Behind the Book Cover

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life. Charlie Hoehn worked for Tim Ferriss for years and got the job in a way Tim has actually written about (worth the click). Then he spent a decade watching publishing promise everything and deliver almost nothing, until he built Author Inc to fix it.Most people in my line of work make me want to lie down in a dark room. Charlie is the opposite. I would venture to say that he knows more about the topic of book publishing and where it’s going than anyone else out there. So this episode is less an interview and more a look at how someone I respect is actually building the thing.There are so many parts of this conversation that I love but none more than when he shared about the Bullseye reader test. See, I always struggled with those “avatar” exercises marketers were throwing at us a decade or so ago, where you’d have to answer a bunch of questions like, “What does my avatar drive and read and drink?” I always either felt like I was either answering the questions myself or simply making things up.That's why Charlie makes every author he works with name a single specific person they could text. Not a composite, not a Pixar character built out of demographic data, not "ambitious female founders, 35 to 50." A real person with a real phone number you know. In Charlie’s world, if you can't name them, you don't have a book yet. We also covered the four planning exercises his company does before a single word of the book gets written, his company’s two-day recorded-conversation process in a downtown Austin hotel suite that produces a 50,000-word first draft about an hour after the sessions wrap, his American Idol critique of traditional publishing, the book ROI calculator he built because he got tired of explaining how lucrative a book done right can be and why everyone should be able to name a non-fiction book that changed their life.Want to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.comCurious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figuresInterested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/applyAnd if you just want to know more about me,  👉 www.annadavid.comRemember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life. I was a snob about AI in publishing. I'll just say it. When companies started popping up in late 2022 promising to use AI to write books, I had the same reaction I once had to self publishing when I was still in the traditional world: I want nothing to do with these people. Dan Curran has made me reconsider—some of it, anyway. Not because he convinced me AI can match what a skilled ghost writer or developmental editor does (I don't think it can, at least not yet) but what he’s building at Chapters may be as interesting as the manuscript.Dan spent a decade running a company that interviewed scientists and PhDs for technical writing. When ChatGPT launched, he didn't use AI to replace writers. He used it to organize, deduplicate and structure the words that were already coming out of real people's mouths—recorded in conversations, timestamped and attributed, so every sentence traces back to the person who said it. The result is a manuscript in 90 days. Chapters has started over 100 of them in 16 months with a team of 14 people, and they charge $25,000—or as low as $18,000 on a payment plan—to do what a ghost writer charges $60,000 to $150,000 for.But what I really wanted to talk about is what Dan's actually building, which is not a book company. He calls it a "living library"—a vault of authenticated IP that can generate Substacks, LinkedIn posts, speeches, white papers and documentary frameworks from the same corpus. And he's timestamping and chaining custody of every piece of it, so that when the large language models come scraping for new knowledge, authors can prove what they said, when they said it and demand to be paid for it. Can a 90-day AI-organized manuscript compete with a book that's been through months of human developmental editing? I have my doubts. But that's arguing about the wrong part.We also get into why about half of Chapters' clients come from publishers who offer them as an alternative to a $150,000 ghost writer, why Dan thinks 90% of digital content will be synthetic by next year and his case for why the publishing industry needs to "widen the aperture." Plus where Dan sees authorship itself going when AI can authenticate content faster than any human can, which is one of the strangest questions driving this whole season.In this episode:Why I was a snob about AI publishing and why I'm now willing to listen—even if I'm not fully convertedHow Chapters turns 12 weeks of recorded conversations into a 50,000-to-80,000-word manuscript without AI writing a single sentenceThe "chain of custody" system that timestamps every idea—and why Dan thinks authors will eventually get paid when LLMs scrape their IPWhy about half of Chapters' clients come from publishers who offer them as an alternative to a $60,000-to-$150,000 ghost writerDan's case for why publishing needs to "widen the aperture"—and where I think he's right and where I'm still skepticalWhat he means by a "living library"—and why it might matter more than the bookWant to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.comCurious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figuresInterested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/applyAnd if you just want to know more about me,  👉 www.annadavid.comRemember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them. 

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life. Stefanie Wilder-Taylor sold over 120,000 copies of her first book. Her most recent royalty check was for $95. That's not because people stopped reading—she's published five more books, launched four podcasts and now teaches memoir writing. It's because selling 120,000 copies doesn't actually pay the rent. Which is the fact almost nobody in publishing admits out loud.When Stefanie wrote Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay in 2005, she was a new mom, a former game-show writer and completely unknown as an author. Her publisher told her she'd been declined everywhere for publicity. Her husband cold-called some old talk-show contacts and got her on the Today show; by April of 2006, she was a bestseller with a $30,000 advance she thought made her rich. Every subsequent book—and there have been five—has failed to earn out.But what I really wanted to talk about is how she finally cracked her sixth book deal after years of being told she wasn't "sought after" anymore. Stefanie pitched Drunk-ish using her podcast stats—who her audience is, how loyal they are, exactly what kind of woman listens and exactly what kind of book that woman buys—and the publisher bought it. Which, for anyone under the delusion that publishers still do the selling, is the whole story.We also get into the COVID storytelling podcast she recorded episode by episode and then abandoned, her theory about why new moms buy parenting books and school moms don't, the agent who told her "never compare yourself to the exception" after she brought up Sex and the City and the weird fact that Down with Love with Renée Zellweger ruined her idea of what the writing life actually is. Plus: where Stefanie thinks traditional publishing is actually heading, which is the question driving this whole season.In this episode:Why selling 120,000 copies of a book still isn't a living wageThe $30,000 advance she thought made her rich (and what happened to the royalty checks)How she used her podcast stats to pitch her sixth book deal after years of rejectionWhy people accused her of getting sober just for the publicity (and the real reason she got sober)The COVID storytelling podcast she recorded and never releasedThe agent advice that should be tattooed on every aspiring author's wristWant to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.comCurious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figuresInterested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/applyAnd if you just want to know more about me,  👉 www.annadavid.comRemember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them. 

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life. An early internet writer turned entrepreneur, Daniel DiPiazza has been building audiences since the blogging days of MySpace and university-only Facebook. Long before “personal brand” was a buzzword, Daniel was clawing his way into Huffington Post, landing interviews with Shark Tank’s Lori Greiner and steadily growing a newsletter that would eventually reach 170,000+ subscribers.His traditionally published book, Rich 20 Something, wasn’t an accident—it was the culmination of years of audience building, strategic networking and relentless follow-up. In this episode, Daniel walks through the unlikely chain of events that led to his book deal, from cold-calling publicists to pursuing his literary agent for nearly two years while building his platform in real time.But what makes this conversation especially compelling is what came after the book.We get into the myth of traditional publishing, why ego—not economics—is often the biggest draw, and how Daniel ultimately reframed authorship as an authority engine rather than a revenue stream. Today, as founder of New Wave Press, he helps entrepreneurs use books not to sell copies—but to consolidate expertise, build frameworks and lower their customer acquisition costs.We also dive deep into the future of publishing: AI, digital distribution, the erosion of backlist revenue and why legacy publishers may be stuck in a model that no longer serves authors—or readers.Episode HighlightsHow Daniel’s early blogging career, Huffington Post contributions and strategic networking led to a traditional publishing contract for Rich 20 SomethingWhy he spent years growing his newsletter and social following before landing a deal—and how those numbers became leverageThe realities of creative control, marketing support and why most authors feel disappointed after the deal is signedWhy being “chosen” by a publisher feels validating—and why that emotional payoff often outweighs the financial oneWhy books shouldn’t be treated as profit centers but as assets that consolidate expertise, codify frameworks and increase conversionHow a book can lock you into a narrow identity if you don’t plan your next move—and what Daniel would do differentlyThe surprising reality that authority in one niche doesn’t automatically carry into anotherWhy more than half of Daniel’s company’s recent sales are audio and digital—and what that signals about reader behaviorHow large language models, shifting copyright rulings and lack of first-party customer data may force legacy publishers to rethink everythingDaniel’s prediction that publishing will split in two—one camp returning to human-crafted classics and another embracing fully AI-driven content ecosystemsWhy writing a book is like buying a stock—it appreciates over time if nurtured and aligned with your broader career vision

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life. I told Chris Joseph years ago that his book would lead to a coaching career. He told me absolutely not. He meant it.It took about two years for him to tell me I was right.Chris was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer in 2016, and seventy percent of people with that diagnosis are dead within a year. He quit chemo, fired his oncologist with no Plan B and is now about to turn 70.He wrote his memoir, Life is a Ride, because the story was in his head and he had to get it out, not because he had some grand business plan.But the book became his business card, his credibility, his foot in every door. People found it and kept asking the same thing: tell me what you did.He threw himself into new projects (at one point he was doing five podcasts). He did a book tour with a musician friend because he was smart enough to know not that many people show up for an author alone. And eventually, all those "tell me what you did" conversations became Terrain Navigators, the health coaching practice he now runs for people facing the diagnosis he survived.Chris didn't plan any of this. He just published a real book, took it seriously and let the ride take him where it was going. (It's not an accident the book is called Life is a Ride.)In this episode:Why Chris fired his oncologist with no Plan B (and why he'd do it again)How he used his book as a business card to introduce himself to Joe Polish at a galaThe moment he realized "tell me what you did" was a coaching business waiting to happenWhy he wrote a memoir instead of a how-to (and why the how-to he's writing now terrifies him)What a friend's pickleball book disaster taught him about trying to do it all yourselfWant to learn more about Legacy Launch Pad Publishing—my high-end hybrid book publishing company that helps entrepreneurs turn their expertise into authority-building books? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.comCurious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figuresInterested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/applyAnd if you just want to know more about me,  👉 www.annadavid.comRemember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.