The Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday

[Gigi Rodgers]

Has anyone else started, or finished, reading The Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday?
It's flippin' brilliant, and it's restructuring my mindset of how I approach my projects.

The premise of the book is to not just create good work, but to create "classics".
Touching on timeless stories, or aspects of life, that don't change over time.
By integrating those elements to your project - whatever it is - you'll be going for work that is referenced 10, 20, 30+ years from now, than work that is a flash in the pan.

A modern-day example that comes to mind is Lilly Singh aka Superwoman, from YouTube.
Her content is GOLD.
12M subscribers. A Book Deal with a World Tour. Brand Deals. Major collaborations. And was YouTube's top earner in 2016.

She talks about the same, every day annoyances and realities we ALL go through - especially us ladies.
"Types of Enemies"
"How Girls Fight"
"Crazy Things Girls Expect in Relationships"
"Types of People at Airports"
"5 Things Guys Do That Girls Love"

If I was to ever have a YouTube channel, I would model it off of her style b/c it's effin' CLASSIC!
And these subjects are not going to change for hundreds of years.
That, in my opinion, is one of the reasons she's KILLING the YouTube game right now.

That...and, consistency, the fact she's hilarious, and that she's been doing this for YEARS.

But back to it....
The book is written from a writers POV, but the same thinking can be applied towards any creative project.

Comment below if you're reading this book, or have already finished, and what you plan on doing with this newfound knowledge.

 

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[Mineralogic]

Has anyone else started, or finished, reading The Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday?
It's flippin' brilliant, and it's restructuring my mindset of how I approach my projects.

The premise of the book is to not just create good work, but to create "classics".
Touching on timeless stories, or aspects of life, that don't change over time.
By integrating those elements to your project - whatever it is - you'll be going for work that is referenced 10, 20, 30+ years from now, than work that is a flash in the pan.

A modern-day example that comes to mind is Lilly Singh aka Superwoman, from YouTube.
Her content is GOLD.
12M subscribers. A Book Deal with a World Tour. Brand Deals. Major collaborations. And was YouTube's top earner in 2016.

She talks about the same, every day annoyances and realities we ALL go through - especially us ladies.
"Types of Enemies"
"How Girls Fight"
"Crazy Things Girls Expect in Relationships"
"Types of People at Airports"
"5 Things Guys Do That Girls Love"

If I was to ever have a YouTube channel, I would model it off of her style b/c it's effin' CLASSIC!
And these subjects are not going to change for hundreds of years.
That, in my opinion, is one of the reasons she's KILLING the YouTube game right now.

That...and, consistency, the fact she's hilarious, and that she's been doing this for YEARS.

But back to it....
The book is written from a writers POV, but the same thinking can be applied towards any creative project.

Comment below if you're reading this book, or have already finished, and what you plan on doing with this newfound knowledge.

haven't liked 1 book of his yet I've read...sure thing

 

[TheSmokey1]

I have not read it, but i'll check it out now. I did like The Obstacle is the Way. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[McFirewavesJr]

I didn't finish Trust Me I'm Lying... I felt it should have been a pamphlet instead of a book. Made me dislike the author automatically.

 

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[Gigi Rodgers]

I didn't finish Trust Me I'm Lying... I felt it should have been a pamphlet instead of a book. Made me dislike the author automatically.

Interestingly enough, you'll see that playbook being used a LOT these days. And it's working (e.g., milo yiannopoulos)
He talks about how these tactics could be used for good purposes, but he points out that usually they're practiced by the more...apathetic.

 

[Gigi Rodgers]

I have not read it, but i'll check it out now. I did like The Obstacle is the Way. Thanks for the recommendation.

I dug the "Obstacle is the Way" too.
I'm a huge fan of his and Robert Greene's books - obviously.

 

[Sean Kaye]

I agree - I find his books unnecessarily verbose without ever getting to the point.

 

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[Christopher777]

It's on my reading list and definitely relevant. I'll get back to you on this Gigi.

 

[Gigi Rodgers]

It's on my reading list and definitely relevant. I'll get back to you on this Gigi.

Yeah, please do.

 

[cutthroughstatic]

Just finished it. Pretty good. Some decent insights. Wish he offered more examples to back up some of his claims. Not that I don't believe him, but it would have been more interesting had he dug deeper into what made the real classics successful. Rather than share a bunch of marketing tricks etc. that have worked for him on his books. Not that he's not successful, but Perennial Seller implies more success than what he's achieved...

Anyway, not exactly what I expected but worth the read anyway. A lot of actionable advice for many businesses, not just publishing.

 

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[Gigi Rodgers]

Just finished it. Pretty good. Some decent insights. Wish he offered more examples to back up some of his claims. Not that I don't believe him, but it would have been more interesting had he dug deeper into what made the real classics successful. Rather than share a bunch of marketing tricks etc. that have worked for him on his books. Not that he's not successful, but Perennial Seller implies more success than what he's achieved...

Anyway, not exactly what I expected but worth the read anyway. A lot of actionable advice for many businesses, not just publishing.

I'm about half way through the book and from what I can gather, and I said this above using Lilly Singh as the example - what it sounds like a classic is, is the subject matter and hyper-focusing on that 'human element'.

So, as another example, in the content marketing world right now - a lot of marketers and writers are switching their mindset on the type of content they produce. It used to be about listicles, and phony roundups, and mirage content or fluff content. It's generalized BS.

But some smart cookies in the industry realized that, that's not effective for long term growth.

So now everyone is shifting to "10X content" - meaning that they will spend 10X more time writing pieces that give INSIGHT into questions that readers WILL deal within their industry/lives.
So these articles and insights become THEE resource on that subject.

That's why the 2 guys behind Grow & Convert are KILLING IT right now. They just don't talk tactics, they talk STRATEGY.
And there's a difference.

From now till the end of time, people will ALWAYS take strategy over tactics.
Thus creating a 'classic' read that people can reference 5-10+ years from now.

Think '48 Laws of Power' by Robert Greene.
He just doesn't list out the 48 laws and call it a day.
He tells a story about the strategy.
What went right and what went wrong.
What to do and what to avoid.

And he used famous figures (we've mostly all heard of) throughout history, to demonstrate them too. Nice touch.

Think of Will Smith's CLASSIC HIT "Summertime".
He talks about the vibe and activities that happen to EVERYONE in America during the Summer.
Classic moments and feelings everyone goes through during the Summer - from back in the day to today to 20+ years from now.
There is a reason it has been dubbed the "Summer Anthem".

And as far as the marketing Ryan talks about in the book - I'm biased.
I love it.

 

[JoshA]

Ryan Holiday is definitely one of my top authors. Perennial Seller was pretty good. I still prefer "The Obstacle is the Way" and "Ego is the Enemy" and "Trust me, I'm lying" for insight to social marketing.

 

[Andy Black]

I've only read The Obstacle is The Way. I really enjoyed all the little historical stories.

 

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[Digamma]

I read it. It was a good book, with some good ideas especially in the marketing section.

 

[JoshA]

I read it. It was a good book, with some good ideas especially in the marketing section.

What did you think of his first book: "Trust me, I'm lying: Confessions of a media manipulator?"

 

[JoshA]

I didn't finish Trust Me I'm Lying... I felt it should have been a pamphlet instead of a book. Made me dislike the author automatically.

Really? Maybe because it was my first foray into social media marketing, it was a real eye opener. If you already know all the dirty secrets, I guess it would be a boring read.

 

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[Digamma]

What did you think of his first book: "Trust me, I'm lying: Confessions of a media manipulator?"

You know, I just checked, and I didn't read it. I thought I did, but it turns out I read Growth Hacker Marketing (which I found basic, but then again I'm not the target market) and thought it was that one. I will remedy that soon. It's actually funny, since it was the first book I bought of his, and how I discovered Holiday - it just got into the "to read one day" pile.
I liked Ego Is The Enemy and The Obstacle Is The Way. The first had interesting historical tidbits. TOITW is a bit obvious for people who have read the stoics, but it's a good read anyway.

 

[Gigi Rodgers]

I read it. It was a good book, with some good ideas especially in the marketing section.

Agreed.
Especially about the part about the little "stunts" that him or his clients did to get media attention or get that initial traction.
And how big players, even Google, do that to this day - if not everyday. Clever AF.

I wonder what the brainstorming meetings are like?...

 

[McFirewavesJr]

Really? Maybe because it was my first foray into social media marketing, it was a real eye opener. If you already know all the dirty secrets, I guess it would be a boring read.

It sure was interesting and eye opening, but it could have been a 7 minutes YT video instead of a full book. Take The Millionaire Fastlane for example... There is SO MUCH valuable information in that book that I have to read it over and over to absorb everything. When you read TMF , you feel like MJ actually had to work real hard to pack so much info in a single book. On the other hand, you read TMIL and get the feel like Holiday spent weeks pumping up filling material in order to get to a certain number of pages.

 

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