Publishing is a unique industry that combines both creativity and structure. It’s a place where important information gets communicated and dreams come true. A well-crafted book can establish a brand and set an entrepreneur apart from the competition. No one understands the power of storytelling better than Rory Carruthers, who, along with his wife, runs a boutique book development company that specializes in producing high-quality, nonfiction books in coordination with clients using a no-fail, time-honed system.
In this engaging interview, Rory shares with us his journey from start-up to world-renowned master of his craft and the challenges he has had to overcome along the way. Rory dispels the myth that it was all “easy” and emphasizes that the coordination of various people and forces in his life helped him get to where he is today. Drawing a parallel between his journey and the book writing process, the reader recognizes a pattern where continuous improvement and collaboration with people from different backgrounds and with completely different expertise can fuse to produce bestselling, informative books.
Rory recalls taking the road less traveled and reveals how this has influenced his process and outlook on life. Empowering others to write impactful bestselling publications is not only an exercise in creating information but also a process of transformation, especially for the businesses involved. In this discussion on publishing a book’s impact on your bottom line, Rory discusses how expertly crafted books can be a game changer.
Of course, no conversation about publishing in today’s world would be complete without a detour into the world of AI, and Rory offers us his compelling (and convincing) insights on why AI may not be the best path forward for your creative work.
Rory, we talked about your career in books and publishing a few years ago. Start by telling us what you have been up to since then.
My wife, Carly, and I own a boutique book development and publishing company that exclusively focuses on helping business owners create high-quality, non-fiction business books without having to write them themselves. Using our process, The Bestseller Method (BSM), our clients launch their books to become #1 International Bestsellers and develop a marketing system using their book that brings them new customers daily.
I wrote the book The Bestseller Method: Become a Bestselling Author, Leverage Massive Credibility, and Skyrocket Your Sales five years ago, which shares with readers the same process we use with our clients. Over the previous decade, we’ve proven this method works time and time again, no matter the industry, location, or circumstances. It works because it’s based on fundamental human psychology. BSM leverages credibility, authority, trust, expertise, uniqueness, status, proof, and celebrity. It taps into biases in our minds that allow our clients to be seen as the only person or company to hire.
Three years ago, we created The Bestseller Method Mentorship online coaching program. Everything we do in our done-for-you agency has been distilled into a 90-day program that goes step-by-step through our book development, launch, and marketing process. Our coaches provide feedback to members at every stage of the process, which helps us maintain our high-quality standards, even though we aren’t writing the books for them. The BSM team spends several hours on live coaching calls with members each week. Our main focus is making this mentorship program world-class. It’s how we can help the most people while maintaining our agency’s standards.
We also own several other companies, including software, sales copywriting, advanced marketing consulting, and an independent record label. Still, books are where we spend most of our time because they are the most rewarding for us and our clients.
Rory, you’re regarded as the world’s top bestselling business book developer. How did that come to be?
When I was 18, I created a list of things I wanted to be and titles I wanted to have. A hit songwriter was on that list, as well as being a bestselling author and a doctor. I kept thinking about how having credible titles would open doors for me. If I could figure out how to get the title, everything else would fall into place. (I’ve got two out of three so far and the third is becoming a reality later this year!)
My big struggle early in my business ventures was selling. I’d get on sales calls, and the conversations were a struggle. Like so many new business owners, I felt like selling was forcing people to do what they didn’t want to do. I kept running into situations where I had to defend my lack of credibility to the prospects. “Why should I hire you?” was a common phrase.
Something not many people know about me is that I’ve had seven concussions. Sometimes, it makes it hard for me to remember and get out the exact sales language when speaking. I remember the concepts but can stumble on the specific words. Because of this, I avoided sales as much as possible, but I also knew there had to be a better way. A lot of trial and error brought me back to the idea of the titles I wanted when I was younger. I started noticing how a few business owners utilized credibility factors such as bestseller status and getting media features. I had no idea how to become a bestselling author or get featured in the media, but I set out to solve that problem.
I started by contributing a chapter to a bestselling book about perseverance. It felt great to share my insights and experiences through writing, but it wasn’t until I wrote my own book that things really took off. Having my own book, bestseller status, media features, and a system for turning readers into clients made all the difference for me.
Selling became easy because I pre-positioned myself using my book, bestseller status, and media features. I developed a simple 3-step process where the book does all the work before the sales call. My authority is established, my credibility is solid, and my expertise is undeniable.
When I had this breakthrough for my business, others started to take notice and wanted to learn how I could write multiple bestselling books that propelled my business forward. I began consulting authors, business owners, and publishing companies on how to run successful book launches. I was happy to share because I wanted others to experience the same sea-parting effect.
I definitely took the road less traveled to get here. I’ve always been particular, as my friends and family like to put it. That particularness is foundationally who I am, so when I created our company, I created a list of standards that meet my particularities. That list quickly became a full-fledged system for going from a spark of an idea for a book to the top of the bestseller lists and acquiring hundreds of new customers daily. Thus, The Bestseller Method was born.
We provide VIP-level products and services. By being boutique, our quality level is kept to the highest standards. I obsess about every aspect of what we do. I am continually improving what we offer and our process to get our clients better results year after year. There is no complacency. My wife, our team, and I are constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible, and that drive to create excellence has kept us at the top.
You previously talked about how writing a book can double a person’s or company’s business. Are books still capable of doubling business, or has that changed?
Since we previously talked, we are now seeing businesses more than double when using the BSM process. There’s been a lot of new competition in the business world over the past few years. Many people transitioned from working jobs to creating new businesses. There was a 53% increase in new businesses from 2019 to 2022 and continues to hold steady since. That amount of competition means you need a system strategically positioning yourself as the market leader. Just any old book won’t cut it these days. E-books, short PDF books, interactive digital books, pocketbooks, minimum viable books, and AI-generated books, we see these fail time and time again. They tend to lack any real value. They don’t hold any authority or positioning weight in the eyes of consumers. They usually can’t or don’t become bestsellers, so the credibility is missing. The trust factor is diminished because the content isn’t designed to create transformation in the reader.
Most of these books are just thinly veiled pitches, and people won’t put up with a book being a pitch for your other products and services. There is a right way and many wrong ways to let people know about your other products and services, and almost all books get it wrong. People are craving authenticity and quality. The real winners are the ones who bring their own unique voice, message, and system to the market.
One of our main focuses is taking people from passive to active readers. The book is the gateway to your business. When readers get a quick win from reading your book, they are much more likely to want to work with you in an additional, and usually higher priced, capacity. Without those quick wins from the book, they never get to the point of trusting that what you say works for them and, as a result, don’t buy anything else from you. We’ve seen it with too many of our clients to count that this process leads to significantly more business. Usually, it’s double the business, but sometimes it’s triple, quadruple, ten, or even one hundred times more. Our clients have achieved all those benchmarks.
A few years ago, a lot of authors were self-publishing their work. Is self-publishing still a viable way to get a book onto the market?
Self-publishing and traditional publishing both have some upsides and many downsides. We focus on a hybrid strategy where we use the best of both worlds and eliminate as many of the downsides from each as possible.
One of the main concerns about working with a publishing company is that the publishers have all the control and own the copyright. That limits your ability to earn money and control the content and how it is used. In fact, by signing away your rights to your book, you limit your ability to scale your business. You want to avoid this like the plague. Publishing companies also aren’t marketers. They are great at putting out high-quality books, but the little-known secret of the publishing industry is that they leave most of the marketing to the authors.
Self-publishing takes it to the other extreme. You must put in a lot of effort all on your own and take all the financial risk. However, there are some great benefits to self-publishing. There’s value in self-publishing because you maintain control of your content and how you choose to promote your book. You’re not beholden to anyone. That’s a real plus. However, most self-published books are embarrassingly bad because the authors don’t know traditional publishing standards. There’s no team holding their hands the whole way through the writing, launching, and marketing process. The end product tends to be subpar and sometimes can hurt the author’s reputation.
This is why I recommend a hybrid approach. Focus on meeting the traditional publishing standards while at the same time keeping the rights to your book. Have a system to lead readers from your book into your business. Launch your book to bestseller status to leverage credibility, authority, and trust in everything you do in your business.
Some books are being written entirely by AI. What are your thoughts on the role of AI in book writing?
When I first wrote The Bestseller Method, there were little to no discussions about AI for books or business. Now, I’m asked about AI for writing books almost daily. A few years ago, I started sharing all the possibilities of AI for business with our clients. The ability to minimize day-to-day routines and tasks is a huge benefit. Video and audio editing have benefitted massively from AI tools in the last few months. If you have a deep understanding of your industry, avatar, and buyer psychology, then AI has the potential to streamline workflows, reducing the time to get to market.
Many people think AI can replace the work required to write a book, but that’s a mistaken viewpoint. When writing a bestselling book that establishes the author as a key player in their industry, AI lacks the ability to communicate the unique philosophy and processes that authors want to share with readers. A main component of building authority and credibility is showing the world your unique perspective and approach within your niche. AI can only pull from what already exists. It cannot communicate what makes the author unique. In a world where AI is being embedded into everything we do, uniqueness is going to be a major way we stand apart from everyone else.
AI can be helpful for market research, enhancing chapter titles and subtitles, rewording phrases, enhancing clarity, and basic editing. Use AI to speed up the writing process and enhance your work, but don’t mistakenly believe you can rely on it to write your book. AI can’t explain the unique systems and processes you create. AI would never know your personal stories and client experiences. It also cannot recreate your authentic voice, which helps you connect with the reader.
Amazon has just updated its policies stating that all books using any AI-created content must disclose it. The US Copyright Office has the same stance. With either of these, if you violate their policies, you can lose the ability to sell on the biggest online bookstore in the world and also lose the copyright for your whole book. These rules and laws will only get stricter as AI becomes a larger part of society.
In the newly updated version of The Bestseller Method book, I go into much more detail about the hidden dangers of AI and how to use AI to your advantage when writing your book.
Tell us about your training courses and how they impact the lives of members.
If you aren’t working with our done-for-you agency, writing a book can be a lot of work. Writing a book, launching it to be a bestseller, and marketing it takes a lot of thought and skill that business owners don’t always have. However, we entrepreneurs are a resourceful bunch and can find the right systems and people to help us accomplish our goals. Getting feedback at every step of the process is absolutely essential when it comes to writing a book.
Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, says this about writing books: “Sometimes in life, you have to do what you hate. People think I like to write books. I hate writing books, but it fulfills my purpose in life.” For many people, being a professional writer is not their goal. They are experts at what they do in their own business and don’t want to spend years honing the craft of writing. That’s why they come to us. We either do it for them or coach them through the process, giving them expert guidance. This way, a book can fulfill its purpose, but they don’t have to hate the process.
You’re the only data-backed book development company in the world. If someone has already written and published a book, and it hasn’t met their expectations in sales, how can working with you improve their next release?
We have some clients who bring us a completed book, and we rework it to fit the BSM process so that they don’t have to start from scratch completely. We then launch or relaunch their book and ensure their marketing is aligned with BSM principles going forward.
Other clients are ready to move on to their next book. We take them through the BSM process, starting at the very beginning. A BSM book starts with market research: research about current clients, potential clients, the industry, what’s working, what’s not working, etc. We use big data, usually only available to Fortune 100 companies, to gain deep insights into our clients’ customers and markets. Billions of data points and personality insights inform how we craft the content and speak to the reader.
Sometimes, books must be more direct and to the point for certain audiences. For some books, it might be tech and statistic-heavy. For others, it may lean more on emotionally compelling stories. All books have these aspects, but the ratio changes based on what the data tells us about the buyers in that specific market. This way, each book is tailored to the author’s market and speaks directly to the reader as if conversing with a close friend who understands them. The content from the book and this research then informs the marketing. I worked for the last three years to expand this data-backed approach to books, and it has been a game-changer for our clients. The connection created with their audience is instantaneous.
Rory, you’re a top 100 songwriter, producer, and professional musician. How did your music career inform your Bestseller Method process?
It’s surprising how much has translated from music creation to book creation. My mom always points out how I am naturally talented at music and free-flowing creative writing. I picked up a bass guitar and was playing in a band immediately. I leaned on creative writing in school because I struggled with English language rules. I could pass a class based on my ability to write stories. Talent is never enough, though. I had to work hard at both. I can also be obsessive, so when I have a goal, it becomes all-consuming to become great at it.
I developed the skill of writing songs at a fast pace. I learned how to tap into my creative flow at almost any time and nearly instantaneously. That process translated to writing books. I’ve written every one of my books in five days each. Part of that is knowing what I’m writing about. You won’t write a book quickly if you spend months researching and don’t know your topic. I practice being creative daily, so tapping into creative flow has become a habit over the last 26 years since I started playing music in a band in high school. All these creative skills I learned through music inform how I now help people tap into their creative flow to get their content out of their heads and down on paper.
I toured and played professionally for over a decade. Putting together a live show for a band is another example of how music has translated to books. Crafting a show that connects deeply with the audience is an art and a science. When done right, the show takes listeners on a journey, and by the end, they are begging for an encore. The audience goes home feeling like they had a life-changing experience. I use that roadmap to guide our BSM members and clients in creating dynamics within their books. How to start with impact, when to change up patterns, when to make people laugh, when to make them cry, and how to build to a big ending so the readers want more. Those moments within a book make lasting connections with your readers, leading them to want to work with you more closely.
What led you to create the Big Picture Business Podcast? What topics do you cover on the show?
I created the Big Picture Business Podcast with my long-time friend, Dominica Lumazar. I was looking for a way to share all the other business knowledge I’ve experienced in 28 years of running businesses. Dominica and I both realized we look at business from the big picture rather than the day-to-day. Many business owners struggle to focus on the big picture, and we wanted to share how we do that. That was the idea we initially started and expanded into other areas. We cover many business topics such as marketing, branding, leadership, advertising, automation, and some oddball topics such as avoiding scams, life hacks, and copyright infringement. We also feature some amazing business owners who bring unique business strategies to our audience.
What are the key lessons you have learned from writing seven international best-sellers?
I’ve learned from writing my own books and working with thousands of authors that a book is not a business in itself. It also is not the first step to starting a business, rather, it helps grow a business. A bestselling book is a door opener. It gets you the media interview, the meeting, and the new client.
A book is designed to enhance your business model. To make things easier. To scale your business. You don’t make money from just selling books; you make it on the backend of your business.
Another lesson I’ve learned is to focus on marketing a few of my books for several years rather than jumping to the next book right away. Our business grew so quickly that I never prioritized marketing my own books. A book is a 5-10-year plan, maybe more. You are going to talk about your book for many years to come. In every interview, it will be brought up. Every speaking engagement, you will be sharing parts of it. That’s good because you create the content once for your book and then reuse it in your marketing. If I knew what I know now, I would have written two or three books instead of seven and focused on marketing those for several years before writing another. That’s why I decided to update and relaunch The Bestseller Method book. It’s my life’s work captured in an easy-to-follow system. It’s the core process of our book development agency. We take clients daily through this process, either by supporting them through the process or doing it for them. The book shares every step of our process, so if you are motivated and want to do it yourself, it gives you all the information you need to ensure your book is a top-quality bestseller that grows your business.
Are you ready to grow your business with a bestselling book? Take this 3-minute assessment to find out: https://bsmassessment.com
Images credit: Rory Carruthers Marketing and Nicole Gornick Photography
