But what are the real concrete numbers? How are established authors actually making money, and what should new authors do? Go straight to e-book?
In this post, I’ll look at real-world numbers to discuss some hard truths of publishing, explain economics and pay-offs, and provide a few suggestions for aspiring authors.
DODOcase, one of more than 1,000 businesses created in the last six months, has sold more than 10,000 units at $60 each.
From today’s New York Times coverage of the Shopify/4-Hour Workweek build-a-business competition that just ended:
To encourage early, positive buzz among Apple iPad buyers, Mr. Dalton [of DODOcase] hired street teams via Craigslist to “hang out with Apple fanboys, while they waited on line for hours, maybe even days, outside of Apple retail stores for a chance to buy the first edition iPad.” The street teams, he said, hit Apple store locations in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
DODOcase also scored favorable reviews with the tech blogs Engadget and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Some endorsements came unsolicited from high profile customers; on July 14, Evan Williams, chief executive of Twitter, posted a DODOcase endorsement on his Twitter feed: “Got my Dodocase. Sweet.”
The company, which plans to continue manufacturing its product and creating jobs in San Francisco, received more than 10,000 orders within a few months of the iPad’s debut…
DODOcase iPad cases cost around $60, so you can do the math. Amazing.
This post will cover how it all happened… Read More
Brainstorming in Boulder, CO with a class of founders from TechStars, where I’ve been a mentor. After this particular trip, I ended up advising Graphic.ly. (Photo: Andrew Hyde)
Disclaimer: nothing on this site is legal advice, and I am not an investing expert.
Part I explained how, instead of getting an MBA, I invested the tuition dollars into angel investing. To recap, my current stats for the two-year “Tim Ferriss Fund” look like this:
15 or so total investments
0 deaths
2 successful “exits”, or sales (including my own company)
If we look at the value of my remaining start-ups on paper, based on subsequent funding and valuations, the portfolio is probably up well over 4x. This means nothing (remember Webvan?), but it’s fun to look at the spreadsheet.
This post will look at how I’ve found deals, how I filter deals, and the rules I’ve set for myself. The latter can teach broader business lessons, even if angel investing never enters your life… Read More
They’re attractive for many reasons: developing new business skills, developing a better business network, or — most often — taking what is effectively a two-year vacation that looks good on a resume.
In 2001, and again in 2004, I wanted to do all three things.
This post is the first of two that will share my experience with MBA programs and how I created my own… Read More
The path to profitability doesn’t need to be complicated. (Photo: El Photopakismo)
I’ve known the guys at 37Signals for a little while.
I first met Jason Fried at SXSW in 2008, and I then got to know David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) over e-mail and in person last year. On a fundamental level, I think, our philosophies just mesh well.
Comfortably situated in Chicago outside of the “start-up” echo chamber, 37Signals is focused on getting sh*t done instead of chasing the Silicon Valley venture capital death spiral. Financing has it’s place, but it’s a means to an end and shouldn’t be confused with an end.
The end is a profitable business. Now, let’s be clear: there are ways to play the acquisition game (or even financing game) and make millions without ever turning a profit. But don’t let the media fool you–you hear of the few successes because the stories are fun to tell. The thousands of failures that die sad but unspectacular deaths don’t get on the magazine covers.
More than 3,000,000 people worldwide use 37Signals products, including me. I use one of them, Basecamp, for project management, and it rocks in its simplicity. I’m not the only one who thinks so: Basecamp generates millions of dollars in profit every year.
37Signals’ employees–fewer than 20 total–are spread across 8 cities on two continents, and no matter how many rules they break, profit seems to be the end result… Read More
Before I had to establish my no-blurb/no-review policy for books due to volume (picture: one day’s mail), I received an e-mail from Rick Smith, the founding CEO of the World 50, one of the most exclusive senior executive networking companies on the planet, with members and contributors like Bono, Francis Ford Coppola, and Phil Knight… Read More
