SPS 146: Stop Asking Questions. Book Writing For Podcasters with Andrew Warner

Posted on Mar 2, 2022

Avatar Of Leo Oliveira

Written by Leo Oliveira

Home > Blog > Podcast > SPS 146: Stop Asking Questions. Book Writing For Podcasters with Andrew Warner
Apple
Image
Podbean
Stitcher

Schedule Your Free One Hour Book Strategy Session

Andrew Warner is the founder of Mixergy, a hit podcast, and training program where Andrew interviews top entrepreneurs and founders. He’s interviewed founders of companies like Pixar, Groupon, and LinkedIn. He’s also interviewed entrepreneurs like Barbara Corcoran, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jessica Jackley, and so many more in the over 2000 interviews that he’s conducted. Before Mixergy, he founded Bradford & Reed, a company that ran a collection of startups. He specializes in startups, entrepreneurship, and education.

He is now sharing some of his interview experience in his new book Stop Asking Questions: How to Lead High-Impact Interviews and Learn Anything from Anyone. This book teaches how to lead dynamic interviews. We have one of those active conversations here today with Andrew. He talks about the advantages of having a tangible asset like a book. We also talk about the joy and benefits of handing out physical books.

Andrew talks about why he wrote the book, his writing process, how he chose a publisher, and how he struggled to stay on track writing the book. He even considered using a ghostwriter but then decided he needed his message in his own words. We learn about Andrew’s Twitter promotion method that utilized mini-lessons and helped him build a list. He also used his list members to help with things like cover choice, etc. Andrew shares his unique use of Holloway’s reading platform and many more valuable insights. 

Show Highlights

  • [03:11] Andrew loves how books are tangible for a set of thoughts. Chandler shares the advantages of handing out books. 
  • [06:52] Andrew wanted to have something that would share and carry on the work that he’s done.
  • [08:32] The process took him about eight months. He hired an editor from Penguin to help keep him on track while working on his book. He had to sacrifice every part of his work to get it done.
  • [10:19] He then looked for a ghostwriter and spoke with Ryan Holiday about all of the struggles of writing a book. He decided to suffer through his book and not use the ghostwriter. 
  • [12:12] Using interviews to spark topics for book outlines. People’s problems were important. While answering people’s questions, Andrew realized what was important to them. This also helped him see problems and get ideas.
  • [14:08] He wanted to focus on good conversations more than anything else. He kept going back to how to have good conversation
  • [15:22] Andrew worked with a publisher and they used Twitter to promote the book. They taught lessons from the book on Twitter and people were interested. They used this method to build a list. 
  • [17:18] They let the people on the list help with the process and cover etc. Andrew also did a lot of podcast interviews after launching his book. He also used Holloway.
  • [21:43] He used Holloway, an online reading experience that makes it easy to share, for his upsells.
  • [25:39] Chandler talks about relaunching a book featured in chapter 21 of his book Published. 
  • [27:34] You can get a studio to create an audiobook for about $5,000 and it would take a couple days to record. 
  • [30:09] Andrew shares how he decided to work with a publisher. 
  • [32:21] Parting advice: Ask for help. 

Links and Resources

Disclosure: Some of the links above may contain affiliate partnerships, meaning, at no additional cost to you, Self-Publishing School may earn a commission if you click through to make a purchase.

Get your free audiobook and ebook copy of:

Published: The proven path from blank page to 10,000 copies sold 

Liked this post? Share it with friends!

Interested in working with us?

Book a free strategy call with our expert team!