Steve Chou is a service provider, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He’s now additionally a guide writer with the discharge in Could 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 dwelling regardless of having achieved monetary success.
On this interview, Chou addresses the method of publishing and selling his guide, now a Wall Avenue Journal bestseller. Your complete audio of our dialog is embedded under. The transcript is edited for size and readability.
Eric Bandholz: Inform us about your guide.
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 all the time been a bucket-list merchandise to put in writing a guide. That’s largely why I did it. It’s not a cash play. I dreamed of taking my youngsters to a Barnes & Noble and displaying my guide on the shelf. I did that two weeks in the past.
When it comes to enterprise and technique, hitting a bestseller record immediately provides credibility. Outdoors of that, it’s a fairly good lead generator for the rest you do. In case you promote a course, digital product, or membership, of us can discover you that approach. It’s a low-cost approach for them to study extra about your work.
I acquired a guide 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 might promote. It had a top level view of the guide and included a pattern chapter. It was a whole 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 might get a guide deal. One in all my buddies, Jeff Goins, was dabbling with a book-in-a-box service, basically a guide guide. I employed him, and he coached me by the whole course of.
I needed to go the historically revealed route — primarily for ego causes. I pitched to eight to 10 publishers equivalent to Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Penguin. You hop on a Zoom name, meet the personnel there, and see if you happen to get alongside. You then set a date when all of the publishers bid on what to pay you prematurely to put in writing the guide. You have a look at all of the affords and choose one. I went with HarperCollins — they gave a six-figure advance, which was the very best.
I get a 15% lower on onerous 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 hundreds of books.
In case you’re doing it for the cash, self-publishing is finest 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 record.
The publishing enterprise is like enterprise capital. Publishers put money into 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 not possible to knock that man off The Wall Avenue Journal’s bestselling enterprise books record.
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 record. I had a three-prong assault. I reached out to of us who had sponsored me and requested them to do a bulk guide purchase for his or her viewers. In the end, you must get books into the fingers of actual folks. If you wish to promote hundreds of books by launch, you’ve got an enormous viewers or leverage others. Most of the books I bought had been from contacts who purchased in bulk and distributed them without cost to their viewers.
My guide launch coach suggested me to go on 200 podcasts. I requested him what the largest bang for my buck can be with out sacrificing 200 hours of my time, and he informed me to do a whole lot of good bonuses for my very own viewers, get corporations to do bulk buys, after which go on a minimum of the heavy-hitting podcasts — the ten or 20 which have gigantic audiences. That’s basically what I did.
I interviewed as lots of the large podcasters by myself podcast as doable and promoted the heck out of something they needed to promote. When it got here time for my guide to launch, I hit up all of them and mentioned, “Hey, keep in mind me? I used to be questioning if you happen to’d be prepared to have me in your present. I’ve a guide popping out.” Nearly all of them mentioned sure. It’s a networking play.
The majority buys and bonuses ended up transferring probably the most books. I supplied three bonuses with the acquisition of the guide. One was a three-day workshop on easy methods to get began with print-on-demand, which I take into account a gateway to ecommerce. Then I had a two-day seminar on easy methods to 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 stay stream in a non-public Fb group to assist everybody with their aspect hustles.
In case you go the historically revealed route, you will need to have an viewers. You gained’t get a guide deal until you’ve got a following, whether or not or not it’s on YouTube or podcasting, when you’ve got an in depth e mail record. After I utilized, I believe my YouTube channel was nonetheless fairly small. I believe it was 90,000 subscribers. I had been podcasting for a very long time. I had an e mail record of 100,000, plus my weblog.
Bandholz: Listeners may 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 elevate with these?
Chou: Undoubtedly for My Spouse Give up Her Job. For Bumblebee, I don’t assume so. We promote handkerchiefs. What are the probabilities that somebody desires a handkerchief? Fairly low.
I plan on making the guide a part of my total advertising and marketing technique as a result of I’ve a singular message in comparison with all the opposite make-money-online guys. It’s a option to differentiate myself, and having made The Wall Avenue Journal bestseller record provides credibility to all the pieces I do.
I need to keep on that record for the long term. Nevertheless it takes time. I need to go on a whole lot of podcasts and make folks conscious of my guide, and hopefully, down the road, it turns into a family guide, like “The 4-Hour Workweek” or “Wealthy Dad Poor Dad.”
Bandholz: The place can folks purchase your guide?
Chou: Go to TheFamilyFirstEntrepreneur.com. To study extra about what I do, go to MyWifeQuitHerJob.com. If you’re getting married, I’ll hook you up with some handkerchiefs at BumblebeeLinens.com.
