If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life.

A client of mine named Jimmie Applegate asked me a question I get from almost every author I work with, even though he was too polite to ask it quite this bluntly: he has a published book, Addicted to Failure, and a great Psychology Today feature to his name—and he still doesn't know what to do next.

Instead of answering him privately, I answered him on the show, because I know that so many other authors wonder the same thing.

Jimmy got the press hit. That part's done. But the Psychology Today feature is living in exactly one place—Psychology Today—instead of his website, his LinkedIn, his speaker page and every bio he's ever written. I walk through what we call “the $50,000 press hit” at Legacy Launch Pad: the document I give clients that shows them how to take one media win and multiply it into 50 different pieces of content, mentions and proof points.

I also get into my own Good Morning America clip. The appearance sold maybe five or six books directly. But it's brought in a steady stream of new business because of how many times I've referenced it since—in videos, in Substacks, in podcast episodes, in my own bio and everywhere else (including here!)

In this episode:

• The $50,000 press hit framework—how one media mention becomes dozens of touchpoints across a website, LinkedIn, speaker pages and bios
• Why every bio you've ever written (Amazon, Facebook, network directories) needs a fresh audit and an update the moment you become a published author
• The six-month relaunch: revisiting Amazon categories, keywords and book descriptions instead of assuming a launch only happens once
• Why sending a book beats sending a brochure, a PDF or a deck—the case for replacing every prospect touchpoint with a physical copy instead
• The 100-person list exercise: writing down everyone who could change your business and checking, honestly, who has actually received a copy of your book

P.S. — Want me to answer your book question on a future episode? DM me on Instagram (@annabdavid), message me on LinkedIn or email anna@annadavid.com.

Want to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Want to ask me how to build authority with your book to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/pocket-anna

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them!

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life.

Paul Colligan has written 13 books, is in the Podcasting Hall of Fame and has helped Donald Miller, Brendan Burchard, JJ Virgin and Joe Polish turn podcasting into what he calls a “grown-up business strategy” instead of a hobby. He also sent me a question I love: when you already have a working book, how do you know if it’s time to write a new one or keep leveraging the one you’ve got?

I have very strong feelings about this one, mostly because I got the answer wrong for six years and recently got right.

And Paul’s specific situation is one a lot of multi-book authors may recognize. He has a workhorse title, How to Podcast, that has been the category-defining book in its lane for years. But the world has changed underneath it—AI, the death of “if you build it, they will come,” the shift from downloads to impact.

So….does he update it? Write the new manifesto? Write nothing and double down on the consulting? I had a take on all of the above—and more.

In this episode:

• The six-year mistake I made early in my career that the publishing industry rewards you for making
• Why cranking out a new book every 18 months might be hurting your authority instead of building it
• The specific move I told Paul Colligan to make with How to Podcast
• The Amazon trick that lets you treat an old book like a new one—and why almost nobody uses it
• The exact month of the year I would release a relaunch (and the month I’d never release one in)
• The audiobook question every “updated edition” author has to answer—and the answer that surprised me

Want to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Want to ask me how to build authority with your book to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/book

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them!

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life.

I'm trying something entirely new on the podcast. I asked you to send me your book questions and I'd answer them like the brass tacks book strategist I am, and the first person who took me up on it was Brenda. Brenda has three different book ideas in her head, a 100-page version of each, an abandoned memoir and a new instinct to pivot into the longevity market. I'm going to tell her to scrap most of it and write one big book instead. Here's the case.

Brenda is a personal development coach with sharp instincts—the kind of practitioner who saves clients years of therapy in a few sessions. Her ideal client is smart, entrepreneurial and allergic to anyone who can't keep up. She has a framework for personal development in the wings, multiple levels of teaching groups, a memoir she's already concluded isn't publishable, three short-book ideas across different topic areas and a fresh instinct to chase the biohacking-for-longevity market. Which is exactly the kind of fork where an outline appointment can save you a decade of writing in circles.

But my answer really goes into the case against multiple short books, because Brenda is leaning that direction. I've published eight books and trust me—by the third one, even the people who love you stop caring. You don't get to compound enthusiasm by stacking projects—you compound diminishing returns. The people doing it well are doing the opposite. Yes, Dan Sullivan has a whole shelf of helpful little Strategic Coach books, but the big books he started doing with Ben Hardy for Hay House made a much bigger difference in his business. The little books are useful. The big books are what made him known.

We also get into why I always ask what tax bracket your ideal clients are in, the case for niching down to "how to all pretend we're ants in a colony"-level specificity (every weird Facebook group has hundreds of thousands of members) and the sign-two-copies move that has turned more cold prospects into clients than any other recommendation I make.

In this episode:

• Why Brenda should pick one big book over four short ones (and what Dan Sullivan's career proves)
• The tax-bracket question I ask before I help anyone build a book strategy
• Why Amazon's "biohacking for women over 40" search reveals an opportunity hiding in plain sight
• The 40,000-word memoir I abandoned—and why I tell people to stop writing the book that won't move their business
• Why no niche is too small (the Facebook-group test that proves it)
• Sign two copies, send them to your two most-wanted clients—and what happens next

P.S. — Want me to answer your book question on a future episode? DM me on Instagram (@annabdavid), message me on LinkedIn or email anna@annadavid.com.

Want to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Want to ask me how to build authority with your book to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/book

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 https://annadavid.com/

Remember, if there's anyone in your life who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them!

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life.

The Five-Minute Audit That Tells You If Your Book Is Invisible to AI

Last week I did something I probably should have done two years ago: I asked AI whether my novel Party Girl is one of the best funny novels about addiction and recovery. One AI said yes and listed me alongside Marian Keyes and Carrie Fisher, which was the closest thing to a dream I have ever had as an author. Another AI did not know I existed. (Rejection wasn’t new; rejection by a robot was.)

This is a solo episode and one could call it my confession. For 20 years. the question was: does my book come up on Google? Then it was: does it come up on Amazon?

Now the question is: when a prospect asks ChatGPT for the best books in your category, does your name come out of its mouth? Your buyers are asking right now.

Most authors have never once checked what AI says about them.

I spent the week figuring out why one AI knew my book and one didn’t, how these systems actually decide what to recommend and what I am doing this week, on the record, to fix the gap. Including one move on Amazon KDP I am pretty sure I am not supposed to be able to make.

In this episode:

• The five-minute audit that tells you whether your book is invisible to AI (free, right now, from your phone)
• The “vocabulary trap” that makes most expert books unfindable—and what to put in your bio instead
• Why AI doesn’t actually recommend the best books and what it recommends instead
• The exact question to ask AI about your own book that, in my case, turned into a free publicity consultation
• The change I made to my Amazon listing this week that I am pretty sure Amazon doesn’t want you to know is possible (and which may not be possible actually by the time you read/hear this)
• Why doing this work feels embarrassing—and the reason I would tell you to do it anyway

Want to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Want to ask me how to build authority with your book to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/book

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them!

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life.

Nicolas Cole built his first ghostwriting business by answering questions on Quora in 2014, and somehow that has compounded into a $10M+ portfolio of writing companies that he runs with his partner Dickie Bush—anchored by Premium Ghostwriting Academy, the 16-week program that's trained roughly 2,000 ghostwriters to charge premium rates.

Cole is a three-time guest on this show, which is a record nobody else holds, and there's a reason for it. We met at a party years ago and immediately started geeking out about books and publishing like two people who'd finally found each other at a conference for a very specific kind of weirdo. He's one of the few people I've watched scale, burn out, blow it up and rebuild without losing the part of him that actually loves writing.

The part I really wanted to get into was the 10x argument, which is the cleanest case against traditional publishing I've ever heard anyone make.

A traditional publisher pays you roughly 10% in royalties, meaning you keep 10% of the book and they keep 90%.

Self-publish and you keep 100%.

This means that to make the same money as a self-published author, your traditionally published book has to sell 10 times more copies.

We also get into his Medium loophole that paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties before they emailed him to make him stop, the Christmas Eve in 2019 he tried to duct-tape together a paid newsletter six months before Substack existed and how he emailed the Substack founder to invest the moment he saw their first round.

Also discussed: his Write With AI newsletter that now does $400K a year in subscriptions and feeds a $1-2M business on top of that and his case for why the only book worth writing is one you’re willing to write about on social media day after day after day after day.

In this episode:

• Why a traditionally published book has to sell 10 times more copies than a self-published one just to break even
• The Medium loophole that paid Cole hundreds of thousands of dollars before they emailed him to stop
• Why Cole emailed the Substack founder the day they raised their first round and what happened when they said no
• The $400K-a-year Substack newsletter Cole built by following the money
• Why charging less than $3,000 a project means you have a faulty relationship with money, not a pricing problem

Want to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Want to ask me how to build authority with your book to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/book

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them!

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life.

Gary White is a Scottish marketer who spent years building funnels for Russell Brunson at ClickFunnels before he got obsessed with one specific kind of client: people who cared so much about a subject they wrote a book on it. He turned that obsession into bookfunnels.io, a company that's helped hundreds of authors stop selling books on Amazon and start using their books to acquire actual paying clients.

I have to admit something. I got on a call with Gary, hung up, decided to poke around his site to see what he was about — and within an hour I had entered my credit card and signed up for things I did not need or really understand. That is how good his system is. So I figured the only responsible thing to do was have him on the show to explain exactly how he did that to me, so all of you can do it to your readers.

The framework is called the TINY Book Client System. The T is the perfect bait, meaning your book has to attract the exact person you actually want to work with, not just any reader who might buy a book on your topic. The I is the independent selling system, which is how you stop renting your readers from Amazon and start owning the relationship. The N is the never-ending traffic source, and Gary has a story about spending five days making a YouTube video that got 82 views, then taking a single iPhone photo of a box of his books and selling hundreds the same week with a 30-second Meta ad. The Y is the implementation offer, which is the thing your book is secretly selling the whole time.

We also get into "cash cycling"—the mechanic where every dollar you spend on ads comes back on Day Zero so you literally cannot lose money, why he thinks LinkedIn ads are a waste for most authors even when you're targeting CEOs, his case for "tiny books" of around 120 pages (just thick enough to have a real spine and an ISBN) and the warehouse-in-California-while-he-lives-in-Scotland setup that lets him sell physical books he has literally never touched.

In this episode:

• The TINY framework Gary built after running funnels for Russell Brunson at ClickFunnels for years
• The 5-day YouTube video that got 82 views and the 30-second iPhone photo that sold hundreds of books the same week
• "Cash cycling"—why every dollar you spend on Meta ads comes back on Day Zero so you cannot lose money
• Why Gary thinks LinkedIn ads are a waste even when you're targeting CEOs (and where to find those CEOs instead)
• The "tiny book"—roughly 120 pages, real spine, real ISBN, none of the months-of-staring-at-a-blank-page
• The audience-capture trap Gary warns every author about before they write a single chapter

Want to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Want to ask me how to build authority with your book to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/book

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them!

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life.

In 2023 I opened my book On Good Authority by saying AI wasn't going to replace writers.

Three years later, I still believe that. But so much that I thought about publishing in 2023 has shifted that I'm re-releasing the book—two new chapters, an updated audiobook and a free upgrade for anyone who bought the original. Because the gap between what was true then and what's true now is the whole story.

There are three main things that made me feel like a new edition was necessary.

First, AI went from a hallucinating curiosity to a tool I use all day every day—not to write books, but for design, for thinking partner work, for the personal-relationship triage I sometimes do when I'm about to send an email I shouldn't. I would argue that AI has made it so that mediocre writing has become more irrelevant, not less, since anyone can prompt their way to passable now.

Also a 2026 study finally proved what I've been saying for years: entrepreneurs with books charge 37% more than competitors without one.

But the point I want to land hardest in this version is one I couldn't fully prove in 2023 and now can: book sales matter less than they ever have. A New York Times bestselling author profiled in New York Magazine this March makes $49,000 a year, and that figure includes retreats and recording the audiobook.

A writer I follow sold 150,000 copies of her book and made $87,000 over six years after subtracting for editor, publicist and agent fees. My own New York Times bestseller didn't cover the cab fare to the launch party.

So it’s even more true now that the book isn’t the product but what makes everything else possible.

This new version also gets into AI discoverability, why your website needs to speak to robots as much as humans, why Wikipedia and Reddit and GoodReads matter more than they did three years ago, the LLM test I run on my own company every month and the niche-audience playbook my clients are using to land $20,000 speaking gigs. Which makes the new edition of On Good Authority the field guide for the season I've been running on the future of publishing.

P.S. — If you bought the 2023 edition, email assistant@annadavid.com to get the 2026 version on Anna.

Other links I promised:

The Ask Me Anything page where you can indeed ask me anything about On Good Authority: www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/book

The general book information page with links to where you can purchase: www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/good-authority-book

Want to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

Want to get my book that breaks down 30 years of experience and hundreds of interviews with publishing experts and authors—newly updated for 2026? (You can even ask the book questions. [Really!]) 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/good-authority-book

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life.

Steve Sarner spent eight years at Amazon and was VP of sales at Goodreads, which means he understands something most authors don’t:

Book sales are not the point.

What Steve focuses on now is something I think more people should be talking about: not selling books, but seeding them—that is, getting them into the hands of the exact people who can turn them into something bigger.

This, you could say, is my obsession.

We get into:

• How many books you actually need “out in the wild” before anything starts working
• Why giving your book away can be more valuable than selling it
• How books turn into $10,000+ clients (and the rough math behind that)
• The surprising places he’s putting books—from niche events to inside massive companies
• Why reviews matter…even though getting them is borderline impossible

There’s also a story about someone finding their company through AI, requesting the book, reading it and becoming a client—which is basically the entire thesis in action.

Find out more about the company where Steve works, ShelfLife, here.

Sign up for ShelfLife’s 3-2-1 newsletter here.

Want to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients create books that build authority, attract opportunities and grow businesses. More info 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com

Curious how entrepreneurs use books to generate seven-figure returns, speaking opportunities and high-value clients? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/7-figures

Interested in working with a selective hybrid publisher that focuses on strategy, authority and long-term business growth—not just publishing a book? 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/apply

Want to get my book that breaks down 30 years of experience and hundreds of interviews with publishing experts and authors—newly updated for 2026? (You can even ask the book questions. [Really!]) 👉 https://www.legacylaunchpadpub.com/good-authority-book

And if you just want to know more about me, 👉 www.annadavid.com

Remember, if there's anyone in your life whose wisdom you deeply admire, or who you know could be considered an authority in their field if they were better known, share this show with them.