APRIL 9, 2024

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

33 People Write a Book and Avoid Amazon

Today is the launch day for The Content Entrepreneur.

It was quite a journey getting to this point.

First, the TL;DR: I wrote the book 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.

The 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 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 the 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.

Author revolution: 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.

So, buy the book (all proceeds go to charity) and come meet the authors at CEX in May.

Thanks for all your support and being such a valuable member of this community.

- Joe Pulizzi

Learn more from these and other successful entrepreneurs at CEX May 5 to 7 in Cleveland, Ohio. Register today!​

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Entrepreneur: Michelle Martello

Biz: Minima Designs​

Tilt: Teaching how to ideate and launch an online presence and offerings

Primary Channel: Newsletter (5K)

Other Channels: Website, blog, Instagram (4.7K), Facebook (2.3K), Pinterest (2.2K), YouTube (700)

Time to First Dollar: 2 months

Rev Streams: Consulting, courses, affiliate marketing

Our Favorite Actionable Advice

• Use what you have: Her first and second content products were ebooks of the materials she used for her consulting and design clients.
• Challenge yourself: Michelle challenged herself to produce her first online course in a week. She did and earned $10K in revenue in the first week.
• Find your people: Gather with people who can be your sounding board. Find five or six people you can ask for advice or help with something you are struggling with, and they will get back to you quickly and honestly. Find an SEO expert, business expert, and/or people running a business like yours.

Make your opportunities: Don’t wait for things to come to you. You have to ask for the opportunity. Ask to be on the podcast or to speak at an event. It doesn’t have to be some formal request, but you have to make the ask.

- Marc Maxhimer

​Read Michelle’s story and why $10K seems to be her product launch sweet spot.​

Join Michelle Martello at CEX May 5 to 7, and she’ll teach you how to create a “non-skeezy” affiliate marketing plan.

• ​My Top 5 Business Books [the what and why] (Content Inc.)
• ​Our Most Impactful Business Books of All-Time (This Old Marketing)
• ​Crowdfunding Your Self-Published Book With Kickstarter (Publish & Prosper)
• Chat on release day about The Content Entrepreneur book with author Joe Pulizzi and a co-author Michelle Peterson Clark in the weekly Tilt Your Business podcast at 12 p.m. US EDT Tuesday.

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