Easy Peasy Books

074: Launching a Best Selling Book Despite the Trademark Lawyers with Louise Brogan

Gillian Whitney Season 3 Episode 4

Louise Brogan spent months perfecting her book about LinkedIn only to discover she'd need permission from LinkedIn's trademark team to actually publish it. What followed was a nightmare of deleted blog posts, redesigned YouTube thumbnails, banned blue colors, and emails that made her cry. For a LinkedIn trainer whose entire business revolves around the platform, complying wasn't optional. She jumped through every hoop, changed her book cover at Gatwick Airport, and somehow survived what could have derailed the entire project. Then came the accidental early launch when she uploaded the corrected Kindle version, which somehow led to bestseller status within 24 hours.

But here's where the story gets really good. This author turned her business book into the ultimate networking tool, hosting multiple in-person launches across the UK that felt more like celebrations than sales events. She strategically gifted copies at conferences in Boston and San Diego, handed them to anyone who might benefit, and used every speaking engagement as an opportunity to get her book into the right hands. The payoff? Her book is now on the recommended reading list at Boston University's marketing course, all because she took a copy to a coffee meeting with someone in her LinkedIn network. Listen as she shares the real costs of self-publishing, why she writes her newsletter every Sunday morning, and the "just keep swimming" mindset that got her through trademark hell and into bookstores worldwide.