On Good Authority: Publishing the Book that Will Build Your Business

Tony Lyons, the CEO of Skyhorse Publishing, is not one to shy away from controversy. He's known, in fact, for picking up books from other publishers when the authors are "cancelled." I'll be honest...I was scared to record this conversation because the times we live in—where anything you say if you don't subscribe to a certain way of thinking can be an opportunity for others to take you down. But the fact is, I believe that everyone should have a right to say what they believe, even if it's not what I believe, and that a mob mentality approach to scandals doesn't help anyone. And so we got into all of it—how Skyhorse picked up Woody Allen's memoir after Hachette cancelled it, the ways some of his books have lost "likes" when they've been squashed, the money Vanity Fair must have spent punishing him for the Allen book and more. We also talked about which media opportunities can really move the needle in terms of book sales, why newsletter lists matter, how editorially influenced the New York Times bestseller list is and just how few sales you can have to make it on the list...among many other topics. Brace yourself for this one. ARE YOU A NON-FICTION AUTHOR? IF SO, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Brian Sachetta is the author and owner of “Get Out of Your Head,” a brand and book series that seeks to help folks overcome anxiety and depression. As a software developer, he combines his experiences in the tech world with previous mental health battles to draw parallels between computer systems and the human mind in order to give readers practical strategies for evading their own psychological demons. His two books—Get Out of Your Head: A Toolkit for Living with and Overcoming Anxiety and Get Out of Your Head Vol. 2: Navigating the Abyss of Depression—are designed to help those struggling with anxiety and depression. In this episode, we had every intention of discussing Amazon glitches and working the back end of the site when publishing trouble arises but we got so into our discussion about trademark troubles, beta readers and how important it is not to trash other writers that I simply didn't allow him to discuss our planned topic.  Juicy stuff here! I think you'll love it. For more about Brian and his books, go to Get Out of Your Head.  ARE YOU A NON-FICTION AUTHOR? IF SO, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Of all the interviews I've done, the one I'm asked about perhaps the most often is with the iconic Robert Greene. This, of course, is not surprising. Greene is an icon in the writing world—as adored by rappers as he is by intellectual entrepreneurs for his meticulously researched tomes on power, seduction, narcissism and more. What is surprising is what he revealed in this interview—namely, that traditional publishers don't do anything to support authors, why podcast promotion is so important and how listening to "the muse" while you write is one of the worst things you can do. Please soak in this re-release as much as you can. It contains GOLD.  ARE YOU A NON-FICTION AUTHOR? IF SO, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Chris Voss is someone who seems to have popped up out of nowhere before beginning to appear everywhere. A former hostage negotiator, Voss watched his New York Times bestselling book, Never Split the Difference, become an instant classic in the business world as entrepreneurs soaked up his tactics.  But how, exactly, did his book skyrocket to the top of bestseller lists and become so highly quotable? Turns out Voss took a very deliberate approach to his book promotion and it paid off handsomely. Spoiler alert: podcast interviews changed the game while book tours did not. Listen to this can't-miss episode re-release to find out more. ARE YOU A NON-FICTION AUTHOR? IF SO, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Misty McAfee is an author, marketer, real estate agent and delightful human. She's also someone who has some writing out there that could be relaunched—in particular a book on codependence she released in 2015 and a play she released in 2021. In this episode, we went through both and discussed how she could change her title, cover, description, publishing company and more. We also discussed what made her launch the way she did, how to relaunch a book while keeping your existing Amazon reviews and what happens when you dedicate a book to a now ex-husband. Everything we discuss can be applied to your own books so take some notes for either your upcoming launch or a relaunch of any existing book! ARE YOU A NON-FICTION AUTHOR? IF SO, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Dan Nicholson graduated summa cum laude from Seattle University with degrees in accounting and information systems before completing a fellowship at the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. He went on to work at Deloitte and various Fortune 500 companies and has been named to CPA Practice Advisor’s 40 Under 40 list of global accountants four times. But, as he might say, blah blah blah. His passion—and what he wrote his book Rigging the Game about—is what he had to unlearn after doing all those impressive things. He poured it all into Certainty U, a program that helps purpose-based entrepreneurs "get lucky." On this episode, we discussed how he was able to sell thousands of copies of a book he hadn't yet written—in short, how he was able to rig the book publishing game. (And how you can, too.) For more about Dan and his book, go to www.riggingamazon.com. ARE YOU A NON-FICTION AUTHOR? IF SO, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Did you launch a book and have it not go according to plan? That's what happened to John Checki, which is why he's the ideal person to feature on my new type of episode, "How to Fix a Broken Book." He released his book, Spend Time and Save Money, in 2020 and while it's served as a business card for his son JJ (they wrote it together), it hasn't moved the needle nearly as much as it could have. And so we discussed how his title, cover, description, byline, publisher name and reviews, among many other things, could be improved. I'm terribly excited about this because even though listeners can't see the Amazon page in discussion (unless you go here), the episode contains so many actionable steps you can take if you're gearing up for a launch (or want to launch your book so successfully that you don't need to consider a re-launch). John said he was going to implement these suggestions for a Thanksgiving relaunch and my plan is to reach out to listeners/subscribers whenever one of the books we've revamped in one of these episodes is relaunched and all support each other. (Except for me, who has been banned from doing Amazon reviews. We get into that in this episode.) Enjoy and learn what not to do, or at least how to fix it. After all, it's never too late to fix a broken book. ARE YOU A NON-FICTION AUTHOR? IF SO, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Many authors are afraid of getting sued. Many authors are confused about copyright. (It's legit confusing.) Many authors don't know that they should establish an LLC. That's why author and attorney Maria Riegger's advice and suggestions were so useful.  In this episode, we talked about how to copyright your book, the risks of writing about someone you know and the importance of setting up an LLC, among many other things. She's also written a book, Legal Issues Authors Must Consider, that's entirely focused on these topics. So dig into this episode. And protect yourself! IF YOU'RE A NON-FICTION AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH. GET YOUR BOOK ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Oh, wait a treat this one is! Here you're getting four for the (free!) price of one: a round table interview with four of my clients at ONCE: Barbara Legere, Tamar Hermes, Chris Joseph and Lauren Schwarzfeld on the anxieties and excitement of their first book launch. Only listen if you want to hear the disparate experiences authors have on their first book launch! IF YOU'RE WRITING A NON-FICTION BOOK, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM

Jeremy Enns is the founder of Podcast Marketing Academy, the only growth-focused podcast education platform for experienced creators, brands and marketers looking to build long-term, sustainable audience growth systems. We met five years ago at the World Domination Summit in Portland and I've followed his work religiously ever since. I've had other guests on before to talk about how authors can get booked on podcasts but I wanted to bring him on to talk about how authors can turn their books into podcasts (think Tim Ferriss' Tools of Titans). In this episode, we talked about why you don't just want to make your podcast a rehash of your book but more a jumping off point, a way you could release a podcast while writing your book, thereby making your listeners into beta readers of sorts and how the way to be successful in a book-to-podcast transition is to have a strong thru-line. IF YOU'RE A NON-FICTION AUTHOR, YOU NEED AN ELEVATOR PITCH! GET YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH TEMPLATE AT WWW.BOOKELEVATORPITCH.COM