Authormba: Conversations About Book Marketing, Publishing, Author Platforms, And Other Business Strategies For Authors

Colin Wright is a successful author and entrepreneur whose worldly travels inform and inspire his creative projects. Experienced in both creative non-fiction and fiction writing as well as the business-side of books, Colin continues to push the envelope on what authors can achieve when they marry strong writing skills with savvy business skills. His curiosity about the business of books has led him into pursuing a number of fascinating startups in the publishing space, the most recent being Asymmetrical Press with co-founders Joshua and Ryan (The Minimalists). I love Colin's amazing ability to succinctly and vividly describe the conditions affecting writers today; his language, forethought, and approach are refreshing and well tuned into the opportunities facing author entrepreneurs today. Chatting with Colin is always a thrill. I wager you'll enjoy the chat too. And for more, find us on Twitter @WinningEdits or #AuthorMBA. Enjoy!

Bob Burg is back to talk about what author entrepreneurs can learn from his new book, Adversaries into Allies: Win People Over Without Manipulation or Coercion. Persuasion is at the heart of this book, which all authors and businesspeople need to study and practice if they are to have fulfilling and successful careers. Selling books takes persuasion. Attracting a loyal audience to your author platform takes persuasion. Landing a book agent, traditional publisher, or self-publishing team all require persuasion. The trick, as Bob explains, is not to coerce or manipulate. With Bob's legendary gentle touch, he explains how to approach these readership and business opportunities in a different and more uplifting way. Great ready to enjoy some of the best advice about the business of books from one of the brightest minds in the industry. And for more, find us on Twitter @WinningEdits or #AuthorMBA.

Mignon Fogarty—better known as Grammar Girl—is diversifying her career and business with a new crowdfunding project, Peeve Wars. Peeve Wars is a fun grammar card game that is a beautiful real-world extension of her brand and business. It is also one of the few types of projects that she can run on her own due to her Grammar Girl licensing agreement with Macmillan. In this lively chat, Mignon opens up about her experience with crowdfunding (both the pros and cons), how her Grammar Girl licensing agreement works, when and why authors should consider crowdfunding books, and a whole lot more! Great ready to learn a lot about the expanding world of the business of books. And for more, find us on Twitter @WinningEdits or #AuthorMBA.

Paul Jarvis is well known for his phenomenal design career. He's also become known for his personable, passionate, and sharp writing. From several popular books to his weekend newsletter reads, Paul pursues writing, publishing, and selling books and content as a grand adventure! From crowdfunding books, to designing books, to treating books as products (or not), to self-publishing strategies and tactics, to selling books direct to your readers, and much more, Paul personifies the attitudes and skills of a true author entrepreneur who operates his writing career as if with an MBA from a prestigious business school. Oh, and he's a hoot to speak with about creative, business, and publishing choices. So plug in and enjoy this energetic chat with a true Author MBA.

Michael Hyatt literally wrote the book on how to build platforms that attract readers, delight fans, and accelerate careers and businesses. His bookPlatform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World is a New York Times Best-Seller that's crammed with invaluable information for the early stage author entrepreneur looking to build their platform, or for the mid-tier author entrepreneur looking to a strategy or two to accelerate his or her growth. More than his book, Michael and I discuss how his business works—where he makes his money, how his revenue streams have shifted over time, how he's using his Platform conference to fuel further business growth, and what new platform trends he's seeing and encouraging author entrepreneurs to take advantage of. Join Michael and me for this in-depth examination about arguably the most important strategic asset for your career—your platform!

Charlie Hoehn has been at the center of some of the most amazing and successful book projects of the modern era, including both the 4-Hour Bodyand 4-Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss, I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi, The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau, and more. He knows book marketing inside and out as well as what the a-list, best-selling authors know about the business of books. But that high-octane lifestyle took its toll on him. After totally burning out, Charlie is back and writing about how to manage success along with anxiety in his new book, Play It Away: A Workaholic's Cure for Anxiety. I admit to falling into that category. I suspect most entrepreneurial authors do too. So plug in for this honest chat about what it's like to live large, find success, and manage the stress in the business of books.

Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover have written the definitive book about how to craft a habit-forming product. The book—Hooked: A Guide to Building Habit-Forming Products—has rocketed to success in just its first five weeks of availability, catching the attention and admiration of many thought leaders in their industry. What's fascinating about Nir's and Ryan's work is not only how they developed, (self-) published, and marketed the book to such quick success but also, and more intriguing to me, the parallels between how their 'Hooked Model' for engineering software products (e.g. mobile apps) can help authors create and market irresistible books. Like it or not, books are a specific type of product. And in our digital world, authors of books and related content published on the web can stand to learn a lot from Nir and Ryan, two guys who live and breathe exactly what they teach.

Chris Ducker is a seasoned entrepreneur who has developed an authority online for building and leading virtual teams. To propel his author career forward, he's written Virtual Freedom—a book describing the mindset, systems, and tactics entrepreneurs and creative professionals need to know when augmenting their own personal work capacity with virtual teammates. I'm proud to say that I'm Chris' campaign director for Virtual Freedom. In this chat, Chris and I share some behind-the-scenes glimpses into his impressive campaign that's happening right now! Learn in real-time as we explore what's involved in the campaign. We also weave into some of the elements from the book and how authors like you can apply them to your own workflow so that you save yourself from burning out.

Scott Bales is an accomplished technology thought leader specializing in mobile commerce, user experience, and direct-to-consumer campaigns. He's bringing his expertise to bear with an impressive book project, Mobile Ready, which is entirely financed via crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a tricky world to navigate, especially for authors, and even more so for first-time authors. But Scott's campaign has performed beautifully—it's already past 100% funded and rising. In this chat, Scott and I delve into how he organized his crowdfunding campaign for success, who comprises his independent publishing team, and what else he's learned about the shifting publishing industry through his work on the global stage.

Derek Sivers is one of the most imaginative and emphatic entrepreneurs you'll ever meet. He's enjoyed great business and book success due to these qualities, which he is now applying to his new publishing venture, Woodegg. Derek epitomizes the persona of an author entrepreneur as he's used his writings and books to not only teach the next generation of entrepreneurs, but also to establish his body of work through continually experimentation. He even joined forces with Seth Godin and wrote a book for Seth's Domino Project back in 2011, which was a major publishing experiment at the time. You're going to love this chat with Derek; it's impossible not to love him.

Josh Kaufman may be the smartest business-minded author alive today. His first two books—Personal MBA and  The First 20 Hours—have been enormous successes, and not only at launch but over time. His track record for consistent and persistent book sales along with a growing reputation as a systems and skill "hacker" make him among the brightest minds to learn from and emulate. In this action-packed, insight-rich talk, Josh and I delve into the fields of adjacent opportunity ripe for many authors (including audio books, AUX, lean platform systems, etc.) as well as fringe skills—like programming skills—for authors that may be the greatest new emergent opportunity yet! If you like this episode, please say so with an iTunes comment for this show. It really helps and I'd appreciate it greatly!

Sean Platt is the co-author of several engrossing fiction series including Yesterday's Gone, The Beam, and Z 2134. More than just a fiction writer, however, Sean is a savvy publishing professional who has figured out a lot about how Amazon works, the art and science of serialized books, and what it takes to sell bundles of books. With co-author Johnny B. Truant, Sean shares all his publishing advice in Write. Publish. Repeat., the backdrop of our in-depth conversation about writing good books that sell again and again.

This is a special edition of the AuthorMBA podcast made possible by Yi Shun Lai of the Whidbey Master of Fine Arts program at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Today, I’m honored to welcome a panel of three exceptionally brilliant professionals to join in a fun conversation about the future of publishing, writing careers, and what happens at the intersection of creative/literary skills and business/publishing skills. Joining me are Jane Friedman, Christina Katz, and Wayne Ude. This episode will leave you tingling with ideas to advance your author career.

Pam Slim's remarkable career as a writer, author, speaker, and business coach emerged from a successful enterprise career. What she soon discovered—and shares in her new book, Body of Work—is that single projects or books aren't enough to build a thriving, sustainable career. The modern author, replete with many creative influences and entrepreneurial aspirations—needs to concentrate on building a complete, holistic body of work. Pam joins the show to share how she did that with her author career, and how you can do it too.

Jason Fried is one of my favorite authors and entrepreneurs. Not only is he the NYT best-selling author of REWORK—my all-time fave business book—but he's also the founder of 37signals, one of the coolest and most influential startup companies on the planet. Suffice to say, Jason knows a ton about writing popular books that support really imaginative businesses. And with his new book, REMOTE, Jason takes the argument for compelling and slightly controversial books even further. I hope you have as much fun listening to this episode as I did recording it.

Dan Pink—NYT best-selling author and one of my heroes—joins me to talk about the business imperatives that face today's authors. Dan starts by sharing why he left is promising political career as a speech writer to pursue a career in books as well as what his business priorities were at that time. Dan explains how to select a subject for a commercially-viable book that is also fulfilling to research and write. And he'll give candid accounts of what it's like to be a best-selling author experimenting with new training programs and other business models. Sound awesome enough? Enjoy!

CJ Lyons is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 20 novels. She writes fictional “thrillers with heart,” which her fans love to the tune of 100,000+ copies sold every month! CJ joins AuthorMBA to share lessons learned from various publishing relationships—traditional and non—how the business-side of fiction works, and what career expectations new authors should have as they start out.

As editor-in-chief of 99U, Jocelyn K. Glei specializes in collaborating with top-tier writers on amazing work. From this vantage point, she leads the creative effort to develop 99U's successful new book series, which already contains two popular books. Jocelyn joins the show to share how the team positions these books within their larger business plan, what she learned working with Amazon Publishing, and how best-selling authors make their own luck for their careers.

Bob Mayer—a NYT best-selling author and micro-publisher—discusses the forces at play in publishing today such as building your own team, keeping your rights, profiting from audio books, and more. Bob also talks about how he's bootstrapping his micro-publishing startup—Cool Gus Publishing—from the incredible revenue generated from his backlist of popular scifi series like Area 51. Oh, and Bob's a former Green Beret, so he's not messing around with the advice he gives. Listen up!

Clive Thompson knows a lot about how technology is impacting the way we think, write, publish books, and grow audiences. An accomplished journalist and avid learner, Clive joins the show to discuss how new technologies are making us smarter and better equipped to create and share compelling books. He also reveals how his own thinking has evolved about the pros/cons of technology in our professional lives, along with a few dangers to be cognizant of as we adopt new innovations.