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

Erika Ayers Badan calls herself a “token CEO”, the rare female employee in the highest rank of a bro-roar sports and new media culture—specifically, at Barstool Sports, which she took from a rough-and-tumble sports and betting brand and turned it into a $550 million juggernaut with more than 5 billion monthly video views and 225 million followers. In her book, Nobody Cares About Your Career: Why Failure Is Good, The Great Ones Play Hurt, and Other Hard Truths, she talks about all that and more. And in this podcast episode, she discusses why she decided to do a book at this point in her career, how it serves as a “receipt” for what she’s done and how she truly doesn’t give an f what other people think.

It’s truly a crime that there’s no TV series about Jill Ishkanian.The lone female tabloid reporter in a sea of men, Ishkanian has been raided by the FBI, exonerated Meghan Markle and been late to a lunch date with me because she thought she saw Kevin Costner driving. And those are just three of dozens of fascinating facts!Yet, despite the fact that she’s been technically employed as a writer for decades and knows she has a hell of a story to tell, she’s been stalled on writing her book. Why is that? And how can we—yes, the collective we—help her? It’s all in this episode.

While Mark Gottlieb has agenting in his blood—he’s a second generation lit agent—he’s not your typical agent. He doesn’t specialize in any particular genre but bounces between fiction and nonfiction, with some children's books and graphic novels in between. And though he works with the Big Five publishers, he’s open-minded when it comes to self-publishing and the new wave of publishing. In this episode we talked about how being a writer requires audacity, how tough it is to make a living as an author without a side profession and how most people don’t even know what a lit agent is, among many other topics. 

Here's a special release for you: the keynote I recently gave at a mastermind that encompasses so much of what I know to be true about coming up with your book idea. It's short but sweet. Enjoy!FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

You know that kindergarten teacher we all wish we'd had?That's Erin Lee. But part of what makes us all wish she'd been our teacher is the fact that in addition to being a teacher, she's an award-winning children's book author.Still, as we discuss quite a bit around here, being an amazing author doesn't always guarantee book sales.But Erin HAS sold thousands of books. So how has she done it? Well, she started dressing up as her five-year-old students to create engaging Instagram reels. These relatable and humorous videos have since fostered a thriving online community where Erin shares educational content, entertainment and promotes her books.I was actually interviewing Erin for my other podcast when I realized the information she was sharing was such book publishing GOLD that I had to switch gears and release it on this long-neglected feed.In this episode, she breaks her IG strategy down piece by piece. So good, so tactical. She actually makes Instagram sound fun AND useful. When have you last heard it described that way?

Kevin Anderson never meant to get into the publishing business after growing up in a small town in Canada before getting his PhD and graduating summa cum laude from Harvard and starting a tutoring company.Nevertheless, that tutoring company transitioned into what is now a massive publishing company that employs 30 writers and editors that have collectively worked on over 200 New York Times bestselling books and sold over 100 million copies of books by people like Brene Brown, Simon Sinek and Jen Sincero.How juicy was our conversation about the state of publishing today? Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I stopped releasing new episodes of this podcast! But when I stumbled into this chat with Kevin, I realized it was too good to keep to myself. So please enjoy!FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and the author of the New York Times bestseller and Thurber Prize finalist I See You Made an Effort. Her other books include: Wherever You Go, There They Are, and You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up (coauthored with Jeff Kahn). She was the co-host of Dinner & a Movie on TBS and has appeared on NPR, The Today Show, CBS Early Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, PBS, and numerous CNN and MSNBC programs. Her essays and satire have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, AARP, Real Simple, Prevention, The Los Angeles Book Review, The Daily Beast, Time, Next Tribe, Lenny Letter, Hadassah and The Hollywood Reporter, among other media outlets.She's also an extremely methodical (she might say obsessive compulsive?) person—one who starts planning her launch as she comes up with the book concept. And she works it—making lists, checking them way more than twice, reaching out to people she knows and doesn't know and ultimately making it so that her books have no option but to be successful.If you want practical steps on how to prepare both emotionally and literally for a release, this episode is packed with tips, tactics and other t-words!FOR MORE ABOUT WHAT MY COMPANY, LEGACY LAUNCH PAD, DOES, GO TO WWW.LEGACYLAUNCHPADPUB.COM

Dave Chesson is the creator of Kindlepreneur.com, a website devoted to teaching advanced book marketing which even Amazon KDP acknowledges as one of the best by telling users to “Gain insight from Kindlepreneur on how you can optimize marketing for your books.” Having worked with such authors as Orson Scott Card, Ted Dekker and more, his tactics help both fiction and nonfiction authors of all levels get their books discovered by the right readers. But that's the official bio stuff. The stuff that really matters, at least to me, is that he is the wisest person out there today when it comes to successful indie publishing. Basically, he does the work so that the rest of us can utilize his techniques and systems.You can read the full transcript of our conversation below but the main takeaways are this: if you want to successfully launch a book, start your launch work the day you start writing; to cut down on haters, show readers you're human; and the right keywords and categories on Amazon can make the difference between bestsellerdom and obscurity.Enjoy this episode and by all means, employ the techniques! FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Ashlea Hearn is not only a 1st Lieutenant in the Army Reserves but also the author of Genesis Mortalis, Book 1 of the Take It Trilogy.We met when she reached out to me about the upcoming release of that book. But here's what's relevant: by that point, I had noticed this lovely person named Ashlea Hearn reviewing me wherever she could—different books, this podcast, on Google...everywhere.But here's what I really noticed: she wasn't just slapping a review up there in order to "do the right thing" but crafting thoughtful, in-depth analysis that showed she really had taken in and appreciated the work. (Her review of Party Girl still comes up as "Most Relevant," which is Amazon speak for "the most thoughtful one.")Because of all this, not only was I delighted to speak to her about her book but when she declared me her "mentor," I happily took on the role. And it's been nothing but rewarding as I've watched her jump into life and authorhood with enthusiasm and gumption. Then, like the amazing mentee she is, she flew out for a book party I had for one of my clients and made so many friends that when I showed up for breakfast the next morning to meet some, she was there!So that's our back story. Here's her back story.She started writing as a little girl because it was a fascinating escape from what she considered to be a mundane life of a girl from the Midwest.At an early age, she fell in love with the suaveness of James Bond, the action of Mission: Impossible, the gore and badassery of Kill Bill: Volume 1 and the relatable female characters of Totally Spies!—all of which influenced the Take It book series.Listen in on this chat between a mentee and a thoroughly delighted mentor!FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM!

Scott Duffy is an entrepreneur and business strategist who's listed as a “Top 10 Speaker” by Entrepreneur and has been named one of the “Top Influential People To Follow” by Yahoo! Finance.'But that's not why I brought him on the pod. I brought him on because he's also the author of three different business books on three different topics, from three different publishers and launched in three entirely different ways. When I was at his mastermind a few weeks ago, he articulated why entrepreneurs should launch books in a way that was clearer than I'd ever heard. That's why I wanted him on the show but what I actually got out of our talk was so much more.In this episode, we got into the importance of subtitles, why authors should be featured on their book covers and how his most recent book launch was a disaster.FOR MORE ABOUT THE POD AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

Greg Behrendt is the #1 New York Times best-selling co-author of He’s Just Not That Into You and It’s Called A Breakup Because It’s Broken. He's appeared on every TV show known to man, including Oprah, The Tonight Show and The Today Show, is a life long standup comedian and co-hosts the relationship podcast Don't Take Bullshit From Fuckers.He's also a life and writing coach, who can walk you through exactly how to write a book like his—as well as how to survive any adversity that comes your way (he's in recovery from addiction and has beaten cancer twice).In this episode, we talk about what happens when the publishing dream that wasn't even your publishing dream comes true, how to handle being categorized as "that guy" after runaway success and how becoming Oprah's obsession for a brief time doesn't mean you're set for life.FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Katie DePaola is an author, speaker, entrepreneur and the founder of Inner Glow Circle, a company dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs find their glow and live purpose-driven lives.But most relevantly for our show, she is the author of At Least You Look Good: How to Glow Through What You Go Through, the latest release from Launch Pad Publishing. The book is part memoir, part self-help and all love; it's Katie's story about surviving Lyme disease and her brother's death by overdose while building her multi-million dollar business. WANT MORE INFO ON THE POD AND OTHER STUFF? GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

Alex Sanfilippo is the host of the top-rated podcast Podcasting Made Simple, the founder of PodPros.com, a software company focused specifically on the podcasting industry and the co-creator of PodMatch, a service that matches podcast guests and hosts together for interviews. That's not all! He also co-founded PodcastSOP, a project management tool that helps podcasters keep up with their episode releases.You get it: the guy is POD OBSESSED.So who better to come on the show to talk about how authors can book podcast tours? Everything he shared was fascinating but what I found especially fascinating is what he had to say about why authors should pass on opportunities to go on certain shows and why appearing on smaller podcasts can be way more beneficial than going on the big ones.Good one! Don't miss it!FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

Boy, does Craig Stanland have a story to tell.It starts with the FBI knocking on his door, followed by two years in prison.But that's not really what we delve into here. Instead we talk about the book he wrote on his experience—and the one major mistake he made.Now that he's at work on book number two (title TBD—we get into that in the conversation), he's approaching everything differently.Find out about that, as well as how he's planning to use videos to launch his next book, in this episode.FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE POD AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

Peter Shankman is many things, among them a five-time best selling author, entrepreneur and corporate in-person and virtual keynote speaker who focuses on customer service. But in this episode I got him speaking about something so many of you ask me about: HARO, or Help a Reporter Out...the website he started (and sold to Cision many years ago) that helps so many authors get featured in mainstream media.In this conversation, which happened in rapid fire while he was in the throws of salmonella, Peter shared with me how he started HARO accidentally, the best way to get a journalist's attention and why someone stealing a Yoo Hoo truck ended up being the best PR Yoo Hoo could get, among many other topics.WANT MORE INFO ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER THINGS? GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

Rich Goldstein is a patent attorney, speaker, host of the Innovations and Breakthroughs podcast and, most relevantly for this show, the author of the bestselling book The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent, which was published by the American Bar Association.He's someone who understands through and through what a book can do for someone's business and in this episode, we got into all that as well as how writing a book changed Rich's career, why he sends a copy of the book to anyone who requests it and how writing a book could, theoretically, make an entrepreneur a cool five million.FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER THINGS, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

This may be the most useful podcast I've ever released. That's because it's with a guy who's an expert on something EVERY author wants: getting people to recommend your book.His name is Rob Fitzpatrick and he's a former programmer who dropped out of grad school to go to YCombinator with his first startup.It's that background—along with his nearly decade and a half of experience as an entrepreneur—that helps make sense of the fact that he's the guy who's seemingly cracked the code on how to write a book that everyone will recommend.He breaks down his process in his latest book, Write Useful Books, and we also get into our decidedly unique story of how we met (in short, he quoted my interview with Chris Voss in Write Useful Books and I didn't see that he credited me and I fired off an email and anyway, listen to the episode and you'll hear what happened next).But that's far less interesting than the methods he describes in this conversation—including how to find beta readers, what to ask them and how to use them to craft a book that's DEEP (Desirable, Effective, Engaging and Polished).How sure is he that his process works? Well, the results speak for themselves. His monthly earnings from his three books are roughly $25k a month, with 1000 copies a week being sold, and, in his words, "growing pretty steadily."I am not being hyperbolic when I say I think this is the most useful interview yet. (Even more than the Chris Voss one Rob quoted!) If I were you, I would literally study the transcript below. (That's what I'm doing.)WANT MORE INFO ABOUT THE POD AND OTHER STUFF? GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

I literally don't have the words to describe the experience of recording this episode but suffice it to say that it was the most fun interview I've ever done.Back story: Zara Barrie and I knew each other online (I find her incredibly glam and we're mutual fans of one another to the point that I recommended her book, Girl Stop Passing Out in Your Makeup, on KATU). She told me that she and her podcast co-host slash work wife Dayna Troisi were going to be in LA (they're NYC ladies, natch). We decided to do a podcast swap, they rented a studio and the rest is history. If history involved me becoming obsessed with these two hilarious and brilliant lesbians who, in addition to co-hosting their podcast GirlZ Interrupted, also, between them, regularly write articles that go viral, are university professors (one of them, anyway), produce an audio series (the other of them) and do so many other things that it would be impossible to summarize.We recorded this right after they recorded their interview with me so were already BFFs by the time this particular recording started. This means that, in addition to covering our main topic—how to turn an online audience, once you've gone viral, into an audience that buys and reads your book—we had many delightful diversions (swag, whether or not your friends support your book, if you should be on your book cover and more).Listen and you'll become as obsessed with them as I am.FOR MORE INFO, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM

Paul Angone had an extremely unusual journey to success as an author.First, he tried to sell a book. For eight years. Nary a bite.Then a blog post he dashed off went viral. Very viral. From there, he was able to sell a book based on that blog post to a publisher. The problem was that he had to finish it in a month.Well that book and the next have sold over 100,000 copies and launched a massive speaking career.But that's not even why I wanted to have him on the podcast. I wanted him on the pod so I could Interview him about the process of turning his book into a course.Listen in on this mega inspiring conversation about how courses and books work symbiotically—and how your reality may end up being even bigger than your dreams...how you may even end up selling over 100,000 copies of your book.FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.

Jesse J. Anderson's journey to bookdom is unlike any other guest I've had on the show. For one, he's not launching a book to help build his business. Also, that book—Refocus: A Practical Guide to Adult ADHD—hasn't launched yet. In fact, he hasn't even finished writing it. Why, then, you may ask, would I have him on the show? Well, Jesse has also built up an impressive Twitter following by releasing Twitter threads of book chapters—a topic we dive into in detail. When he's not writing books in public, Jesse is a designer and developer who has made it his mission to help others better understand what ADHD really is.FOR MORE ABOUT THE PODCAST AND OTHER STUFF, GO TO WWW.ONGOODAUTHORITYPOD.COM.