I'm a complete and utter beginner. A total noob. I have no ratings, next to no followers, and no idea. All I have are some books I've written (a product) that I think are great, but are ill-suited to a traditional publishing market. I've spent my entire life in the medical sciences, from micro labs to emergency rooms, psych wards, residency...
I can't fill out my taxes without help, you think I'm going to effectively market and indie sci fi novel? Goodnight.
If you're like me, and I suspect some of you trolling Goodreads are, you're frustrated, pissed, tired, broke, and running out of time in your life to make an impact with whatever product you think you've got to make humanity's collective day better.
This book is not a how-to manual. Go to something more like "Your first 1000 copies" for that kind of work. This is a "Calm down and market on" memoiresque shoulder clap. Holiday basically takes all the self-defeatist things we've all said after our 100th Tweet has resulted in exactly 16 followers and says, "No. These other guys did it. Here's some of the reasons why they made it, and you're not. Now go change."
The most helpful chapter, to me, came at the end when he describes his own book launch scenario. While I felt that Holiday and his client definitely got to "move up to the red tee" on a lot of points, it provided me, a total and utter newbie, some conceptual framework to just start with. I've already made several philosophical changes to the way I approach my two small business, and in one of them, I'm seeing results. You guys make fun of the TV ad, celebrity and billboard throw out spiel? Yeah, my company was seriously considering all of those things and could've sank ourselves financially in them out of ignorance. Now I'm rolling down the interstate laughing at my main competitor as I rack up more new leads, more followers, more views, and more likes. Oh yeah, and more income.
Like I said, this is not a "How to" manual that's going to crack deep, dark secrets of how to make a million bucks tonight using Facebook, it's a "How to think" manual for people who have just suddenly been dumped into this career path, possibly mid-life, and need to do some neurological re-wiring.
It's simple, it's optimistic. Some us need that.