Today is launch day for my new book, The Content Entrepreneur.
It was quite a journey getting to this point.
First, the TL;DR: The book was written with 32 members of my VIP group. A lot of very smart people put their time and talent to the test, and here we are. It’s a great resource for content creators ready to take the next step and become content entrepreneurs.
But I digress. The journey.
Origin story of The Content Entrepreneur
About six months after The Tilt’s launch, we announced a new event – the Creator Economy Expo, now known as Content Entrepreneur Expo (CEX).
As part of the CEX launch, we developed a special forever ticket called the Never-Ending Ticket (NET). Seventy-five incredible individuals who had faith in me and The Tilt purchased one of these CEX NETs. As long as CEX was a thing, they would get a ticket. They’ll return for their third CEX on May 5.
But I didn’t think a forever ticket to CEX was enough. So, the group gathered bimonthly over Zoom, hearing from special guests like Jay Clouse and Lexi Grant (both speakers at CEX). And then, at last year’s CEX, about 30 NET holders met in a room and committed to publishing a book together.
The book would not be about content creation (although there is a lot of that in the book). It would be about the strategy behind being a content creator – the goals, the planning, and the decisions to go from content creators to successful content entrepreneurs.
Now, 11 months after that meeting, The Content Entrepreneur, the book, is born.
Now, it wasn’t easy.
Talk to any of the 33 authors, and they will tell you that creating content with 33 points of view is challenging, to say the least. But we did it, and we created something special.
Now, a bit more on the strategy.
New strategy for book publishing
The Content Entrepreneur is one of the first books from Tilt Publishing. The imprint is designed for content creators in the non-fiction space who want to publish a book.
The core mission of Tilt Publishing is not just to help professionally edit and design something that looks and reads like a book. The mission also focuses on the book’s distribution.
As you probably know, almost every author in the world creates a book and sells it through places like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc. While wide distribution of a book can be a good thing, the economics are generally bad for authors.
These third parties take a large chunk of the revenue, and, worse yet, the author doesn’t get any of the customer data (that’s really bad). It is the equivalent of publishing on rented land. You get the distribution, but you lose most of your rights.
At Tilt Publishing, we want to change that.
If you, the content creator, build your fan base, why should you send them to Amazon to buy? Why not send them directly to YOUR website, where you can interact with the customers and take your fair share of the revenue?
So that’s what we are doing, and that’s what we have done with The Content Entrepreneur book. It is only available via our websites on CEX or JoePulizzi.com. I believe this is the right decision for professional content creators, and I believe that fans want to support creators who make this kind of business decision.
Authors take control
I’ve attended a few author events in the past six months, and I see the tide turning toward direct sales. This scenario has been playing out on social media for a few years as more creators learn that third-party social connections are fleeting — you might get blocked, the algorithms change, tech narcissists take over social media properties, etc. They realize email subscriptions are where the data and distribution control lie.
After being discouraged for years about how creators put too much faith in social and tech platforms, I’m now excited publishing options exist where you can actually control your own business model.
About the author
Joe Pulizzi is founder of multiple startups including content creator education site, The Tilt and is the bestselling author of seven books including Content Inc. and Epic Content Marketing, which was named a “Must-Read Business Book” by Fortune Magazine. Joe is best known for his work in content marketing, first using the term in 2001, then launching Content Marketing Institute and the Content Marketing World event. He has two weekly podcasts, the motivational Content Inc. podcast and the content news and analysis show This Old Marketing with Robert Rose. His foundation, The Orange Effect, delivers speech therapy and technology services to over 200 children in 34 states.
