Books on MLM: an honest reading list for network marketers

Many of the most recommended books on MLM are written by people who succeeded in it or who sell training to people trying to. That makes them useful for learning how the work is done, and weak as evidence of what you are likely to earn. This list keeps both facts in view. It covers the network marketing books people most often recommend, a few general books on persuasion and habits that apply to the work, and three critical books that argue the other side.

For every title we checked the author, first publication year and publisher against library catalogue records (Open Library, which draws on Library of Congress and university library data). Where we could not confirm a claim about a book or its author, such as sales figures or personal earnings, we left it out.

Books about the day-to-day work

Go Pro by Eric Worre

Go Pro: 7 Steps to Becoming a Network Marketing Professional (2013, Network Marketing Pro). It is organised around seven steps, covering how to find prospects, invite them to look at the business, present it, follow up, help them decide, get new recruits started and promote events.

It suits someone who has already joined a company and wants a clear picture of the daily activity expected of them. Its limit is that it treats the business opportunity as a given. It explains how to recruit well, not how to judge whether the company you are recruiting into pays most participants enough to cover their costs. The publisher's own site calls it a best seller but gives no sales figure, so we do not repeat the sales numbers that circulate online.

Your First Year in Network Marketing by Mark Yarnell and Rene Reid Yarnell

Your First Year in Network Marketing: Overcome Your Fears, Experience Success, and Achieve Your Dreams! (1998, Prima Publishing). As the subtitle suggests, it is aimed at the newcomer dealing with rejection, doubt and slow early progress.

It suits a new distributor deciding whether to keep going. Its limit is age: it predates social media selling and the FTC's current guidance on income claims, so the advice on talking about money with prospects should be checked against the rules described later in this article.

Building an Empire by Brian Carruthers

Building an Empire: The Most Complete Blueprint to Building a Massive Network Marketing Business (2014, Next Century Publishing; a 2020 edition was published by the author). It is a tactical manual written from the point of view of someone who built a large organisation.

It suits people who want a step-by-step method for team building. Its limit is that the method is drawn from one person's results. Large downlines are rare by definition, and a blueprint written by someone at the top of a structure describes the path of the few who reach it. Claims about the author's lifetime earnings appear on many websites, but we found no published record that supports a specific figure, so none is given here.

The Four Year Career by Richard Bliss Brooke

The Four Year Career: How to Make Your Dreams of Fun and Financial Freedom Come True, or Not (the earliest edition we found in library records is 2012, BookBaby). It explains residual or "royalty" income and closes with success stories from people in the industry. The catalogue description presents it as an inexpensive prospecting tool, and company-specific editions exist, including a 2013 Young Living edition.

It suits someone who wants to understand the residual income idea that many compensation plans are sold on. Its limit follows from its purpose: a book designed to be handed to prospects is a recruiting document. Read the four-year idea as a scenario, then compare it with the income disclosure statement of the company you are looking at.

General books that apply to selling and recruiting

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

(1936, Simon & Schuster.) Carnegie's advice covers listening, remembering names, showing real interest in people and avoiding arguments. It suits anyone whose work depends on conversations, which includes direct selling. Its limit for this reader is that better conversations do not change the economics of a compensation plan.

Influence by Robert Cialdini

(First published in 1984 by William Morrow as Influence: How and Why People Agree to Things; later editions carry the subtitle The Psychology of Persuasion.) Cialdini, a psychologist, describes six principles: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity.

It is worth reading from both sides. A distributor can use it to understand why some presentations work. A prospect can use it to spot the same techniques in a recruiting event: the free gift, the public commitment, the room full of enthusiastic people, the "limited spots" offer. Its limit is that it describes how persuasion works, not whether what is being sold is a good deal.

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

(2005, Momentum Media; later editions from Greenleaf Book Group carry the subtitle Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness.) The argument is that small daily actions compound over time, for good or bad.

It suits people who struggle with consistency. Its limit is important in an MLM context: compounding only helps if the activity itself has a positive return. Repeating an activity that costs more than it earns compounds the loss. Check the numbers before you build the habit.

A recruiting classic to read as a pitch

The Business of the 21st Century by Robert Kiyosaki

(2010, Dream Builders; written with John Fleming and Kim Kiyosaki.) The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad argues that network marketing offers "eight wealth-building assets", including business education, personal development and a scalable business. Library records show at least one company-branded custom edition, an Amway edition published in 2013.

It suits readers who want to understand the case that recruiters make, in its most polished form. Its limit is that it is an argument for a business model, with no data on what typical participants earn. Read it next to the FTC guidance below and one of the critical books that follow.

Critical books worth reading before you join

Selling the Dream by Jane Marie

Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans (2024, Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster). A critical account of the multi-level marketing industry, as the subtitle makes clear. It suits anyone considering joining, and family members trying to understand what a relative has signed up for. Its focus is the United States, so readers elsewhere should check local rules and company disclosures.

Hey, Hun by Emily Lynn Paulson

Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and the Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing (2023, Row House Publishing; 2024 edition from Wheat Penny Press). It suits readers who want a critique of how MLM recruiting draws on friendship and the language of sisterhood, as the subtitle suggests. Read it as one perspective rather than a neutral survey.

Ponzinomics by Robert L. FitzPatrick

Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multi-Level Marketing (2020, FitzPatrick Management Inc.). FitzPatrick is president of the consumer group Pyramid Scheme Alert and has written about MLM since the 1990s. The book is self-published, and Open Library catalogues it under subjects including multilevel marketing and Ponzi schemes, which signals its critical stance. It suits readers who want the strongest critical case. Its views are the author's, not a legal finding about any company; for that, see the FTC guidance and the court cases it cites, below.

What these books do not tell you about MLM income

None of the success-focused books above publishes income data for typical participants. That gap matters, and the US Federal Trade Commission has written about it directly. Its staff guidance, Business Guidance Concerning Multi-Level Marketing (first published in 2018 and last updated in 2024), is addressed to companies, but it is just as useful to a reader judging a book or a presentation. The guidance is non-binding, and it says the following.

• A testimonial from a high earner is atypical, and presenting atypical earnings to someone considering the opportunity is likely to create a deceptive impression.
• A "results not typical" or "results are not guaranteed" disclaimer is not enough to fix a misleading claim.
• Earnings claims should account for what participants spend as well as what they earn, including product purchases, travel, tools and training.
• Lifestyle claims, such as images of luxury or talk of quitting your job, are implied earnings claims and are deceptive if participants generally do not achieve those results.
• An income disclosure statement that leaves out people who earned nothing or lost money is misleading, and one that highlights the small share of participants with significant income is deceptive.
• Selling real products does not by itself make a compensation structure lawful, and a product buyback policy does not cover other expenses or the time people spend.

Read with that in mind, a book built on its author's own results is a single testimonial at book length. It can teach you skills. It cannot tell you what you are likely to earn.

The better source for that question is the company's own income disclosure statement, if it publishes one. Look for the median rather than the average, check whether everyone who signed up is counted or only "active" participants, and see whether expenses are mentioned at all. Our guide to MLM income disclosure statements explains how to read one, and if a company publishes none, that absence is worth noting.

How to use this list

If you are considering joining, start with one critical book and the FTC guidance, then read how to evaluate an MLM company before joining and look up the company in our MLM company directory. If you have already joined, Go Pro or Your First Year in Network Marketing will help with the daily work, and Influence will help you sell without pressuring people.

Whichever you read, test each income claim the same way: who is it about, what period does it cover, does it subtract expenses, and does it describe a typical participant or an exceptional one. For the legal background, see our articles on FTC guidelines for MLM companies and how an MLM differs from a pyramid scheme.

The list at a glance

Publication details are from library catalogue records; later editions may come from different publishers.