Today we chatted with Tim Ferriss’ first full time employee Charlie Hoehn. Charlie has recently written his own book about curing anxiety, called Play it Away.

jQLeadBrite("#leadplayer_video_element_531829238D4FB").leadplayer(false, "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");

iTunes | Stitcher | YouTube | RSS

Charlie’s links

• 
  
• CharlieHoehn.com
  
• Buy Play it Away on Gumroad
  
• Recession proof graduate
  
• How to cure anxiety blog post (outranking Oprah like a boss!)
  
• Charlie’s Delicious links
  
• Charlie’s post for putting together his ebook
  
• Charlie’s post about coming up with the cover design
  
• Nathan Barry
  
• Campgrounded
  

Mentions

• 
  
• Tucker Max
  
• Tim Ferriss
  
• Ramit Sethi
  
• Seth Godin
  
• Chad Mureta and App Empire
  

Background

• 
  
• Volunteered with well known influencers for free at first
  
• Recommended to Tim Ferris by Ramit and Tucker
  
• Tim hired Charlie as his first full time employee
  
• Built amazing networks through Tim’s friends
  
• Ended up quitting after Tim offered to double his salary
  
• Worked with Chad Mureta at AppEmpire.com
  
• Quit that job as well and started to develop anxiety
  

Recession Proof Graduate

• 
  
• Wrote about 125,000 words for Recession Proof Graduate
  
• Wasn’t happy with how it turned out
  
• Wasn’t positive enough
  
• Took out some key parts which ended up becoming Play it Away
  

How to get into the Hoehnzone

• 
  
• Take notes prolifically (Charlie had 5 years of organized notes)
  
• Divided all notes up to mini chapters
  
• Tries to crank out a chapter a day
  
• Tries to keep writing conversational
  
• Hand write over the top of printed chapters
  
• Author friend speaks into Siri and doesn’t stop, writes 10,000 words a day
  
• Start with 1 sentence per chapter, then write a few chapters, then a paragraph or 2 per section on the big takeaway per chapter
  

Book marketing

• 
  
• Number 1 tip is to find a good group of reviewers to help review the book
  
• Alex helped Charlie with reviewing his book
  
• Reviewers will be asked to leave a review on Amazon
  
• Sent a PDF and encouraged people to leave annotations in preview on Mac
  
• Give something special away to people who agree to review it for you
  
• Make a great product, no amount of marketing will fix a bad product
  
• Marketing is about getting a great product in the hands of people who will love your product
  
• Think about how your book will be shared – can it improve the status of the person sharing your book?
  
• Make the topic or purpose of the book super simple and easy to recommend
  
• For guest posts do most of the work for the blog – rite their intro, your bio, links and pictures
  
• Charlie deliberately put a link to a video summary at the start of the book. This is shows for people who sample it on Amazon and it will take them to a landing page and put them on an email sequence
  
• Has a sales target to hit 10,000 sales in the first 6 months – to do that he will have to reach over 1 million qualified readers
  
• Charlie is talking to teachers and groups as part of his marketing
  
• Priced at $17 to compete with other books on the topic
  
• Also doing a support group for anxiety sufferers which will be at a higher price point
  
• Recommends Nathan Barry’s ideas on book marketing
  

Common author mistakes

• 
  
• Going through a traditional publisher – the quality of what you can do on Createspace and a good affordable designer is as good as a publishing house
  
• An advance from a publisher doesn’t equal validation
  
• Publishers won’t do anything to help you sell the book
  
• Not taking full control of your own marketing
  
• Expecting people to all of a sudden promote the book without putting a lot of work into those relationships
  
• Thinking that traditional media is going to sell their book. It’s not. Traditional media doesn’t care!
  
• Not taking the time to make a great cover. Charlie learned about the importance of design in doing icons in the app world
  
• Making the PDF the wrong size (something Charlie did incorrectly), he should have done 5 x 8 from the start
  
• Stopping the marketing after they publish the book (they think their work is done)
  

How to come up with book ideas

• 
  
• Tim Ferriss formulated chapters based on the conversations his friends would have about the book
  
• He also looked at subjects of emails and blog posts to come up with chapter ideas
  
• Tap into current trends
  
• Tap into your online audience
  
• Validation – writing a post on the topic see how it goes.
  
• Validation – offer to speak to specific groups on your topic. Speak for free and look for the reception on the topic
  

Tools

• 
  
• Createspace
  
• Gumroad - Great easy option for electronic products
  
• Write the book in Pages
  
• InDesign used for book editing
  

What’s happening for Charlie in the future

• 
  
• Focusing on marketing for Play it away as a priority for now
  
• The Recession Proof Graduate book is still in the pipeline
  
• Working on something related to ‘Play’ somewhat along the lines of campgrounded.org
  

Million dollar advice for new entrepreneurs

• 
  
• Start from the internal pay check you are getting – what is the amount of fun and happiness you’ll earn?
  
• Don’t start from a place of results – e.g. self talk “I won’t get a big exit so is it worth it?”
  
• Don’t be critical of a future version of yourself
  

[convertpress id="10727" replacetheme="false"]

 

The post Podcast #55 – Enter the Hoehnzone – book marketing with Charlie Hoehn appeared first on WP Curve.