7 Takeaways From A Guy Who Sold 100 Million Books Over 100 Years Ago

7 Takeaways From A Guy Who Sold 100 Million Books Over 100 Years Ago

You may never have heard of E. Haldeman-Julius (from here on out, EHJ). But that doesn't matter.

Many moons ago - almost a century, in fact - he sold over 100 million books. The crazy part? It took him 9 years to sell that many books.

They were short and sweet little books that educated and entertained the reader, usually on one topic: and he called them Little Blue Books (hereafter, LBBs).

How did he sell so many? By tapping into what people wanted to read, and then publishing those exact books - with headlines that hooked.

Sounds simple. And it is. Luckily, he made his process into a sort of science - and documented it in his book First Hundred Million.

Below is a breakdown of the 7 most valuable bits from his book that can be applied to the modern day in sales, marketing, and business.

Just as a note: He mainly sold in the United States, but these concepts can apply everywhere. So I broke down the concepts and chapters below by replacing "America/American" with "people".

Last note: This is Part 1 of this book review. If you don't want to miss Part 2, subscribe here:

What People Want to Read

EHJ says he set out with his publishing to give equal access to his books to people, no matter their means - rich or poor.

And further, every volume he published should start out on equal footing. No one volume in particular was advertised more than others.

This is an interesting mindset when creating content - especially if we have processes and quality measures in place. If we create content for an audience, there shouldn't be favoritism - because it's not us that decides what sells, it's the market.

EHJ writes that people bought his LBBs for one reason only: because the buyer wishes to read it.

There's nothing startling or revolutionary there.

But it bears repeating in a simpler way: people buy because they want what is being sold.

Are People Afraid of Sex?

Now mind, EHJ wrote about this in 1928. So, things may have been different back then - or maybe not.

There are always taboos and generalized fears in society. These can be great entry points for sales/marketing efforts, if done with clarity and testing.

EHJ writes that people aren't afraid of sex - and that he sold hundreds of thousands of books on subjects ranging from sexual hygiene to secrets to satisfying your lover.

To put into perspective how popular the LBBs were on the topic of sex:

One specific volume, What Every Girl Should Know, constituted 3% of his total LBBs sales. And there were over 1,200 LBB titles... so you can do the math: a book representing less than 1/10th of 1% (.0008, or 0.008% to be precise) of his catalog constituted 3% of sales - which means it outperformed the mean by 37x!

EHJ had 8 of these "what you should know" type of LBBs. And some of their variations, like What Married Women Should Know sold even better - constituting almost 6% of total sales in his catalog of 1,200 books.

His other titles like Man's Sexual Life, The Common Sense of Sex, Homosexual Life, etc. sold equally as well.

EHJ writes that people are interested in practical, unbiased discussions on these subjects - and not debating their morality. He uses the example of two titles:

• Modern Aspects of Birth Control - 73,000 copies sold

• Debate on Birth Control - 27,000 copies sold

He notes that the books are reliable, fact-based, and aren't sensational - and his readers knew it. They would buy one and come back to buy more.

What can we take away from these insights?

First, respect your audience's intelligence. Tell them the facts and let them make their own decisions. You can tell the truth with your "slant", of course, but do so without sensationalizing - and people will come back for more, knowing you're a trusted source.

Second, don't be shy of controversial topics. It doesn't matter what you think people think. People will make their own decisions, and if they're interested in the subject - no matter how taboo or controversial - they will explore it with you.

Third, controversial and taboo subjects can be great marketing and sales accelerators. It doesn't have to be about sex. Even in the business world, I'm sure there are things that people would rather brush under the rug and not talk about. Maybe you can shine light on it - in a respectful, fact-based way - and in the process sell more and build greater trust than you could ever have imagined.

The Quest for Self-Improvement

The way "sex-titles" sell aren't hard to understand.

EHJ understood that. But he also saw that the instinct for self-improvement and betterment sold even better.

At its foundation, the quest for self-improvement is emotional and not logical. He writes that the sales numbers proved to him that the desire for self-improvement is more than just an idle dream. It's a sincere, universal desire.

And you would profit well by tapping into this desire in your audience.

The ways to self-improvement are varied:

• Take a course

• Read a book

• Study with an instructor

The question to ask yourself and your business is, how can you help your audience to realize their self-improvement desire?

Will you create a course? Write a book? Teach directly 1-to-1, or do group coaching?

EHJ writes that the self-improvement category that often outperformed others was the "Better English" one, as he calls it. Or how to improve communication skills. Titles included:

• How to Improve Your Conversation

• How to Improve Your Vocabulary

• How to Write Letters

• Common Faults in English

Read those titles and consider how you can apply these principles as education material and resources of self-improvement for your audience.

Think about it: even if you're selling a software solution, you can help your users use it better, to improve their fluency with your program, to get the most out of it and impress others and do their work more effectively.

Educational content like this does very well to build trust with your audience.

Another LBBs category that did well was "Psychology", or how to overcome internal limitations.

How can we use this insight in our business? Get to know what holds your prospects and customers back - and provide relief through educational content.

Solve their deepest problems, the ones that hold them back, and you'll have a trusted customer for life.

People Want Fun and Laughter

Everyone likes a good laugh. We are told to laugh, for all the world will laugh with us, EHJ writes.

The "Fun and Laughter" category of LBBs was well-developed and one of the strongest portions of his catalog.

They ranged from the obvious (Best Jokes and Broadway Wisecracks ), to the unique and refined (Toasts for All Occasions), to the professional (Best Jokes about Lawyers) and the profane (Best Irish Jokes).

Let's be real - everyone likes a good lawyer joke, no matter how well-worn. If you could have a whole book of them, surely one or two would be good enough to tuck away in your memory to crack at the right time.

But how can we apply the love of humor to business?

Lighten up your content. Make jokes about the things that everybody finds frustrating. Play up caricatures in your business in a light-hearted way.

I think it's a shame when a business can't poke fun at itself.

Of course, everything in moderation and sensibility. But using humor as a way to relate to audiences, prospects, and customers is often ignored - and it could be one way to give some life to your content.

Religion Versus Freethought

Blinders. We all have them: biases, judgements, preconceptions. No matter what the reality is before us, our vision can never be clear if we hold tight to these blinders.

EHJ writes that sales of his books show an inclination to open-minded perspectives. People want to know the truth. Maybe not all at once. Maybe not with everything. But if the reader has an interest, and they want to know the truth, they're gonna find it.

Why aren't you the one to give it to them?

The myths around business, marketing, sales, and your service are as grand as the tales of religion. Why not pierce through these stories, lift the curtain, and show your prospects and customers what's real?

This is another direct path to trust building. If you're the one that cuts the bullshit, who puts a little bit of your neck on the line for telling the truth - no matter how hard it is to swallow - people will follow and respect you.

Besides, do you want people to follow you blindly? What kind of customers are those? Not the ones I want, because someone else can come along and snap them up just as easily.

The LBBs that laid out the facts on these matters of faith did very well.

You don't even necessarily have to become a heretic. If you're a marketer, you don't have to trash the whole discipline of marketing. You can just lay out the facts about it - how PPC ads work, for example - and your prospects will trust you more for it.

Remember, your customers and prospects are skeptics. They're bombarded by every promise and slick pitch in the book. Why not be the one to tell the truth?

Sidelights on Reading Tastes

What was EHJ's best-seller?

The LBB volume that outpaced sex, self-improvement, humor, and philosophy?

None other than The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. If you're unfamiliar with that book, I'd recommend that you go out and find a copy. I have a personal collection of about a dozen different versions from different translators and publishing years. They're all uniquely and beautifully illustrated - so it doesn't surprise me that the book sold so well for EHJ.

But, let's be real here.

Poetry just doesn't sell well.

The Rubaiyat is an outlier - a medieval Persian poem that transcends convention.

EHJ lists about 30 or so volumes of poetry from his catalog, all with middling sales numbers.

And as I thought about this fact, and wondered how it could apply to our business ventures, I realized this: kill your darlings.

That's an old writer's advice for "don't get too attached to what you create."

Our content is not our children. It's ok to trash an ad that's performing poorly, or scrapping a video that just didn't convert.

You can be creative, but if it falls flat in the marketplace, don't get too emotionally involved with the why. Simply adapt and iterate and put out another.

We're not writing poems here, after all.

Because according to EHJ, they pay peanuts anyway.

Rejuvenating the Classics

EHJ asks the question, "What is a classic?"

He echoes Oscar Wilde and says, "A book is either well written and worth reading or badly written and not worth the trouble."

The same applies to any field of business and industry. There are classics that have come before you that anybody in your field will know. Tipping your hat to these classics is a great way to generate content that people want to engage with.

What do you think I'm doing in this piece? I'm taking a book about selling 100 million books, from 100 years ago, and finding gems that are relevant for us today.

What are the classics in your field? Take a look at them for inspiration. How can you make them fresh again, communicate the knowledge for a new or modern audience?

The "Classics" category of LBBs did very well in EHJ's time. And they still do well today.

But these classics often need a new treatment. Communication styles change. There are new lessons to be learned for every generation.

If you're running out of steam in your content creation efforts, go back to the classics and see if you can find some inspiration.

Part Two

The above is Part One of this newsletter. I really appreciate it when people enjoy and find value in what I've written. If you did enjoy it, I don't want you to miss out on Part Two, which will cover:

The Hospital: Give New Zest by New Titles

What a Change of Scenery Will Do

The Morgue: What Happens to the "Failures"

An Editor and His Writers

How the LBBs are Produced: The Facts about Mass Production

How to Get Content into a Customer's Hands

Business or Philanthropy

How LBBs have been Advertised and Sold

A Comparison of Advertising Mediums

Making the Sale

If these topics sound interesting to you, don't miss out on Part Two which you will be able to get by subscribing here: