Giacomo Bruno: Give Me a Book and I’ll Turn it Into a Bestseller in 24 Hours
Exclusive interview with the most famous Italian “book influencer”, which has transformed over 600 books into Bestsellers, including those of Tony Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow and Matteo Viviani.
“Give me a book and I’ll turn it into a Bestseller in 24 hours.” This is the challenge that Giacomo Bruno, the engineer who brought the eBooks to Italy in 2002, has launched to the authors all over the world on the website of his publishing house www.brunoeditore.it. During one of his last live events organized in Milan with more than 800 people, thanks to a promotional campaign, the books he published all became Bestsellers and Amazon Italy’s TOP 100 ranking was entirely filled by his books.
Mr. Bruno, how to become a Bestseller in 24 hours?
It’s a question of numbers and authority. On Facebook and Instagram we have over 1,000,000 followers and when we promote a book it is immediately downloaded by thousands of people. It took 20 years to build these numbers but the credibility is given above all by the quality of the books we select. They are very loved for their simplicity and communicative style. And when a new book comes out, there’s a rush to buy.
Can you turn any book into a Bestseller?
Certainly. We did it for the novel “La Crisalide nel Fango” by Matteo Viviani, journalist of the well-known TV program “Le Iene”, which in a few hours has climbed over 90,000 positions and entered the Top 10 Bestseller Amazon. Or for the book “The Clean Plate” by Gwyneth Paltrow, which reached the №1 position in the Bestseller List of the Kitchen category on Amazon Italy. Or for the book “Notes from a friend” by Tony Robbins, which became immediately a bestseller when I launched the eBook version in Italy.
Lately you have also climbed the rankings of Amazon.com, the most difficult and competitive market ever.
I am very proud of this result. Americans are 10 years ahead of Italy with regard to digital. Among over 5,000,000 books in English, our “3X Speed Reading” and “The new law of attraction” eBooks have reached position №1. Immense visibility and a great result. They were the first, but they will not be the last.
So Authors and Publishers should all call Giacomo Bruno?
In 2005, I predicted 8 years in advance that if Blockbuster had not been digitized, it would have lost all its market shares. They called me crazy. And in 2013 Blockbuster failed and Netflix dug out. It is very likely that in the next 10 years many traditional publishers will risk doing the same end if they do not adapt to digital.
Is book also a marketing tool?
The book is the new business card. Today the market is totally confused. Customers are inundated with thousands of proposals. And for the professional or the entrepreneur it means to be in total anonymity. The book allows you to position yourself in a specific niche, get out of anonymity, make yourself known for what you really are worth. You can tell your story, your successes, or your customers’ successes. So it becomes a very effective marketing tool.
According to Yahoo Finance in the Top 10 of the richest Italian Authors, 7 are from Bruno Editore. It’s true?
Absolutely. The rankings were extracted from the GFK and Nielsen data. To those data we compared the sales data that our authors have obtained thanks to their books. Nowadays speaking only of royalties no longer makes sense. The book has become a pillar of many entrepreneurs to make themselves known. Like Carlo Carmine with his book “Liberati da Equitalia” (Bruno Editore, 2018) who made sales of over $ 6,000,000, outperforming any other Italian author.
The world of publishing is changing a lot. What is the future?
We must acknowledge that the internet and social media have revolutionized the publishing world. Readers now spend tens of hours a week on Facebook, Instagram and blogs, reading articles and news on their mobile phones. In contrast, on average, they read 1 book a year. The only strongly growing sector is training books: people increasingly feel the need to grow and acquire new skills. And they don’t look for them in bookstores, but online. They look for the most experienced authors, their articles, their profiles and their books. Authors, like publishers, must adapt quickly to this new reality, or they will be worth less and less on the international scene.
How do you see Bruno Editore in 5 years?
Since 2002 we have helped over 1,800,000 people with our books. From those who have improved their self-esteem to those who have acquired new professional skills. Our goal is to reach 10,000,000 people. In a world that reads little, it is a very ambitious goal. But if every year we help at least 1,000 new Bestseller Authors and each reaches an average of 2,000 downloads, we can reach the finish line in just 5 years.
How can the Authors who want to become Bestsellers contact you?
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giacomo.bruno/