Steve Chou is a service provider, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He’s now a e book writer with the discharge in Might of “The Household First Entrepreneur,” his HarperCollins title on enterprise, freedom, and priorities.
That is Chou’s third look on the podcast. In 2020 he mentioned Bumblebee Linens, his osCommerce retailer. In 2022 he described his choice for frugal residing regardless of having achieved monetary success.
On this interview, Chou addresses the method of publishing and selling his e book, now a Wall Road Journal bestseller. Your entire audio of our dialog is embedded under. The transcript is edited for size and readability.
Eric Bandholz: Inform us about your e book.
Steve Chou: It’s known as “The Household First Entrepreneur.” It’s about my values and prioritizing life in order that the enterprise doesn’t run you, and you’ve got the liberty to do no matter you need and spend time with who you need.
It’s at all times been a bucket-list merchandise to put in writing a e book. That’s largely why I did it. It’s not a cash play. I dreamed of taking my children to a Barnes & Noble and exhibiting my e book on the shelf. I did that two weeks in the past.
When it comes to enterprise and technique, hitting a bestseller listing immediately provides credibility. Exterior of that, it’s a reasonably good lead generator for anything you do. In the event you promote a course, digital product, or membership, of us can discover you that means. It’s a low-cost means for them to be taught extra about your work.
I obtained a e book deal, so I used to be given an advance. The method took a 12 months. I put collectively a proposal, which was round 50 pages. It had projections on what number of books I may promote. It had a top level view of the e book and included a pattern chapter. It was quite a lot of work to place that factor collectively.
I had interviewed many bestselling authors on my podcast, so I hit them up and requested how I may get a e book deal. One among my buddies, Jeff Goins, was dabbling with a book-in-a-box service, primarily a e book advisor. I employed him, and he coached me by way of the complete course of.
I needed to go the historically revealed route — primarily for ego causes. I pitched to eight to 10 publishers resembling Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Penguin. You hop on a Zoom name, meet the personnel there, and see when you get alongside. Then you definately set a date when all of the publishers bid on need to pay you prematurely to put in writing the e book. You take a look at all of the affords and choose one. I went with HarperCollins — they gave a six-figure advance, which was the best.
I get a 15% minimize on arduous copy gross sales and 25% for ebooks and Audible. I gained’t make greater than the six-figure advance till the gross sales exceed that quantity, which might be tens of 1000’s of books.
In the event you’re doing it for the cash, self-publishing is greatest since you get to maintain all of the proceeds. Whenever you go historically revealed, that carries with it some status. Plus, it’s a lot simpler to hit a bestseller listing.
The publishing enterprise is like enterprise capital. Publishers spend money on a bunch of writers, they usually want just one James Clear [“Atomic Habits”] or one Mark Manson [“The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck”] to make their enterprise for the subsequent 10 years. “Atomic Habits” sells round 22,000 copies each week. It’s unimaginable to knock that man off The Wall Road Journal’s bestselling enterprise books listing.
Bandholz: How does somebody produce the subsequent “Atomic Habits”?
Chou: Step one is the launch. You need to promote a bunch of books shortly to hit a bestseller listing. I had a three-prong assault. I reached out to of us who had sponsored me and requested them to do a bulk e book purchase for his or her viewers. Finally, it’s important to get books into the arms of actual folks. If you wish to promote 1000’s of books by launch, you will have an enormous viewers or leverage others. Most of the books I offered had been from contacts who purchased in bulk and distributed them at no cost to their viewers.
My e book launch coach suggested me to go on 200 podcasts. I requested him what the most important bang for my buck can be with out sacrificing 200 hours of my time, and he instructed me to do quite a lot of good bonuses for my very own viewers, get corporations to do bulk buys, after which go on not less than the heavy-hitting podcasts — the ten or 20 which have gigantic audiences. That’s primarily what I did.
I interviewed as most of the large podcasters alone podcast as attainable and promoted the heck out of something they needed to promote. When it got here time for my e book to launch, I hit up all of them and stated, “Hey, bear in mind me? I used to be questioning when you’d be prepared to have me in your present. I’ve a e book popping out.” Virtually all of them stated sure. It’s a networking play.
The majority buys and bonuses ended up shifting probably the most books. I supplied three bonuses with the acquisition of the e book. One was a three-day workshop on how you can get began with print-on-demand, which I think about a gateway to ecommerce. Then I had a two-day seminar on how you can get began and make cash with running a blog, YouTube-ing, and podcasting, that are three issues I do. Then I supplied a six-week “Household First” problem, the place I dwell stream in a non-public Fb group to assist everybody with their facet hustles.
In the event you go the historically revealed route, you need to have an viewers. You gained’t get a e book deal except you will have a following, whether or not or not it’s on YouTube or podcasting, when you have an in depth e mail listing. Once I utilized, I feel my YouTube channel was nonetheless fairly small. I feel it was 90,000 subscribers. I had been podcasting for a very long time. I had an e mail listing of 100,000, plus my weblog.
Bandholz: Listeners would possibly recall your two companies. Bumblebee is a web-based retailer promoting handkerchiefs. My Spouse Give up Her Job is a media and coaching website. Have you ever seen a gross sales carry with these?
Chou: Positively for My Spouse Give up Her Job. For Bumblebee, I don’t suppose so. We promote handkerchiefs. What are the possibilities that somebody needs a handkerchief? Fairly low.
I plan on making the e book a part of my general advertising and marketing technique as a result of I’ve a novel message in comparison with all the opposite make-money-online guys. It’s a solution to differentiate myself, and having made The Wall Road Journal bestseller listing provides credibility to every thing I do.
I need to keep on that listing for the long term. Nevertheless it takes time. I must go on quite a lot of podcasts and make folks conscious of your e book, and hopefully, down the road, it turns into a family e book, like “The 4-Hour Workweek” or “Wealthy Dad Poor Dad.”
Bandholz: The place can folks purchase your e book?
Chou: Go to TheFamilyFirstEntrepreneur.com. To be taught extra about what I do, go to MyWifeQuitHerJob.com. In case you are getting married, I’ll hook you up with some handkerchiefs at BumblebeeLinens.com.
