Behind the Book Cover

Neal Pollack, whose alter ego is "the Greatest Living American Writer,"  is the author of 11 books of fiction and nonfiction.   His latest, Pothead, covers his journey from drug-addled literary sensation to sober Austin dad. He's written thousands of articles for publications current and defunct, prominent and obscure, whoever pays. To continue with the randomness, he's a three-time Jeopardy! champion and a certified yoga instructor.    Neal and I have known each other for years, with essays appearing in some of the same books (one of which I edited). A truthteller who reveals the often brutal reality of modern-day publishing, Neal is perhaps most brutal and truth-telling when it comes to himself.   In this conversation, we talked about what happens to Gen X midlist authors, what happens when you seek literary fame and how the most important thing to do when launching a book is to enjoy it.   WANT TO WRITE YOUR OWN MEMOIR? DOWNLOAD MY ONE-PAGE MEMOIR STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM.

Tyler Wagner is the founder of Authorsunite.com, where he helps people become successful authors.    More specifically what that means is that he does something similar to what we do at Launch Pad—people pay him to write and publish their books.   But he has a superpower we do not—namely, the ability to get books on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists.    How does he do it? And how does a college drop-out end up connecting with Gary Vee, Tim Ferriss before launching a massive publishing business?    It's all in this episode.   WANT TO WRITE YOUR OWN BOOK? GO GRAB MY ONE-PAGE MEMOIR STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM.

Jeff Goins is a writer, keynote speaker, and award-winning blogger with a reputation for challenging the status quo. He is the best-selling author of five books, including The Art of Work, which landed on the best­ seller lists of USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, and The Washington Post. He lives with his family near Nashville, Tennessee. His website Goinswriter.com is visited by millions of people every year.   He is also an idol of mine when it comes to the fine art of combining writing with entrepreneurship and the even finer art of being successful at both.   In this chat, we got into the importance of patrons, why your network is like your neighborhood and how it takes years to promote a book. And of course we chatted about his top launch tips. Spoiler alert: it has to do with being a good neighbor.   WANT TO WRITE YOUR OWN MEMOIR? START WITH MY ONE-PAGE MEMOIR STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET, WHICH YOU CAN GRAB AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM

Chris Voss may be the coolest guy in the world.   The former lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group, Voss now runs Black Swan Limited, where he brings all the techniques he perfected to the business world.   During Chris’s 24-year tenure in the Bureau, he was trained in the art of negotiation by not only the FBI but also Scotland Yard and Harvard Law School. He's taught business negotiation in the MBA program as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Oh and he's also taught business negotiation at a little school called Harvard.   But we barely got into any of that. That's because this conversation focused on his book Never Split the Difference, which has sold over a million copies, changed how countless businesses operated and made Voss into a media darling with the media hits and Mastermind course to prove it.   In this episode, we talked about his top tips for a successful launch—be prepared to outwork everyone else, answer questions on Quora, do every interview, no matter how small and study the great Ted talkers, comedians and media personalities to see how they deliver information in a compelling way. We also talked about how no one wanted this book that went on to change the way business is done. And then we got into the matter of a Facebook friend request. How did this negotiation go? You're going to have to listen to the episode to find out.   WANT TO WRITE YOUR OWN BOOK? DOWNLOAD MY ONE-PAGE MEMOIR STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM TO GET STARTED.

Nancy Levin knows book launches from every angle. The best-selling author of five books was the Event Director at Hay House for 12 years where she oversaw events for mega bestselling authors Gabby Bernstein, Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay. And with her new book,  Setting Boundaries Will Set You Free: The Ultimate Guide to Telling the Truth, Creating Connection and Finding Freedom, she used everything she knew.   In this episode, we discussed the role boundaries play in book launches, why focusing on the value your reader is going to get is the way to make a book successful and also got into some marketing nerd speak about funnels, tripwires, courses and all the rest.     DO YOU WANT TO SHARE YOUR STORY BUT NEED SOME HELP? GRAB OUR ONE-PAGE MEMOIR STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM.

Investigative journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney had a blow-out success with his traditionally published book What Doesn’t Kill Us—it was a New York Times bestseller that sold 150,000 copies.     So why would he make the switch from traditional to self with his latest book, The Wedge?     The long answer involves lawyers, shoddy editors, a good deal of hustle and just some old-fashioned common sense. The short(er) answer is in this episode.     So who is Scott Carney when he's not truthtelling about the publishing industry? Well, his other books include The Red Market and The Enlightenment Trap. He was a contributing editor at Wired for five years and his writing also appears in Mother Jones, Men’s Journal, Playboy, Foreign Policy, Discover, Outside and Fast Company. His work has been covered on NPR and National Geographic TV. He's won a bunch of awards, gives TEDx talks, teaches and does a whole lot more.     In this episode, we talked about the realities of traditional publishing, why he grabbed the rights to his book back from a major publisher, the ins and outs of audiobook recording and much more.     DO YOU HAVE A STORY TO SHARE AND NEED SOME HELP SHARING IT? DOWNLOAD OUR ONE-PAGE MEMOIR STRUCTURE CHEAT SHEET AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM.

To call Gina DeVee a queen is an understatement.   No, Gina is the QUEEN of Queens everywhere.   Her journey from struggling psychotherapist (who lived at home with her parents) to globetrotting entrepreneur has led her to found her multi-million dollar women’s empowerment company, Divine Living.  She has dedicated her career to helping clients connect spiritually, start businesses, create wealth and live life to the fullest.   When her book, The Audacity to Be Queen, was released in early March, it meant canceling—er, postponing—a planned world book tour and learning new launch tools...namely doing TV appearances from her living room, taking over friends' Instagram stories feeds and essentially looking for the gifts that are a part of every unexpected (and expected) experience.   As she points out, book releases NEVER go as planned but you also never know when a book is going to hit (her client Jen Sincero's book You Are a Badass was out for years before it became a bestseller). All of this is to say that her advice is as useful for an author whose book comes out at a more convenient time as it is for those who are launching now. This one has plenty of specific advice, including why it's a good idea to include a companion course in your book.   WANT TO WRITE YOUR OWN BOOK? GRAB MY FREE GUIDE TO WRITING A MEMOIR BY GOING TO WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM

Joel Stein wrote a weekly column for Time magazine for 20 years, was a columnist for Entertainment Weekly and the Los Angeles Times and is the author of the books Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity and In Defense of Elitism: Why I’m Better Than You and You’re Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book.      He's also such a funny person that he manages to come across as incredibly likable both while penning a book defending elitism and while dis-inviting me to his book launch party (true story; listen to his defense in this episode and let me know if you think it means you think I should forgive him).     In this episode, we talk about how to ask friends to recommend you to a show as a guest, why to never rely on a publicist and ways to make an audiobook much better, among many other topics.     WANT TO WRITE YOUR OWN BOOK? GRAB MY FREE GUIDE TO WRITING A MEMOIR HERE>>WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM

Jen Gotch is one of those people who seems to stumble toward success. She's the first to admit that she figures everything out as she goes along—and it all seems to work out far better than it does for those with PowerPoints, MBAs and the rest. Case in point: band.do, the company she founded in 2008 with no business experience and which is now a beloved multimillion-dollar brand. Then there's her obsessive Instagram following and podcast that she built by being utterly herself—often sharing about her mental health struggles.   And the trend continued with her first book, The Upside of Being Down, which has been featured in People and The LA Times and recently hit The New York Times bestseller list.   While the release timing couldn't have been worse—we're talking days into shelter-in-place world shutdown—her attitude couldn't have been better. And although her book tour got canceled and plenty of plans were derailed, she was able to do a pivot that made her launch inarguably successful.    In this episode, we discuss how the business lessons she's accumulated along the way served her when it came to planning her book launch—and how she learned some new ones as life changed.   WANT TO WRITE YOUR OWN BOOK? GRAB MY FREE DOWNLOAD HERE>>WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM

Mike Koenigs is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, co-host of Capability Amplifier podcast with Strategic Coach founder Dan Sullivan and 13-time bestselling author, Mike is regular contributor to Entrepreneur and Forbes. He's interviewed, consulted and advised celebrity clients, billionaires and bestselling authors including Tony Robbins, Paula Abdul, Richard Dreyfuss, Dave Asprey, JJ Virgin, presidential candidate Tim Ryan, John Assaraf, Brian Tracy and XPrize founder Peter Diamandis, among many others.   He's also ALL love. I met him a few years ago and he was so kind and welcoming and usually wearing red shoes. But that is NOT why I asked him to come on the podcast. I asked him to come on because he is a master at taking advantage of business opportunities and I knew he'd be able to talk about how he's done that with books.   And BOY has he done it. Bet you didn't know you could generate millions from a book. In this episode, he explains how. (And he also mentions that he has a video that can show you how; go to http://mikekoenigs.com/owo to see it.)   DO YOU WANT TO WRITE A MEMOIR? GRAB MY ONE-PAGE STRUCTURE GUIDE AT WWW.MEMOIRDOWNLOAD.COM