Not 10 more. Definitely not 20. There are a lot of famous people in America, but virtually all of them got famous in some way other than writing books. REALISTIC EXPECTATION: “A BOOK WILL RAISE MY VISIBILITY AND HELP ME GET MEDIA COVERAGE.” A book—by itself—will not make you famous. But this is not to say a book will not help you become more well known. It can and it will. Think about it: when a media outlet wants a comment on some- thing, who do they go to? The expert, right? And how do they know someone is an expert? Because they wrote the book. Once you have a book, media cover- age is 10x easier to get. And it goes beyond books. “Has a new book” is a required box to tick for the gatekeepers who control access to areas of the arenas you most want to enter: lecture halls, television studios, podcasts, boardrooms, media pages, special events, people’s minds. Larry King doesn’t say, “My next guest has just posted a cat video.” How many people in your field have you seen get a lot of attention simply because they wrote a book? Even if you knew more than they do, they got the attention that you didn’t—only because of the book. If you want media coverage and visibility in your field, being the authority and the expert is key. And if you want to build a big brand or platform, a book by itself won’t get you there, but it is a big part of a larger campaign that most definitely will. rEAliSTiC AND UNrEAliSTiC ExPECTATiONS fOr A BOOk · 369