producing your book’s structure with readers to overcome the ‘curse of knowledge.’ Your expertise can make what’s remarkable to you confusing or boring to your target audience, so reader input is vital.
18. Adopt Collaborative Content Development
Emulate Brene Brown’s style by presenting your talking points or ideas to a trusted group for feedback and discussion. This collaborative approach helps refine your content and ensures it resonates with your audience before formal writing.
19. Follow Formulaic Chapter Structure
When writing prescriptive nonfiction, lean into a formulaic chapter structure: hook, thesis, body, key takeaways, and a segue to the next chapter. This consistent framework provides clarity and makes the content easier to process.
20. Leverage AI for Structure & Transcripts
Utilize AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude on the backend to efficiently clean up transcripts and structure content, especially after over-indexing on structure. This can produce first drafts significantly faster without direct interfacing.
21. Speak Content, AI Transcribes
Overcome writer’s block, imposter syndrome, and perfectionism by speaking your content conversationally, which is eight times faster than typing. Then, use AI to clean up and structure these transcripts, retaining your original words for efficient content creation.
22. Have AI Generate Prompts
Instead of manually crafting prompts, ask AI to ‘give me the ideal prompt that will achieve this outcome,’ as AI is often better at communicating with itself. Regularly experiment with AI to discover its full capabilities and enhance your workflow.
23. Involve Readers as Co-Creators
Avoid surprising your audience with a sudden book launch by continuously engaging them throughout the writing process. Letting them feel like co-creators builds emotional investment, making promotion easier and more natural.
24. Build Anticipation Throughout Process
Regularly share updates, ask for feedback on surveys (e.g., pain points, questions), title concepts, or cover designs, and even share struggles. This creates a ‘buildup of anticipation’ and makes readers feel part of the journey, like movie studios do.
25. Utilize Beta Reader Services
Upload chapters or full manuscripts to platforms like helpthisbook.com to gather clear data on reader confusion, value, and drop-off points. This service also allows you to test multiple cover concepts with your audience.
26. Foster Community for Pre-Launch
Deeply involve your community during the book’s creation so they feel invested and excited. This engagement leads to natural word-of-mouth and purchases during the pre-launch phase, making promotion effortless.
27. Optimize Sales with Bundled Offers
Leverage the two highest conversion windows (book announcement and live launch) by packaging multiple book purchases with existing valuable services or products, such as coaching calls. This strategy facilitates selling a lot of books at once.
28. Treat Launch Week as Celebration
If you are self-published and not chasing bestseller lists, aim to hit your sales goals during pre-launch so that launch week can be a stress-free ‘victory lap’ and a celebration of your significant achievement.
29. Aim for 1% Review Rate
During launch week, prioritize accumulating reviews, aiming for 1% of copies sold, as this establishes a strong foundation for the book’s long-term conversion success and visibility.
30. Create Value-Driven Email Sequence
Develop an automated post-launch email series that delivers standalone value and quick wins from your book, subtly mentioning its origin and encouraging reviews. This approach converts readers and drives sales without being overbearing.
31. Provide Visible Reader Transformations
For a book to be enduring and highly shareable, it must offer a quick, tangible transformation that is noticeable to others, prompting discussion and recommendations, similar to how successful diet books gain traction.
32. Balance Timely & Timeless Content
Ensure your book addresses a current, relevant issue (timely) while being rooted in timeless concepts. This balance prevents sales from crashing down after a topical moment passes, ensuring lasting impact.
33. Align Message with Zeitgeist
Create a shareable book by addressing a prevalent societal issue (zeitgeist) with a contrarian, unexpected, or revitalized timeless message. Mark Manson’s ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’ is an example of hitting a perfect time with a relevant message.
34. Be Authentic in Your Message
Avoid projecting a false bravado or acting like someone you’re not in your writing, as readers have ‘BS detectors’ and will discount content that doesn’t feel authentic or human. Authenticity builds credibility and connection.
35. Create or Revitalize a Category
Emulate Ryan Holiday by identifying a dead or obscure topic (like Stoicism) and revitalizing it, effectively creating a new category for your book to dominate. This ‘blue ocean’ strategy can lead to a ‘winner take all scenario’.
36. Experiment Publicly, Then Drill
Treat category creation and positioning like title generation: experiment in public, observe what resonates, and once a successful ‘oil well’ is found, focus on drilling deeper into that area. This iterative approach leads to ultimate success.
37. Seek Substantial Publisher Advance
If considering traditional publishing, aim for an advance of $100,000 or more (adjusted for audience size). A significant advance indicates the publisher has enough ‘skin in the game’ to seriously invest in your book’s success.
38. Invest in Self-Published Quality
For self-published authors, invest in making the best possible product, as most people ‘screw up self-publishing.’ High-quality production is crucial for standing out and competing effectively in the market.
39. Be Aware of Self-Publishing Pitfalls
Recognize that self-publishing, especially for first-time authors, carries a higher likelihood of ‘stepping on a landmine’ that hurts your book’s success. Traditional publishers, despite their flaws, offer a more structured process.
40. Iterate Book Like Software
Consider continuously revising your book based on negative reviews and reader feedback, much like Hal Elrod did with ‘The Miracle Morning.’ This iterative approach, though not for most, can significantly improve a book over time and achieve long-term success.
41. Aim for 1,000 Copies Sold
Focus on selling at least 1,000 copies of your book, as this places you in the 90th percentile of all books ever published. This threshold is achievable by following the right sequence of actions.
42. Prioritize Integrity Over Manipulation
When publishers suggest tactics to hit bestseller lists, reject those that make you uncomfortable or feel low-integrity. Such actions could be detrimental to an editorialized list’s perception and your personal brand.
43. Write to Serve, Not Chase Lists
Focus on creating the most helpful and impactful book possible for your audience, viewing bestseller lists as a potential byproduct rather than the primary goal. Chasing lists doesn’t guarantee sustained visibility or reach.
44. Re-read ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’
Consider revisiting ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ for insights on motivation and the balance between positive reinforcement and criticism. Continuous negativity can cease to be effective in fostering growth.
5 Key Quotes
The title is the most important marketing decision the author can make for the book because virtually all books that sell more than 10,000 copies are driven by word of mouth.
Charlie Hoehn
In order to write a great book, you must first become the book.
Naval Ravikant (quoted by Charlie Hoehn)
The best books are written for one or two real people on the other end.
Charlie Hoehn
What is remarkable to you is confusing to who you're trying to reach. And what's boring and trite to you is fascinating to who you're trying to reach.
Charlie Hoehn
If you can live your life without being famous, you should. I think if you can write and publish a book without chasing a New York Times bestseller list or any list, you should.
Charlie Hoehn
4 Protocols
Book Title Testing Process
Charlie Hoehn- Develop a list of title ideas (30-50 ideas, including bad ones).
- Test title ideas using Google Ads to see which has the highest click-through rate (as Tim Ferriss did).
- Alternatively, identify phrases constantly used with clients that act as an 'unlock phrase' for them.
- Rate title ideas against criteria like FOMO, fun to say, and memorability (e.g., on a scale of 1-10) and use an AI tool (like a custom GPT book title scorer) to get a preliminary score.
- Use a platform like PickFu.com to conduct quick audience testing and polling, gathering feedback on why titles are liked or disliked.
- Analyze the feedback to ensure the title sets the correct expectations for the book's content, preventing negative reviews due to unmet expectations.
Nonfiction Book Structure Development
Charlie Hoehn- Do not write a single word until the table of contents is solidified, as it forms the foundation of the book.
- Frame the table of contents around taking the target reader from 'zero to hero,' identifying the exact steps for their transformation.
- Divide the book into 2-4 major parts (often 3), representing big milestones in the reader's journey.
- Within each part, outline sub-steps or questions the reader will have during those phases.
- Spend time talking to real target readers, showing them the table of contents before writing, and asking which sections are a 'hell yes,' 'eh,' or 'not relevant' to gather early data.
- Co-create the structure with feedback, avoiding isolation to ensure it meets reader needs and avoids the 'curse of knowledge.'
Effective Chapter Structure for Prescriptive Nonfiction
Charlie Hoehn- Start with a Hook: Something that immediately grabs the reader's attention, usually a story or a bold, novel statement.
- Present the Thesis: Clearly state what the chapter will cover or the main point it aims to make.
- Develop the Body: This is the core of the chapter, elaborating on all the points and arguments.
- Provide Key Takeaways: Summarize the main lessons or actionable insights from the chapter.
- Include a Segue: Transition smoothly into the next chapter, hinting at what's to come to maintain engagement.
Evergreen Post-Launch Marketing System
Charlie Hoehn- Set a goal for reviews during launch week (e.g., 1% of copies sold) to lay a foundation for future conversions.
- Set up an automated email sequence that delivers actual value from the book, structured as standalone content (e.g., a 10-day series of quick wins for a specific problem).
- Restructure parts of the book's content for the email sequence to prioritize the quickest wins first.
- Mention in each email that the content is excerpted from the book.
- Subtly encourage readers to grab a copy of the book if the content was helpful, and ask for a review (e.g., every third email).
- Add this automated sequence to relevant blog posts or content that performs well, continuously introducing new readers to the book's value.