What Turned a Viral Video Into a Bestseller (And What Most Authors Miss)

A TikTok video goes viral, an author's story explodes across the Internet. But here's the twist. That moment would have meant almost nothing if he hadn't been set up to sell. Is your book ready for the spotlight? If you're wondering whether or not it is and what exactly that means, well, this video is for you.

Hi, I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and your host here at Book Launchers tv. Book Launchers, by the way, is your first choice for all things related to writing, publishing, and promoting nonfiction books. People always ask me who our most successful clients are, and generally I decline to answer because success is relevant to that person. If you're wanting to leave a legacy for your family and you produce a great book that accurately captures the history of your family, you've succeeded. If you wanted to top the USA Today bestseller list like Imani Roberts did, high five, my friend. Then he succeeded. Success is a funny thing, though. It's relevant to the person, and this is a big one. It's also specific to the author and what they do to set themselves up for success. Sure, we help with that, with what we do at Book Launchers, but an author's success is, well, generally their success. Now, all that said, I do have to tell you about one author's mega success and our pride in being a part of that. Jonathan Stanley is one of our clients. His book signing at Barnes and Noble went HyperViral. What's HyperViral? 100 million plus views. And his book topped so many charts, we can't even count. He was on Good Morning America, the Today show, People magazine interviewed him. I mean, name a media outlet, and he was probably on it. And agents and publishers and producers were all calling. And at Book Launchers, we couldn't have been happier because he is truly one of the nicest humans. And he wrote his book with an important purpose. He wants to make work better for everyone by helping leaders align with their teams around an authentic purpose. But he'll be the first to tell you that if he was not set up for success with an excellent book, this would have died as fast as it started. But it hasn't. So if you want to be ready when the spotlight comes to you, here are the five key things Jonathan had in place and every author should put in place to succeed with their book. Number one, a professionally packaged book. Now, this is where my team comes in and why I cry a little on the inside when someone says I can just hire a cheaper editor and then bring my book to you. For marketing, right? Yeah, I guess you can. And if you really have no budget for making your book the best it can be, well, do what you have to do. But realize that massive worldwide success like what Jonathan is experiencing happened because the fundamentals were strongly in place. We worked with him on a strategic foundation for his book, including developing and refining his hook, creating a market aligned title. We spent time on this with him and the results show. Then with that the book was carefully edited several times to position it for the reader. The concept was further polished and then we helped with the COVID and interior design. It wasn't just a great book, it was a marketable book that people wanted to read and recommend. And while the world wasn't watching, his book won a ton of book awards and he even swept the outstanding creator awards, taking home a bunch of bunch of best in category wins in that award. In other words, this was not just a book, it was an excellent and well positioned read. Number two, a strong author brand presence. Now Jonathan wasn't Even active on TikTok when this happened, but he was online. He'd been developing a LinkedIn presence. He had an author website live with professional author headshots and bio. When people found him online, his social media accounts and aligned with his message. When media came calling or people googled him, they landed on a polished brand, not a blank page or mixed messages. This is also strategic and something we spent time with him on while the book was going through editing. We spend time on author branding and book positioning and that matters a lot when major national TV networks are considering interviewing you or a publisher is wondering whether they want to give you a huge offer. Number three, a media kit plus talking points ready to rock. Imagine you suddenly are getting called to go on every major network around the country to be interviewed about your book and your experience as an author. Are you ready? Sometimes it happens so fast you don't have time to get ready. So you need to already be ready. For our clients we create media kits and speaker one sheets. We work with them to prepare sound bites and we also put our clients on podcast interviews really early on we which are great practice sessions for honing your message. When you have 15 minutes of fame, you need five minutes of pitch ready professionalism ready to go. Number four, back end systems to capture sales and leads. Now every one of these kind of moments is different for Jonathan. He saw a massive spike in sales on Amazon in particular after this happened. But your moment could have people flooding your website or hitting up a local bookstore. Are you set up properly Everywhere books are sold and is your book linked up on Amazon IngramSpark and your website ready to sell books or capture leads? Imagine 10,000 people are suddenly checking you out. Are you ready? Without those things, a viral moment just passes you by. Thankfully, Jonathan was ready to catch that wave. Number five, an attitude of gratitude and ready for action. Figure small. Jonathan has shown up at every interview grateful for the support, the exposure and the impact he can have. He has not taken any comment or interaction for granted. And there have been thousands and thousands. And it all started from a book signing. He was just doing what you need to do as an author to continue to get the word out. And book signings, by the way, they look cool, but they're not super fun. People ask you where the cookbook section is, where the bathrooms are. He went home from this particular book signing, telling his wife he was happy because he sold 12 books and and he met a little girl that made his day. He was grateful. Now, little did he know that the magic of a video that that little girl and her mom filmed while they were there was unfolding and that interaction was going to become something everybody would see. But being grateful is incredibly powerful. And I know days are busy and it's easy to feel disappointed that you didn't sell more books or get on a bigger stage or have a larger podcast. But something I carry with me every day is it's a privilege to have an audience. Jonathan sold thousands and thousands of books after that viral video. He got interviews, he built momentum. Last I checked, he had like 275, five star reviews on Amazon. And it's easy to think it's only because of the viral TikTok video, but none of that really would have happened without the foundation already in place. And by the way, it's not enough to hope for a viral moment or dream of big media. You have to be set up so when that moment comes, you will actually sell. And that's what we do every day at Book Launchers. From positioning and professional design to media kits and marketing plans, we help you create a book that's ready to go big. If you want help with your book project, let's chat. Book launchers.com apply and if your book is already out, we have packages to support you. A fabulous community with resources that has office hours, with one on one support with myself and my team and and we also have brand new in 2025, the Author Launch Kit software. Visit book launchers.com to find out more and subscribe to the video. Comment below. And I'LL see you again soon.