Legacy Publishing is Dead — How to Disrupt the Publishing Industry
The 3 pillars I would use to rebuild the publishing model, as an author
The current publishing business model is a relic of the past.
Here’s what it currently looks like:
- Publishers take on a multitude of books, hoping that one takes off.
- When one starts to gain traction organically, they put their marketing behind it while ignoring the others.
They promise the world to everyone, but only follow through if you are the anomaly… which is a lose for the author.
And they only make money on the anomaly… which is a lose for the publisher.
This is the definition of the rare Lose-Lose situation.
So what might a better business model be?
Here are the 3 pillars I would use to rebuild the publishing model, as an author (let me know in the comments if you have other ideas!).
1. Author Development Program
As a touring musician, I always hated the idea of a record label
Someone could take 70% of my revenue without a guarantee that they’ll grow my audience. This sounds ludicrous. And it is.
With one exception.
Record labels had an entire department dedicated to “Artist Development”.
This department would teach you how to dress, pose for photos, record, choreograph, sell merch, etc.
Labels signed you for your talent and worked with you to develop your skill so they could maximize their Return on their Investment in you. As an artist, you grew your skills and became loyal to the record label that took a chance on you.
Everyone walked away happy.
Looking at a new publishing business model, this is where I would start: an Author Development Program.
This would include…
- How to never hit writers block again (How to be creative on command)
- How to make your writing more engaging (How to tell stories, regardless of your Niche)
- How to find your Unique voice
- How to guarantee your writing will be read before you start
- How to use writing to drive revenue in your business
- What to do when you are out of creative ideas
- The three types of writing for the three stages of a customer
- How to grow your audience organically through content
- The different types of content (exposure, industry, and community)
- How to improve your content style
- How to create a pr blitz that gets you massive exposure
- How to engage with and nurture an audience
- How to grow your audience through partnerships
- How to grow an email list
- How to engage with an email list
- How to sell on an email list
- The 5 different revenue streams a nonfiction author can tap into (outside of writing your next book)
- How to improve your writing style
- How to teach your ideas in frameworks
etc…
I would give away everything that teaches you how to grow your audience, for free.
This would do 2 things:
- It would build good will and trust within the industry.
- It would build good will and trust from authors who follow the processes and get results.
These authors will start looking for what to do next.
I have a large following and an email list, now how do I make money?
This would give me a list of people who trust me and have shown they can put in the work. I would put the next step of trainings (making money) into a quarterly cohort, and sell access to the cohort
You (the authors) have a free step-by-step process for building your audience. That’s a win for you.
You also have a quarterly cohort you can join once you have an audience and want to monetize it. That’s another win for you.
I have revenue coming in each quarter, and I haven’t even started promoting authors yet. That’s a win for me.
2. Down with the house
Instead of getting books into brick and mortar stores, I would get the author in front of niche audiences.
I would have contacts for the top 15 podcasts, YouTubers, and bloggers within a specific niche. Each quarter, I would send the top-students to these contacts for free promotions.
The new model would be a niche author-development & audience-growth service, and community.
Example:
If my publishing niche was Personal Development, I would have contacts with Tim Farris, Andrew Huberman, Leon Hendrix, etc.
If you were the top student of the quarter, I would offer you a contract to get “signed” and get introduced to these contacts.
You don’t sell your book on these shows (no one wants that). You explain your ideas through frameworks you learned in the author development program.
When you do pitch your book or service at the end, you send the traffic to a product page.
There’s an option for the purchaser to share their email with the author to get exclusive deals, content, or bonuses. This makes the show an exposure channel, it increases sales, and it grows your email list.
Together, these become the foundation of long-term revenue.
For these show hosts, this solves the problem of finding quality guests. That a win for them.
For you (the author), it solves the problem of gaining exposure, authority, influence, sales, and growing your email list. That’s a win for you.
For me, I would finally take a % of sales. That’s a win for me.
3. Pre-orders.
When it’s time to publish a new book, instead of giving an advance, I would run pre-orders to the book.
If the number of pre-orders exceeds 300, then I would print the books. If they do not, then I would send the content to Amazon for printing. If you’ve gone through the free training on building your audience, hitting 300 pre-sales shouldn’t be too difficult.
This means I won’t have access inventory, which minimizes the risk for me — that’s a win for me.
With less risk for me, I can invest more in the authors themselves, which is a win for you
I would cut the advance all together, but I would split the profits closer to 50/50 instead of a traditional 70/30 or 80/20. This means no up-front money for you, but you’ll make significantly more in the long-run. I count that as a win for you as well.
4. Making Capitalism a Team Sport (bonus)
Promoting the book is the most costly expense, so how can I cut that by getting the audience to promote the book for me?
This is how I came up with the idea of a crowd-sourced profit-sharing model.
We would set aside 5% of the book sales profits for the first 3 years to be distributed among the first 100 book buyers. 5% is not a lot. But it is different and unique.
This creates a group of hyper-fans who can make money by supporting their favorite author. These people are now incentivized to share the book with their friends, leave reviews, and post about it on social media.
But it’s more powerful than that.
This would attract influencers with an established audience to buy one of the first 100 books. These people could also become an affiliate of the book. Now, when they promote it to their large audience, they get affiliate commission AND the % of profit.
This doubles their incentive to post, which means they will likely most more. This becomes a cheap source of targeted warm traffic — which is usually very costly.
What are your thoughts?
What ideas do you have that would make this business model even better?
