Steve Chou is a service provider, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He’s now a ebook creator 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 desire for frugal dwelling regardless of having achieved monetary success.
On this interview, Chou addresses the method of publishing and selling his ebook, now a Wall Road Journal bestseller. The whole audio of our dialog is embedded under. The transcript is edited for size and readability.
Eric Bandholz: Inform us about your ebook.
Steve Chou: It’s referred to 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 write down a ebook. That’s largely why I did it. It’s not a cash play. I dreamed of taking my youngsters to a Barnes & Noble and exhibiting my ebook on the shelf. I did that two weeks in the past.
By way of enterprise and technique, hitting a bestseller listing immediately provides credibility. Exterior of that, it’s a fairly good lead generator for the rest you do. When you promote a course, digital product, or membership, of us can discover you that manner. It’s a low-cost manner for them to be taught extra about your work.
I received a ebook 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 an overview of the ebook 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 ebook deal. Considered one of my buddies, Jeff Goins, was dabbling with a book-in-a-box service, basically a ebook marketing consultant. I employed him, and he coached me by means of your entire course of.
I wished to go the historically printed route — primarily for ego causes. I pitched to eight to 10 publishers reminiscent of Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Penguin. You hop on a Zoom name, meet the personnel there, and see in case you get alongside. Then you definitely set a date when all of the publishers bid on what to pay you prematurely to write down the ebook. You take a look at all of the provides and choose one. I went with HarperCollins — they gave a six-figure advance, which was the very best.
I get a 15% reduce on onerous copy gross sales and 25% for ebooks and Audible. I received’t make greater than the six-figure advance till the gross sales exceed that quantity, which might be tens of hundreds of books.
When you’re doing it for the cash, self-publishing is finest since you get to maintain all of the proceeds. Once you go historically printed, 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 following 10 years. “Atomic Habits” sells round 22,000 copies each week. It’s inconceivable to knock that man off The Wall Road Journal’s bestselling enterprise books listing.
Bandholz: How does somebody produce the following “Atomic Habits”?
Chou: Step one is the launch. You wish 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 ebook purchase for his or her viewers. In the end, it’s important to get books into the arms of actual individuals. 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 have been from contacts who purchased in bulk and distributed them without spending a dime to their viewers.
My ebook 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 advised me to do quite a lot of good bonuses for my very own viewers, get firms 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 basically what I did.
I interviewed as most of the huge podcasters alone podcast as potential and promoted the heck out of something they wished to promote. When it got here time for my ebook to launch, I hit up all of them and stated, “Hey, keep in mind me? I used to be questioning in case you’d be keen to have me in your present. I’ve a ebook popping out.” Nearly all of them stated sure. It’s a networking play.
The majority buys and bonuses ended up shifting essentially the most books. I provided three bonuses with the acquisition of the ebook. One was a three-day workshop on find out how to get began with print-on-demand, which I think about a gateway to ecommerce. Then I had a two-day seminar on find out how to get began and earn money with running a blog, YouTube-ing, and podcasting, that are three issues I do. Then I provided a six-week “Household First” problem, the place I stay stream in a personal Fb group to assist everybody with their facet hustles.
When you go the historically printed route, you have to have an viewers. You received’t get a ebook deal except you’ve got a following, whether or not it’s on YouTube or podcasting, you probably have an in depth electronic 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 electronic 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 raise with these?
Chou: Undoubtedly for My Spouse Give up Her Job. For Bumblebee, I don’t suppose so. We promote handkerchiefs. What are the possibilities that somebody desires a handkerchief? Fairly low.
I plan on making the ebook a part of my general advertising technique as a result of I’ve a novel message in comparison with all the opposite make-money-online guys. It’s a strategy to differentiate myself, and having made The Wall Road Journal bestseller listing provides credibility to all the pieces I do.
I wish to keep on that listing for the long term. Nevertheless it takes time. I need to go on quite a lot of podcasts and make individuals conscious of my ebook, and hopefully, down the road, it turns into a family ebook, like “The 4-Hour Workweek” or “Wealthy Dad Poor Dad.”
Bandholz: The place can individuals purchase your ebook?
Chou: Go to TheFamilyFirstEntrepreneur.com. To be taught 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.
