Author: Ryan Holiday
Book Link

I’ve been a fan of Holiday for a few years now and it seems his writing gets exponentially better with each release… which is a big deal considering his writing was solid at the outset of his first publication. Whether you’re a fan of his personal successes and career history is another issue to raise outside the scope of a book review.

This work is centered on making work that lasts. If I could summarize it in a sentence:

The longer your work is selling, the better chance it has at being a perennial seller.

Each chapter dissects how to ensure your work/art/craft/business becomes a seller and stays a seller. If you’ve dipped your feet into any waters that deal with creating great work, much of this book will be a good reminder.

The part that shined for me was the marketing section — nothing new, but told in a way unique to Holiday’s style, which made it both pleasant and palatable. It was definitely a kick in the pants to what I should be doing with my own work.

However, he fails to acknowledge the elephant in the room with turning anything into a lifetime seller: luck.

Some work fizzles out and dies after many years while other work never gets off the ground, even if they are both of the same caliber with equal marketing forces behind them. Sometimes, you just don’t know. That shouldn’t be an excuse to not even try, but a reminder nothing is a guarantee.

A good read for its writing, but uncertain whether the advice in here adds anything to what has always been available.