790: Book in a Box Passes $11.3m in Revenue, 500+ Authors

JT McCormick. He's an American businessman, author and speaker. Most recently, he served as President of Technology company HeadSpring before his current role as president & CEO at Book in a Box.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Cyrus the Great
• What CEO do you follow? – Jeff Bezos
• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 4.5
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – It's not about the high school diploma. It's about the work ethic and the sacrifice you're willing to put in to achieve greatness

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:47 – Nathan introduces JT to the show
• 02:08 – It is possible to buy a bestseller from Book in a Box
  • 02:23 – The cost will depend on many factors
• 02:40 – One of Nathan's friends spent almost $250K on Book in a Box because he wanted to put out a book and increase his speaking fee
  • 03:15 – There are many people who paid more than $250K to get a book out
• 03:21 – Nathan read his friend's book and thought it was trash, but his friend's speaking fee increased
  • 03:33 – It's still a positive ROI
• 04:02 – Book in a Box specializes in ensuring the books are filled with valuable and meaningful content
• 05:11 – Book in a Box has made it possible for authors to publish their book
• 05:27 – JT just met a professional speaker who has been in the business for 22 years, but never had a book
  • 05:34 – He never got the time to write a book
  • 05:41 – Book in a Box will just interview him and write the book for him
  • 05:52 – "Your book written in your tone, your voice"
• 06:09 – Nathan shares how Book in a Box makes you spill the beans
• 06:41 – Cost is $25K which is $5K a month for five months
• 06:58 – The quality of the books are the same as the ones from Barnes and Noble
• 07:13 – Nathan got a deal from Portfolio Random House
• 07:37 – Book in a Box provides proposals and manuscripts for their clients to bring to publishing houses
• 08:00 – Book in a Box has worked with a total of 500 authors
• 08:31 – Book in a Box launched in 2015
• 09:00 – Book in a Box is one of the unicorn companies in the startup world
• 09:13 – "We, as Book in a Box, have no debt, no private equity, no VC money and we are extremely profitable"
• 09:27 – Book in a Box has changed pricing a couple of times
  • 09:38 – When JT met Tucker and Zach, the co-founders, he was actually looking for someone to write his book
  • 10:14 – Tucker offered JT three pricing models, $10K, $18K and $30K and JT chose the latter because he wanted a high-quality book
  • 10:51 – JT explained how the pricing turned out to be just one pricing model which is $25K
• 11:33 – Total revenue since 2015 is $11.3M
• 12:07 – Book in a Box currently averages 25-30 books a month which has continuously grown to 50-75 a month
• 12:29 – Team size is 30 full-timers with over 100 freelancers
• 13:13 – "We're a relationship company"
• 14:17 – Book in a Box treats their freelancers with respect and pays them on time
• 15:05 – Book in a Box helps with marketing and book sales
  • 15:14 – Customers go to Book in a Box for one of three reasons; credibility, thought leadership or lead generation
  • 15:48 – Book in a Box created Thought Leader Media
    • 16:01 – Pricing starts at $15K to up to $75K yearly
    • 16:17 – The pricing varies depending on the author needs
    • 16:51 – Thought Leader Media just rolled out in Q1
    • 16:58 – 35 out of 250 published books are in Thought Leader Media
  • 17:10 – Total book sales from Book in a Box authors
  • 18:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. Those who want to have a book written, but can't manage to start can simply utilize companies such as Book in a Box.
2. Pricing is crucial in every business—it's either you make it big or lose everything.
3. Respect and an excellent work ethic are keys to success.

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives