Bob Lotich has been sharing financial lessons with over 50 million readers and listeners on his SeedTime blog, SeedTime Money Podcast, and courses over the last 14 years. He is the author of Simple Money, Rich Life: Achieve True Financial Freedom, and Design a Life of Eternal Impact, a hope-filled guide to increasing savings, earnings, and giving. He’s also self-published multiple books in the past, but this is his first traditional published book.
We dive into how his first Kindle book was published and some of the things he liked about self-publishing. We also discuss his new book and why he took the traditional publishing route. Bob breaks down the pros and cons of both methods and shares what he learned from both experiences and what he would do differently in the future. We also talk about some of the perks of being an author and the credibility factor.
Giving away free books is a strategy many authors have used. We discuss the pros and cons of this strategy. Bob also shares how he promoted his new book and what moved the needle for him. He talks about being on podcasts, warm introductions, how his publicist contributed, having a launch team, getting reviews, and having a crowdsourced giveaway. This eye-opening episode sheds light on the differences between publishing methods and creating a great work.
Show Highlights
- [02:30] Bob’s first Kindle book was an accident. He ended up putting a blog post on Kindle, and it just started doing well. He also did a couple more self published books, but he never put in the effort to create a great book.
- [03:29] His last book was with a traditional publisher, and he dove in and tried to make it as great as possible.
- [04:14] He began blogging in 2007 then podcasting and a course. Books are a great way to put everything you’ve learned in one package. It also carries credibility.
- [06:15] Once you have a book out, people will reach out to you. Whether it’s for autographs or services that you may not even be offering yet.
- [08:08] The strategy of giving away your books.
- [13:05] Bob’s launch strategy. He focused on podcast outreach and created a launch team. Podcasts with a decent following who are aligned with the market do really well.
- [14:49] He also felt that his publicist opened some helpful doors.
- [15:16] His email list probably moved the needle the most.
- [16:21] If Bob was starting over, he would reach out to people with podcasts. He would let people know what’s going on and ask for warm introductions. Cold outreach is hard.
- [19:47] If starting over, Bob would also probably release self-published books and put snippets on social media.
- [22:38] Bob shares his review strategy with a launch team and giveaways. They also celebrated review milestones on social media. He also crowdsourced what should be given away.
- [26:22] Create a short link for your amazon review page.
- [27:18] Pros and cons of being self published and traditional publishing. There are some really hard things with the way that publishers do things. It’s a slow process.
- [32:59] YouTube didn’t drive a lot of book sales. The list drove the most sales.
- [35:27] Parting advice. It’s stressful. Traditional publishing feels like being an employee for the publisher. Don’t be starry eyed about a big advance.
Links and Resources
- Get a Free Copy of Published
- Get the Audio Copy of Published
- Visit Self Publishing School Online
- Book a Call with Our Team
- SPS Free Training Course
- Self Publishing School YouTube
- SeedTime
- Bob Lotich LinkedIn
- Simple Money, Rich Life: Achieve True Financial Freedom and Design a Life of Eternal Impact
- Books by Bob Lotich
- Bob Lotich Twitter
- SeedTime Money YouTube
- SeedTime Money Podcast
- Hal Elrod
- The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
- SPS 094: YouTube Secrets: Using YouTube To Sell 2k Copies/Month & Get 1,000+ Reviews On Your Book with Sean Cannell
- The 3-Day Money Challenge