Bestseller Interviews

I’ve struggled for several weeks about whether or not to post this interview.  Personally, I disagree with the majority of what Michael says, but he’s the best-selling author and I’m not.  He was also kind enough to agree to the interview, and I thank him for it.

So, here it is, in unedited form:

Would you say that writing a book and transforming it into a bestseller is like starting a business?  What are some of the similarities and differences?

In one way, yes, in so many others, no. Yes, it is an act of creation. But it is an act of creation from one mind, not many. A business calls for many minds, pragmatic minds, not necessarily creative minds, albeit they are all forged together when done the best way by the creative leader, E.g., the entrepreneur. A book is a creation of a much different order,and while one could create a bestseller through aggressive marketing, one could never create a bestseller that way for the long term. A book that is a true bestseller becomes so on its own. That happens between the reader and the author, the author engaging with the reader like a great company engages its customer…at the heart, at the experiential level, as only one who knows another truly can.

In E-Myth, you say that every person that starts a business has three people inside of them: the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur. For authors, what is the role of the technician? The manager? The entrepreneur?

The author is pure technician, no doubt about it. A book is not a business.

As an author, how important is it to build a team of people to support press altar for your book? When should you hire a staff to support your publishing business?

An author is rarely in “the publishing business,” he or she is in the writing business. When an author becomes invested in a publishing business, he or she ceases to be an author. Then he or she best become an entrepreneur.

How important is it to innovate with your book–to say something that’s never been said before?

It’s only important if it is important, and for no other reason. Innovation as a device for an author for the purpose of distinguishing himself or herself from other authors is a poor excuse for writing a book. A book to an author is a product of his or her imagination, it is a tract through which he or she speaks to the world, it is a philosophy, a mindset, a work of art or education; it is not written to make oneself successful. If it is it is a poor example of a meaningul book.

You emphasize the principle of quantification. Most authors only quantify the number of books they’re selling. What other metrics would you recommend authors track?

There are none. Again, an author is not a businessperson, a book is not a business.

You’ve built a publishing empire around E-Myth. What were some of the steps you took to transform your book into a business? Would you recommend other authors take the same steps?

I didn’t build a publishing empire around E-Myth. I built a business empire first, and then wrote E-Myth as a distillation of what I had learned in my business. The business came first, the book second. My books are purely just that, books. I speak to my audience — my reader — through my writing and my books. They are as successful as they are because they are very good books with a very important message for my readers.

What do you spend more time on now than you did when you were writing your first book? What do you spend less time on?

I spend my time the same way I did at the beginning: creating new businesses, writing, speaking, creating new ideas, pursuing my imagination, stimulating my creativity every chance I get in every way I can.

One of your founding principles is creating a turnkey business. Only, is it possible for authors to separate themselves from the details of creating products? How?

A book can be turn-keyed, but after you have created the first one, you are simply manufacturing the ones that follow. That is not writing, it’s manufacturing. Nothing wrong with it, but one must be clear about the distinction.

Chicken Soup for the Soul and Rich Dad, Poor Dad have inspired an entire line of books, where the original authors invited others to contribute. Is this step similar to franchising a business, and how can more authors reach that level of business model maturity?

I have a lot of feeling associated with this subject, good and bad. Leave it at that.

Not only have you written one of the world’s most famous books on entrepreneurship, but you’ve genuinely changed countless lives. What advice can you offer to authors that have similar passion for their topic?

Make sure you are truly passionate about your topic as opposed to the role of a successful author. Most people who write books to expand their commercial reach are not authors, but mechanics solely interested in selling themselves to an audience to influence that audience to buy what are referred to in the industry as “the backend.” The book is the front end, the backend is training, coaching, consulting, etc. So the book is the front end of a sales process, the lead generator for the sale of backend products or services. In such a case, the author is the salesperson. Often those books are not even written by the “author” but by a “ghost” author. It’s remarkable to me how many times people come up to me and ask if I have actually written my own books!

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