Nicolas Cole πŸš’πŸ‘» Profile picture
Sep 24, 2021 β€’ 12 tweets β€’ 4 min read β€’ Read on X
Want to sell books?

Build a business.

Here are 8 legendary examples of authors who have sold $100,000+ worth of books via their businesses.

πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡
1. Donald Miller, StoryBrand

StoryBrand is a messaging workshop, training program, and service for business owners.

It's estimated to do somewhere between $10 million & $20 million per year in revenue.

The book, StoryBrand, sells approx 100 books per day on Amazon.

$30k/mo.
2. Brendan Burchard

Brendan is one of the highest-earning online course instructors in the world. ($10M+/year)

He also is a highly paid keynote speaker & consultant.

His book, High Performance Habits, still sells approx 5-10 copies per day on Amazon.

$5k/mo
3. Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary runs a $200M/year ad agency, VaynerMedia.

Book revenue is inconsequential to him.

And yet his book, Jab, Jab, Right Hook still sells ~150 copies/mo on Amazon.

$5k/month.

That's just 1 of his books.
4. Seth Godin

Entrepreneur and marketer Seth Godin has written 18 books.

His most famous one, "Purple Cow," came out 10+ years ago.

It still sells ~650 copies per month on Amazon.

$10k/mo.

Every new person on his email list/in his workshops gets introduced to his library.
5. Ryan Holiday

Once Ryan Holiday realized his niche was Stoicism, he doubled-down and built a whole business around it.

β€’ Email list
β€’ Physical & digital products
β€’ Podcast
β€’ And more.

The Daily Stoic still sells ~2,500 copies/mo on Amazon.

$50k/mo.

Not bad.
6. Ramit Sethi

Ramit wrote the best-seller "I Will Teach You To Be Rich."

But he also has an entire business teaching people these same principles.

New students = new readers.

He still sells approx ~2,000 copies of this book per mo on Amazon at $10 per.

$20k/mo in book sales
7. Russell Brunson

Clickfunnels Extraordinaire, Russell "wrote the book" on how to use books as lead magnets to up-sell higher-ticket products.

Despite giving this book away for free, this book still sells ~200 copies/mo on Amazon.

$3k/mo.
8. Tony Robbins

Maybe one of the best examples of how building a business helps you sell books.

Tony's retreats, courses, products, and offerings span categories ranging from health & wellness to money & business.

He sells ~1,000 copies of this book/mo on Amazon.

$10k ez.
I highlight this methodology for selling books because it's the same business model I've created for myself.

#ship30for30 introduces new writers to my philosophies on writing, which sells books.

I sell ~10 copies of this book per day on Amazon.

$2k/mo

Just the beginning.
Very few people write a book & sell books in any sort of linear way.

The vast majority of successful nonfiction writers treat books as part of their broader business.

In some cases, the book becomes a hit (Ryan Holiday)

In others, books drive new customers (Russell Brunson)
If you are thinking of writing a book yourself, start here:

Startwritingonline.com

β€’ β€’ β€’

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
γ€€

Keep Current with Nicolas Cole πŸš’πŸ‘»

Nicolas Cole πŸš’πŸ‘» Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Nicolascole77

Jun 30
One of the most prolific writers of the last 30 years:

John Grisham.

His books have been made into movies starring Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock, and Samuel L. Jackson.

10 of his timeless writing insights on talent, routine, and dealing with criticism:🧡 Image
1. Grisham sets himself tough creative constraints:

β€’ Start a novel on Jan 1st
β€’ Write daily for 3 hours
β€’ Finish it by July 1st

The key?

His tightly controlled writing environment (down to the coffee he drinks):
2. Grisham pumps out one novel every year.

But he can only do this by avoiding a huge mistake a lot of writers make:
Read 13 tweets
Jun 26
This skill generated $3 MILLION for me in 2024:

β€’ No degree required
β€’ No experience needed
β€’ Under 5 hours to deliver (with AI)

We taught it to over 1,400 studentsβ€”who can charge $5,000+ for it.

If you have a laptop and wifi, this is the most lucrative WFH job in 2025:🧡 Image
Something most writers miss:

Educational Email Courses (EECs) are one of the most lucrative writing services.

I use them in all my businesses.

The EEC I wrote for Ship 30 for 30 has generated over $3 MILLION in lifetime revenue: Image
That's not a typo.

These email sequences are the most profitable piece of content I've ever created.

Here's why:
Read 17 tweets
Jun 13
I wasted years as a horrible writer.

But then I found Tim Ferriss's writing routine and the mental models behind his 5 New York Times best-selling books.

4 mental models you can steal today:🧡 Image
As a senior at Princeton, Tim almost died writing his thesis. He vowed never to pen anything longer than an email again.

Fast forward to 2004. A cheeky student in Tim's entrepreneurship class says he should "write the book" on his lecture.

Here's a snippet: ↓
Ideas for optimizing life and work flooded Tim's brain. Tim couldn't sleep. So he scribbled to quieten his mind.

The title of his scribbly notes?

"Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit."
Read 14 tweets
Jun 12
I generate $400,000/year with a paid newsletter on Substack:

β€’ I don't run ads
β€’ It took 578 days
β€’ It has 65,000+ subscribers

This is the most scalable (and profitable) business I've ever seen.

Here’s how you can copy meβ€”5 steps (bookmark this): 🧡 Image
Most writers are stuck in a toxic relationship with their craft.

They think beautiful words = $$$ in their bank account.

Reality check: Writing is just the first step.

Great writing is a start.
Systems turn it into a business.

Here's the blueprint↓
1. Substack notes = free subscribers growth

Most creators are sleeping on Substack Notes.

β€’ We post 2–4x/day.
β€’ Over 35% of our total subs now come from Notes.

If you're only posting on X or LI, you're leaving one of the best ways to attract subs on the table.
Read 15 tweets
Jun 5
You want financial freedom?

Become a ghostwriter.

At 26, I was a broke copywriter addicted to World of Warcraft.

18 months later, I hit $180K/month writing for founders.

Most people overthink. I just started.

Here’s the story:🧡 Image
I was sick growing up. I didn't know I had celiac disease until I was 18.

I fractured my spine at 14 playing hockey. Then broke it again at 17.

My NHL dreams died.

I turned to World of Warcraft, becoming one of the highest-ranked players in North America.
Then I pivoted to my other passion: writing.

I studied Fiction Writing at college.

My college writing professor Joe Meno (author of "Hairstyles of the Damned") told us success meant:

"Write for a year, mail manuscripts in manila envelopes, stack rejection letters for 30 years."
Read 26 tweets
May 29
In 1884, Mark Twain gambled everything on a dying President.

Everyone said to walk away.
He offered Ulysses S. Grant 7x the standard publishing royalty.

Together, they created a $12M bestseller and America's greatest military memoir.

This story changed publishing forever:🧡 Image
In 1884, former President Ulysses S. Grant was utterly broken.

β€’ His Wall Street firm collapsed in a Ponzi scheme
β€’ He lost his entire life savings
β€’ At 62, he was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer

His family faced poverty after his imminent death. Image
Image
Grant's only hope was his memoir.

Publishers hoped to profit from the American hero.

So, Century Magazine offered him the standard 10% royalty.

But Mark Twain, sensed a historic opportunity (which the publishing world missed):
Read 15 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(