Steve Chou is a service provider, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He’s now a ebook creator with the discharge in Might 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 residing 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 complete audio of our dialog is embedded beneath. 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 jot 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 displaying my ebook on the shelf. I did that two weeks in the past.

When it comes to enterprise and technique, hitting a bestseller checklist immediately provides credibility. Outdoors of that, it’s a reasonably good lead generator for anything you do. When you promote a course, digital product, or membership, of us can discover you that approach. It’s a low-cost approach for them to be taught extra about your work.

I acquired a ebook deal, so I used to be given an advance. The method took a yr. 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 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 might get a ebook deal. Certainly one of my buddies, Jeff Goins, was dabbling with a book-in-a-box service, primarily a ebook marketing consultant. I employed him, and he coached me by way of your complete course of.

I wished to go the historically revealed route — primarily for ego causes. I pitched to eight to 10 publishers comparable to Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Penguin. You hop on a Zoom name, meet the personnel there, and see in case you get alongside. You then set a date when all of the publishers bid on what to pay you upfront to jot down the ebook. You have a look at all of the presents and choose one. I went with HarperCollins — they gave a six-figure advance, which was the best.

I get a 15% minimize on arduous 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 greatest since you get to maintain all of the proceeds. If you go historically revealed, that carries with it some status. Plus, it’s a lot simpler to hit a bestseller checklist.

The publishing enterprise is like enterprise capital. Publishers put money into a bunch of writers, and so they 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 checklist.

Bandholz: How does somebody produce the following “Atomic Habits”?

Chou: Step one is the launch. You wish to promote a bunch of books rapidly to hit a bestseller checklist. 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 a must to get books into the arms of actual individuals. If you wish to promote hundreds of books by launch, you’ve gotten 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 ebook launch coach suggested me to go on 200 podcasts. I requested him what the most important bang for my buck could be with out sacrificing 200 hours of my time, and he instructed me to do quite a lot of good bonuses for my very own viewers, get firms to do bulk buys, after which go on at the very least the heavy-hitting podcasts — the ten or 20 which have gigantic audiences. That’s primarily what I did.

I interviewed as most of the huge podcasters by myself podcast as attainable 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, bear 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.” Virtually all of them stated sure. It’s a networking play.

The majority buys and bonuses ended up shifting probably the most books. I supplied three bonuses with the acquisition of the ebook. One was a three-day workshop on the best way to get began with print-on-demand, which I take into account a gateway to ecommerce. Then I had a two-day seminar on the best way to get began and become profitable 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 dwell stream in a non-public Fb group to assist everybody with their facet hustles.

When you go the historically revealed route, you need to have an viewers. You received’t get a ebook deal until you’ve gotten a following, whether or not or not it’s on YouTube or podcasting, when you’ve got an intensive e-mail checklist. 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 e-mail checklist of 100,000, plus my weblog.

Bandholz: Listeners would possibly recall your two companies. Bumblebee is an internet retailer promoting handkerchiefs. My Spouse Give up Her Job is a media and coaching web site. Have you ever seen a gross sales raise 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 ebook a part of my total advertising and marketing 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 checklist provides credibility to all the pieces I do.

I wish to keep on that checklist 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.