Transparency Time:

I published The Art & Business of Online Writing in August, 2020.

- Self-published
- Invested $3k in cover design, formatting, etc.
- $0 spent on ads
- Marketed to email list (15,000 people) & social media following (150k combined)

Results:

👇👇👇
Here's how the book did:

- Recouped investment week 1
- Avg selling ~10 copies sold per day since
- Book has led to six figures in ghostwriting clients
- Book has led to an increase in podcast/speaking opportunities
- Book has generated $1k+ passively/mo in sales since launch
In order for this book to have achieved these same financial goals with a formal publishing contract...

I'd need to be selling 100+ copies per day (10x more).

If the average advance is $20k, this book reaches that same goal around a year and a half after publishing.
In addition, I expect other follow-on writing related books to not only outperform this one, but increase the sales of this book too.

Again, working toward a Timeless Library of Content.

At 10 books in my library, I can expect somewhere around a low six figure passive return.
In order to do that with a formal publishing house, you need to be one of their top 1% of authors.

Not impossible. But far from probable.

Going to take me a decade to prove to writers there is a better path forward.

Still just starting...

amazon.com/Art-Business-O…

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More from @Nicolascole77

3 May
Once a Shipper, always a Shipper.

RT if you’ve participated in Ship 30 for 30.

4 months, let’s see how big the community has gotten in such a short amount of time.

🚢🚢🚢
Bonus points for tagging the friends you’ve made in the community. I’ll tag a few to get the ball rolling: @marikogordoncfa @SeanAnthonySays @PaulineRiviere @joywithjas @dickiebush @dbustac @sscotty @TBrouchet @jerinenicole
I’ve made so many friends so don’t be offended if I missed you!!!
Read 4 tweets
3 May
Online Writing Rules for Success ✍️📈🚀

After writing 3,000+ articles online over the past 8 years, here are some of my biggest lessons learned.

Follow these rules, and your writing will improve 10x.

Don't, and have fun with your blog nobody reads.

[THREAD] 🧵👇
1/ "Party in the city, not alone in your house"

Writing on your own blog is like drinking alone at home. It's secluded. Nobody is there. And you have to work HARD to convince people to come over.

Instead, write in social environments.

This is where everyone hangs out.
2/ For the first ~2 years of writing online, editing is a waste of time.

In order to edit effectively, you have to know what you're editing FOR.

And the only way to learn that is by publishing lots of material and gathering data about what works and what doesn't.
Read 12 tweets
22 Apr
In The Creator Economy, so much emphasis gets placed on Product Design.

But Category Kings don't just have "better, faster, cheaper, smarter" products.

They have breakthrough products + breakthrough business models WITHIN NEW CATEGORIES.

Here's “The Magic Triangle”👇
The Magic Triangle is the combination of

- Product design
- Company/business model design
- And category design

Each side has equal importance, ideally executed at the same time.
Finally, the elite Category Kings & Queens recognize that each area of The Magic Triangle generates data about the future of the category.

- Data to improve the product
- Data to improve the company/business model
- Data to improve + anticipate the future of the category
Read 16 tweets
20 Apr
A blog is the single most inefficient way of achieving ANY of your online writing goals:

- Building an audience
- Finding your voice
- Proving which topics resonate best with target readers

It's wild how many people disagree with me on this.

When SHOULD you start a blog? 👇
Scenario #1: You've validated your high-performing topics and are ready to give readers MORE of "what's working."

The VAST MAJORITY of people who start writing online *think* they know what readers want to hear from them.

They're usually wrong.

Write. Publish. Gather data.
In this process, 1 of 2 things will happen:

- You'll either confirm your assumptions were correct (with data)

- Or you'll learn your assumptions were incorrect (with data) and discover new, higher-performing topics as a result.

In either case, you now KNOW.
Read 9 tweets
19 Apr
The biggest flexes are the ones you can't see.

Here's a list of my favorites 👇
1/ Living below your means

If you make $500k/yr but spend $500k a year, you aren't rich.

You're broke.

If you make $100k/yr but save + invest $50k/yr, you're well on your way to becoming rich.
2/ Dressing down instead of dressing up

This was one of the first things I noticed moving to LA.

The people who show up dressed to the 10s are usually the ones trying hardest to climb the social ladder.

The ones who show up in beach shorts and flip flops are multimillionaires.
Read 8 tweets
8 Apr
My first job out of college was at a Think Tank.

When I showed up to work, my new boss kicked his feet up on the table and said to me (in front of everyone):

"This will be your first job, and your last job. After this, you'll work for yourself."

Here's what he taught me👇
1/ "Don't be a glorified traffic conductor."

For years, I didn't have a formal job title.

He hated people who obsessed over titles but didn't actually produce anything.

He demanded that I learn ACTION is more valuable than whatever I call myself on a sheet of paper.
2/ "Freedom comes with a price."

I idolized my boss. I was 23. He was 32. Young, accomplished, wealthy.

He also worked 12 hours per day. Constantly stressed.

Everyone says they want freedom, but how you define "freedom" determines the price you have to pay to afford it.
Read 9 tweets

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