From Ideas to Impact — Ben Cena on Building Bestselling Books, Author Credibility, and Thought Leadership

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Amazing Authorities Podcast – “From Ideas to Impact: Ben Cena on Building Bestselling Books, Author Credibility, and Thought Leadership”

Host: Mitch Carson
Guest: Ben Cena
Date: November 4, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, host Mitch Carson sits down with Ben Cena—an expert in helping leaders and business owners turn their ideas into bestselling books that drive influence, impact, and income. The conversation unpacks the real process behind becoming an “author authority,” the strategic differences between publishing routes, how to leverage books for credibility, and the realities of the modern book market. Ben gives insider insights into the bestselling process, the importance of editions (especially audiobooks), and frank advice on physical vs. online book sales, all laced with candid, practical wisdom.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Who Ben Cena Helps and Their Motivations (01:40 – 04:25)

• Ben Cena’s focus: Working primarily with business owners and leaders, helping turn ideas into bestselling books while saving time across writing, distribution, and marketing.
• Client Profile:
  • Typically not retirees looking for a memoir, but accomplished leaders transitioning to a new phase or leveraging their expertise for growth (e.g., board seats, speaking careers).
  • “The book is about targeted, expertise-driven content and establishing or elevating credibility.” (03:16)

2. The DNA of a Bestseller vs. Just ‘Having a Book’ (05:35 – 07:47)

• Foundational Planning:
  • “People who are thinking about it being a best seller, we have to think about that in the very beginning before we do anything else—meaning the market appeal, the market opportunity.” (05:49)
  • Metaphor: A well-made book is like a round rock; it will “roll” with the right push (marketing). If it’s rough and jagged, all the marketing in the world won’t help.
• Key insight: Work with professionals early to bake success into the process.

3. Bestseller Lists—What Matters, What’s Possible (07:47 – 11:28)

• Amazon vs. New York Times:
  • Amazon: 300-800 sales in a week can secure a #1 bestseller in a category.
  • New York Times: Requires 10,000+ sales, diverse distribution, and passes through a subjective, human-curated process. “The human element of approving it being on the list is the most tricky part.” (09:46)
  • Wall Street Journal list ended in 2023.
• Ultimate Goal: NYT is the “pinnacle,” but practicality and leveraging the book are more important for most authors.

4. The Rise and Importance of Audiobooks (11:28 – 13:54)

• All Formats Matter:
  • “Authors have to have all versions of a book.” Audiobooks are rapidly growing, especially through Audible and Spotify.
• Human Consumption Patterns:
  • “People want to have the knowledge as if they read the book, not as if they listened to the book. They buy the book, don’t read it, listen to it, and talk about it as if they read it.” (11:40)
• Podcast Connection: Audio is key—people are consuming more information auditorially than ever.

5. Traditional Publishing vs. Modern Author Services (13:54 – 19:05)

• Traditional Route:
  • Large publishers offer prestige and distribution but take a large share of royalties and control.
  • “Chances of getting there and what do they offer…do you have to figure that out yourself? There are a lot of ins and outs and details of the contract that you really have to figure out.” (14:58)
  • Most authors will not be accepted; even if accepted, “success is not guaranteed.”
• Modern (Ben’s approach):
  • Greater author control and flexibility.
  • The author retains creative and promotional freedom, can update the book as their business evolves.
  • “We let them control as much as they want to control.” (18:24)

6. Airport Bookstores and Retail Perceptions (19:05 – 26:31)

• Physical Bookstore Realities:
  • Airport and retail placement is mostly a marketing opportunity, not a sales engine.
  • Books must be “widely applicable.” Niche books are high-risk.
  • Retailers over-order and expect authors to take back and pay shipping on unsold books. “You can end up going negative rather than even making money.” (19:35 – 22:48)
  • These opportunities are best leveraged for photos, promotions, and prestige rather than profit.
• Declining Trends:
  • “Every year, the physical stores of the books are declining by 1%, 1 1/2 percent ... It’s a declining market. It’s gonna keep declining for the next 20, 30 years.” (26:31)

7. The Enduring (and Changing) Love of Physical Books (27:56 – 30:52)

• Physical vs. Digital:
  • Both Ben and Mitch prefer physical books for tactile and emotional reasons. Online sales are stable or growing, but brick-and-mortar retail is in decline.
  • “I like having the book. I think it is very much part of that kind of author's journey, where you want to physically have it, touch it, feel it, highlight it.” (28:34)
• Consumer Behavior:
  • Many browse in physical stores, then buy online for convenience and cost.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On making a book a bestseller:
  “People who are thinking about it being a best Seller. We have to think about that in the very beginning before we do anything else… If it’s a nice rock, it’s going to roll with marketing. If it’s sharp and jagged, it’s not going to roll.” — Ben Cena (05:49 – 07:47)

• On audiobook consumption:
  “People want to have the knowledge as if they read the book, not as if they listened to the book…they listen to it and talk to other people as if they read it.” — Ben Cena (11:40)

• Traditional publishing insight:
  “Most people think that if I’m going that route, that success is guaranteed. Success is not guaranteed. They just advertise ten books that are doing the best. The rest are doing absolutely nothing.” — Ben Cena (14:58)

• On leveraging airport bookstore placement:
  “The way I see it being a benefit is…use it for marketing reasons. Take some pictures, arrange some signing, advertise it on socials…it’s about elevating their brand.” — Ben Cena (19:35 – 22:48)

• Industry trend:
  “Every year, the physical stores of the books are declining by 1%, 1 1/2 percent … It’s a declining market. It’s gonna keep declining for the next 20, 30 years until it’s not prestige anymore.” — Ben Cena (26:31)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Ben’s introduction, who he helps: 01:40 – 04:25
• Difference between bestsellers and “just a book”: 05:35 – 07:47
• Breakdown of bestseller lists: 07:47 – 11:28
• Audiobooks and changing consumption: 11:28 – 13:54
• Publishing routes: control and royalties: 13:54 – 19:05
• Airport/Retail bookstores real talk: 19:05 – 26:31
• Book formats and retail decline: 26:31 – 30:52
• Cultural book trends (Japan snippet): 30:52 – 31:31

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Closing & Contact

Ben Cena suggests connecting via LinkedIn or at highvalueauthor.com for anyone seeking help to turn their expertise into a powerful book.

“We let them control as much as they want to control…97% of the time, nobody’s going to accept you anyway [traditionally], so don’t bother too much.” — Ben Cena (18:24 – 19:05)

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Tone & Style:
The episode is frank, pragmatic, and gently humorous, mixing war stories with actionable insights. Both Ben Cena and Mitch Carson speak directly and conversationally, cutting through publishing myths to ground listeners in today’s author landscape.

Recommended for:
Aspiring authors, entrepreneurs, consultants, and anyone wanting to use a book to build their professional authority and credibility in a thoughtful, market-savvy way.

Transcript

[Mitch Carson]

Welcome to the Amazing Authorities podcast where game changers, visionaries and category leaders share how they built their brands, platforms and global influence. Your host is Mitch Carson, international speaker, media strategist, and creator of the Instant Authority system. If you're ready to learn from those who've done it and want to become the go to expert in your space, you're in the right place.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Ben Cena is in the house now. I don't know if you get asked this very often, Ben, are you related to John Cena, the famous wrestler and actor much?

[Ben Cena]

Not at all. I was maybe asked that a couple of times, but that's not. This is my American shortened last name, so it's not, not, it's not a real last name.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Oh, I know you hail from Lithuania originally and I've met some of the nicest people from Lithuania and I played volleyball with a group of them from the Baltic Sea years ago, the Estonians, Lithuanians, and a Finnish group of people. And they all team seemed to get along and I don't know what language they were speaking, but they all had a mutual language. I know each has its own, but you're, you're here and you've gotten into, and you provide services for wannabe authors and people that are considering about getting a book. Tell us what you, you do for people that are in that category or in that spot in their life. John, I mean, Ben. Sorry I called you John Cena. Oh my gosh, that's good.

[Ben Cena]

That's good. That's gonna catch, catch some eyeballs. So I think, you know, there are different things that we do, but at the core what you're really doing is because we are working with leaders and business owners for the most part, more than 90% of our business there. And what we are really doing is number one, we're turning those ideas into best selling books. That's number one. And number two, we are saving them time in terms of everything but what it takes from the idea stage until that book becomes a bestseller in terms of writing a book itself, the distribution and the marketing. Right. So these are kind of three core phases that we move them through without, without them really knowing about that. Right. So because they don't have to, because we have to focus on their business and they have to focus on being themselves rather than trying to put some words on a piece of paper or a notebook.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Okay. So if you get a CEO who's just bought, he's, he's just rolling out of his IRA or his 401k, he got bought out of his position, he cashed in his stock and then the next step is, okay, how am I going to leave a legacy for my grandkids? How do I memorialize my life? Is this the type of person you help, Ben?

[Ben Cena]

Maybe 20 or 30% of the time, most people that really take action on such a thing, which is not an autobiography kind of book, which is more leadership, business driven type of book, is more about those people who have achieved something but not is. But they're not. But they're not going into retirement yet. They're going to the next stage of their life. So they are out of the operations. This is what I usually learn there. Where most of our clients are. They're out of the operations or they're changing something. Right. They switch from one place to the other and they understand the value of a targeted, expertise driven book and how that book is going to drive either their thing forward. Right. And they have more time to leverage it. Or we understand that where, in terms of where we are going, this book is also going to help them very much and help them establish credibility within that new or already existing field.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Well, that's great. And so that it isn't necessarily the person that's retiring. They're transitioning. Maybe they want to get on board seats or maybe they want to launch a speaking career. Is that who you.

[Ben Cena]

Yes, that's. You're 100% correct, Mitch. And we had several clients who are. They either want to raise their speaking gigs, for example, to go from 10k to 25k. And in order to do that we have to understand they have to make some changes. Sometimes the changes are structural. Sometimes changes are in terms of the category. They're switching from one category to another because is very difficult to get that high of a speaking gig within one category of business. And they have to move on to higher level corporate help. Right. For example, and we have one client like that that we are working with now. So you're 100% correct, Mitch. And people are looking more to use that book, which I'm happy that they start to understand that some people still need explanation rather than saying, okay, I have done everything in my life. Now is that now, now the time is for a book. Right. And I'm already 75 years old or whatever.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Yeah. So what, what is the difference between a best selling author and someone who has just written a book and doesn't have that badge? Have you noticed a difference?

[Ben Cena]

Yes, one. One major difference. And that difference is very simple. People who are thinking about it being a best Seller. We have to think about that in the very beginning before we do anything else. Meaning the market appeal, the market opportunity, those who just write the book and they jump into doing the writing stuff, whether they do it themselves or not doesn't matter. And then they think, okay, I'm going to think about it later. It's not how it works. You have to have that. I like to give an equivalent kind of a metaphor about a rock. If it's a nice rock with very round rock, it goes very easily. You can push it a little bit, and even if it's down the hill, it rolls. This is what's marketing. You give it some force, which is marketing, and just rolls very nicely and it becomes a best seller and people take it and it can survive for many months and years and hopefully the decades. Right now on the other side, you have a rock with very sharp edges, pits, and it goes up the hill. So no matter how much you're going to push it, it's not going to roll if it doesn't roll. This is where people think about the class. No, I have this whatever rock. What do I do with that? Can I market it? Will people understand it, how the market will take it? So this is the major kind of thing in terms of a mindset and understanding. And this is why people usually come to us to say, okay, I need to work with somebody from the very beginning in order to make it successful.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

That's great. Now, when you say bestseller, is this an Amazon bestseller? Is it a Wall Street Journal bestseller? New York Times bestseller? Maybe you could share that with the audience.

[Ben Cena]

What the differences are the differences in the numbers? Right now the Wall street bestseller doesn't exist anymore, right? It ended in 2023. Now, Amazon bestseller and New York Times bestseller, there are two major differences. So when it comes to the kind of a smaller scale, leverage is of course Amazon, right? Usually that works within 300 and 800 sale kind of range. That has to happen within one particular week. And similar to that as the New York Times, which has just a higher kind of tier, which is around 10,000. So the difference is usually quite big. So most people opt in for the smaller opportunity, which is still quite big when it comes to most categories rather than really focusing on that focus of New York Times. And there's a lot of bureaucracy there too. So you will never know if you're gonna actually gonna land there unless you get an insider confirmation beforehand.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Insider confirmation. Now I've, I, you know, the numbers that I've heard vary because nobody supposedly knows the Algorithm for the New York Times, I've heard as as little as 8,000. You mentioned 10,000. I've heard those numbers range and it, and the algorithm can change. And I know the Wall Street Journal people have talked about that and they, they, they sunsetted that. There's the USA Today bestseller. There are a few other categories, but I think New York Times is the pinnacle. Isn't that the ultimate.

[Ben Cena]

Let's proceed as the ultimate, the ultimate one. There are some criterias, there are some specific criteria, but there are no guarantees. Now with Amazon, if you are at number one, you see it being number one. It is number one. You capture it number one. The New York Times, the USA Today is more simple to understand. There is an algorithm behind it in terms of a calculation. The New York Times is much more sophisticated. And the human element of approving it being on the list, I think is the most tricky part because you can match all the criteria in terms of, okay, we sold 12,000 books, which is more than needed in most categories. It's diverse enough so it is on Amazon and there is no more than 80% on Amazon sales with criteria. And you're still not going to land there. Right. So that's kind of a thing where sometimes people bet on that it doesn't happen and you spend $200,000 so you make your choice. So I think, you know, it is kind of a pinnacle of what you want to achieve. But I think at the end of the day, what is important is the specificity of a book and the leverage in terms of how you use it. So I think at the end of the day, that's what's most important for the author, himself or herself.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

And do you think audiobooks are important now? Should an author have an audiobook as a companion hardback or just a Kindle? What is your opinion?

[Ben Cena]

I think authors have to have all versions of a book. And we learned that by tracking all the sales, different components of sales, audiobooks are capturing more and more of their market share in terms of Audible and Spotify now. So there are two growing categories and even Spotify with more now. But people like to consume content different ways. And what we learned is one very simple kind of rule. People want to have the knowledge as if they read the book, not as if they listened to the book. Right. So they buy the book, but they don't read it. They listen to it. And they would talk to other people as if they read that, even though we listen to it. Right. So people are more prone to listening to the audiobooks. Rather than reading and sitting down with a book or the Kindle, whatever it is. But we listen and say, well, did you read the book? Yes. So people want to get those accolades of all the credentials of, okay, I have the books, you know for sure. Right. My background and I have the knowledge of listening to it. So I have all the actual information in my head. Which is more convenient. Right. You can wash your dishes and read the book at the same time. Which is listening, not reading.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Sure, but there's greater retention listening than reading. It's been proven. And I think audio books are on the rise. And I've read that and I know, but we're on a podcast. Podcasts are on the rise. More and more people are podcasting these days and consuming the information auditorially. I mean, you've gone to the next level. You're using a headset. You're more professional than me. I just have a high quality mic I don't like. My ears start to itch with the headset. So I, I did that.

[Ben Cena]

No, I think, I think I use that because I kind of like to detach myself from the surroundings because I only use voice canceling stuff so I can just focus being, being here. So that's the only reason. Otherwise I would look just like, as nice as you had. And I don't look like a thinky dinky from, from, from a TV series.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Oh, okay, okay. No, I, I don't, I don't use the headset because I did that. I was a radio show host in LA in the, in my past and had to wear a headset for being inside, for recording purposes. I mean, we were live, so it was a little bit different. But the feedback I had to listen to the engineer in the booth if anything was going wrong or a guest wasn't doing so well. Have you found what, what are the key takeaways of being an author with your company versus trying to go to the traditional route of getting a publisher like a Time Warner or a Penguin Books or one of the other big branded book. I mean, I'm sure there's some big ones in the UK that I'm just not aware of. What do you offer that they don't?

[Ben Cena]

Well, the question is what do they offer? Right, okay.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

And I'll have a comment for that also, because I was published by John Wiley in 2008, so I know that I would never go back.

[Ben Cena]

You have to know the nitty gritty details in terms of what you want, the chances of you getting there and what do they offer Right. So these are kind of different brackets of questions now. First of all, what do you want? How much of an ownership do you want to have within your own book? This is kind of the main question. The second question is, what would you get? Are you getting the distribution? Are you getting the writing part? Are you getting the editing part? Getting just the proofreading? Are we working on the COVID Are we working on the design elements of the Amazon and Barnes and Nobles? And then are we producing the audiobook? Do you have to figure that out yourself? There are a lot of ins and outs and details of the contract that you really have to figure out. So you're not in a place where, okay, so where do we go from here? And this is what happens so many times with authors and they are not very much clear. Most of them are working on a manuscript and then they later figure out that, okay, these are so many pieces that are still missing right now. If you are thinking about the top publishers, two things if, you know, I'm all for that. If you want to go that route, and most people go that route for what I learned, maybe two reasons. One is we don't want to go through the hassle of figuring everything out themselves. And the second one is, of course, distribution. Right now, the ties of distribution is you're only going to get one third of what they are going to get, right? So we got usually keep two thirds of the royalties, whatever it is, and you're going to get one third, no matter if you're a Jordan Peterson or just a regular Joe Schmo. But if you're going to Joe Schmo, usually you're not going to get a good deal anyway. You're not going to even get an answer from them. I'm talking about the big guys and all of them. So you really have to sit down and we have these graphs and everything for you to make the best decision. Because most people think that, okay, I'm going that route, that success is guaranteed. Success is not guaranteed. They just advertise 10 books that are doing the best, right? And the rest of them are doing absolutely nothing right now. And you're not in control of that. You can't change anything. You cannot change the COVID you can't change description, you can't add any promotional stuff. And the contracts are very sticky. You have to kind of ask, hey, hello, can I change this? Can I do more advertising here? You know, are you doing something right? So you really have to go to the nitty gritty detail in order to understand that so this is kind of two sides kind of thing.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

So you're talking control. You have very little control. You go with the big publisher, you have much more freedom going the route with you. So you take people on a guide, you suggest what they can do, but you don't control them.

[Ben Cena]

We let them control as much as they want to control. Right. We love control. Don't get me wrong, we love to control all the pieces because we know what works, what doesn't work.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Sure.

[Ben Cena]

And we try to figure out what the customer wants and give them what they need and what they want at the same time. But we want to give them all the control. You want to change risk rate, you want to add risk rate, you want to your customer changed. Right. Let's add something else within the book that makes sense for your new customer. You will never be able to do that with a traditional publisher and 97% of the time nobody's going to accept you anyway. So don't bother too much.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Well, there is a good point. So, Ben, for people who travel, pandemic changed a lot of that, but travel has resumed around the world. It's back to where it was. And if in many countries it's even greater today, although we consume content virtually a lot more than before. Airport bookstores, what is your opinion on getting your book inside that and is it easily achieved?

[Ben Cena]

I think you have to understand first of all how you're getting there. Right. And there are some specific nature of the books that get into those places. They have to be widely applicable. Right. They cannot be very much niched down. Right. Do you want those books to be there? Probably. There are also. There are different ways how you get there, even if they want it. I'll give you an example. The other week we got an order of three thousand bucks several airports for one of our clients. And what they want is we wanted to finance half, they want us to finance the other half. And they are usually over ordering by two, three times. And there are no guarantees of selling through. We have to eat up everything else. We have to cover the shipping back costs. Right. If they don't sell through enough. Right. And they are over ordering for a reason. Because if it does sell very well, which they think is going to sell. Right. But we don't know because a book is niche down. Right. It's not necessarily that the book is something wrong with the book, but the book is more niche down. And now we have to cover eat everything else up. So you really have to kind of sit down and, and do the calculations the way I see it being a benefit is you go to the airport once you get that book in and use it for marketing reasons. Take some pictures, you arrange some signing possibly or whatever it is and you say, oh, this is my book here, that's great, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But in most cases, unless you have a very widely applicable book that 50% of people would benefit from, people who pass the airport, it is not the best place. It's not better than online, it's not better than some more niche stores, for example, and it's not better than selling as much and as many as you can on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and Audible for example, Audible being an audiobook platform. Yeah, people fancy, people fancy that those airport stores or, or whatever stores. There are different kinds of, you know, franchises across states, across Europe. I see it as a marketing opportunity. You come in once in Barnes and Noble and you get your book inside, you do some promotion, you, you advertise it all over socials. But you know, you want to make sure that it's done right. You do a little testing, you see it, it sells through, you know, you're not kind of okay, I'm going to over order 3,000 copies. It's going to cost you $20,000 and then you're gonna pay extra to get back and you go to negative rather than even making money and you're gonna get that balance 90 days later.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Well, you know, it's interesting you bring this up about how they are working now. I had my book called the Silent Salesman which I was published through John Wiley. I paid out of pocket even though they were the publisher. Back then you independent publishers weren't allowed to get into the. You had to go through a name publisher. I had to pay, I forgot the amount of money but it was close to $10,000 for buying the real estate of having my book in that bookstore. Around the country in the US there was one company that had the license for all the book, airport bookstores and I sold several thousand copies. But like you said, it was arranged with my publisher to get the books back. They might have had a separate arrangement for independent publishers. It's very deal. I was a pitchman on a channel called Home Shopping network in the 90s and how they worked is somebody wants to sell their products on television, which we would have about 5 million viewers at any one time watching what we were selling. But these poor people, they would over order as you said Ben to the letter, and they'd have to pay for the shipment Back most of the time I don't know the number, but let's say the majority of the time people lost money because they would over order, anticipating big sales, hoping for big sales, but you never know what the public will buy. And then they'd have to pay these huge fees or end up just leaving them there because they couldn't afford it. And they also paid their accounts about 90 to 180 days out anyway for what they did.

[Ben Cena]

That's very much correct. And I understand the logic behind that. It's about risk. Right. The stores order many books. You know, they shelf 10 copies and they have a hundred copies or 150 copies in the back in the warehouse. Exactly. And they, to make sure that, you know, we can just stack them back when needed. And at the same time we have a very nice agreement, money up front from somebody make sure that if we have to ship them, you know, it's going to be taken care of. We don't have to eat up that, eat that margin. Of course big names have better deals because the sell through is. We do it very much differently because we know the application is that wide. But even, you know, for, for a more, more niche down books, you know, this is kind of that thing where if it sells through, we got to keep that book for, for years in the store, you know, and most of the time it's not, it's not worth it. And most people don't know how to use it in terms of leveraging it online, which is I think the most important piece.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

No, I would, I would tend to agree. That's where people consume and oftentimes people will go into a bookstore in airports and I've done this, gone in and looked and think, okay, I'll read this later or I don't have room in my bag and I may go and look and peruse books. I'm a reader, I like physical books. But I'll end up buying it from Amazon later to ship to my house because it was more convenient and I didn't necessarily buy it. I already had a book with me that I was going to read and I'm just looking. And these authors pay for big stands. Inside there is the prestige. And you made a really good point. Do they do book signings inside there? Are they taking photos with their books? It's about elevating their brand. Very good point, Ben. And using that so many people mentioned.

[Ben Cena]

Sorry for interrupting because I'm a kind of person who's gonna forget in two seconds what I want to say. So so many times. And I'm doing it myself, you know, and you just look at the numbers. Every year, the physical stores of the books are declining by 1%, 1 1/2 percent. You know, you want. You do what you want, but it's just how it is. It's a declining market. It's gonna keep in decline, keep declining, and for the next 20, 30 years until it's in a point where it's not prestige anymore. It's just something that still goes around. Like newspapers. Right. There are still newspapers. Physical ones, people read them, that's fine. But that market is not growing now. Going to the stores. This is a nice book. Great. Pulling my phone out. Right. I just ordered two copies to my home. I don't want to carry them around. I'm not going to buy the store. Right. I love the book. I'm very excited. I'm not going to buy the book. Is not selling through. Right. Just purely because I like to do the same thing. I don't want to carry books around unless I have somebody who is going to carry a book for me. We can make it happen in Dubai. It's not very difficult, but for most people, no, people don't. Customer experience is not the same way because consumer behavior is different now.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Oh, it's changed.

[Ben Cena]

Yep.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Yeah. And maybe you'll get the Kindle version. I don't like Kindle books personally. I like physical books. Just a matter what I'm comfortable with. But I have read them and I. And I've done that. I've taken a shot. Oh, I'll buy this later and have it shipped to my house and, you know, same. I don't want to carry it around. I already have a book in my bag and it's. I can't read two books on a flight. That's two hours. You know, I didn't take a. Yeah.

[Ben Cena]

So it's exactly, exactly. I hate. I hate Kindle books.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Yeah.

[Ben Cena]

And it's digital books.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Okay. Yeah.

[Ben Cena]

Maybe that's my personal take. Some people do love them, but for me, you know, I like having the book, I think is very much part of that. That kind of author's journey, where you want to physically have it, you want to have conversations about them, you want to touch it, you want to feel it, you want to highlight it. Some people like Kindles. They highlight within Kindle, but you kind of don't own it. You don't own the copy when you have it in Kindle. When you have something in digital format. I think by the nature of the Book. And this is why online paperback and hardcover sales are not declining, are much more stable and actually a bit growing compared to bookstore sales or even the Kindle, which is growing almost at the same rate as the physical books that are sold online.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Yeah, and it's, you're, you're spot on with the retailers and that whole cultural experience of standing up, buying a Starbucks, sitting in Barnes and Noble. That's how it is in America. You buy or maybe have a stack of books and then you end up out of guilt, buying them from Barnes and Noble. Maybe. But then there are people that take photos and then buy it online and have it because it's cheaper, Amazon, less expensive than the high overhead of a physical store. But you've bought the coffee for $7 for having a frappe latte, tripled creamer, you know, with a twist. And you spend $7 on this expensive coffee and you're sitting there going through these books and then you end up walking out of there. At least I'm, I'm guilty. I'll buy them because I know what retailers are going through and it's a convenience of doing that. But not everybody operates the same, you.

[Ben Cena]

Know, and I buy them also. I buy them in the store as well. And I, I buy them for analytical reasons, not because I'm a, I'm a customer. I love the COVID I love this. I just kind of go through the whole experience. I buy five of them, but in, if I was a reader, you know, it's not convenient. So I just like, okay, I'm gonna do it the new way. And Barnes and Noble physical sales are declining 2% every year. Yeah.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

And in Japan, in Japan, for example, I have a friend who's a very well known author named Ken Honda. He's sold about 9 million copies of his books in Japan. He's in all of the train stations. They have a big subway system in Tokyo, 38 million people. I mean, that in itself, you know, he sells in Japanese, his books, most of them through physical books. But that's their culture and it's unique there. I mean, we could have a whole conversation about that and how they, they sell their books. But. Hey, Ben, you've been a great guest. How do people get in touch with you?

[Ben Cena]

Simple. If you can just Google my name, you're gonna find me on LinkedIn. I'm most responsive on LinkedIn. Or we can go, go to highvalueauthor.com. we can click on one of the gazillion buttons there. I'm joking. Maybe three buttons there and they're gonna get in touch with my team if they want to. And if they have any questions or they believe they need help or whatever it is, we can, we can also help.

[Interviewer (possibly Mitch Carson or a co-host)]

Great. Well, Ben, thank you so much. You've given great insights and I'm sure that they'll be handled well if they reach out to Ben Cena and there, there is a longer name there, but he'll have to tell you his secret when you talk to him personally. So, Ben, thank you again and maybe we'll have a coffee the next time I'm in Dubai.

[Mitch Carson]

Thanks for tuning in to the Amazing Authorities podcast. If today's episode inspired you, take a moment to subscribe, rate and leave a review. It helps more experts like you rise to the top for behind the scenes access and free resources to boost your authority. Head to MitchCarson.com until next time, stay amazing.