Tucker Max made his first book, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (Shown left), a number 1 New York Times bestseller with no outside support. Tucker graduated summa cum laude from the University of Chicago and went to Duke Law School on an academic scholarship.
In early 2002, Tucker tried to get his book published. Sent the core stories from the book to every publisher, literary agent, magazine and newspaper in the country. At least 500 query letters, maybe closer to 1000. He got rejected by 100% of them. Literally every single one, without exception.
-In late 2002: Tucker learned HTML and put his stories up on a website, TuckerMax.com.
-In May 2003: The site’s popularity exploded (on the internet), and the publishers came back to Tucker, asking to publish his book.
-In January 2006: Book came out, got zero media coverage and zero advertising support, but still hit the NY Times Bestseller List immediately because of the support of the fan base Tucker had cultivated through his website.
-October 2009: Reached #1 on the list, more than three years after it came out.
-Current day: Tucker has been on NY Times Best Seller List every year since it came out, over 180 weeks total, and currently in its 150th consecutive week. Sold over 1.5 million copies (and counting), and translated into 15 languages.
Tucker lists his marketing tips for authors in his shoe, which you can read in full here.
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