This week, I sat down with Chandler Bolt, founder of SelfPublishing.com. We discussed two things I get asked about constantly:

How to monetize your expertise AND “should I write a book?”

My takeaways:

Self-publishing pays 20–70% vs. the 8–12% a traditional publisher gives you.

It’s the difference between a dollar a book and a few bucks a book. For most authors, book royalties will not make you rich.

The key: The money isn't in the book. It's in the funnel that book unlocks.

Chandler's book Published did ~$7M in the last 12 months.

Not in book sales — he gives it away for free whenever he can.

Chandler’s book feeds his agency and funnels up to premium advising and services. It’s a model that’s done ~$80M in the past decade.

Don’t optimize for copies sold.

Would you rather sell 1,000 copies, or generate $100K for your business?

Reverse-engineer for the second option.

Broad books don't sell.

Chandler's rule: Keep niching down until you're a little terrified nobody will care. That's usually the sign you've finally niched enough.

Good news: It’s the best time in history to go narrow. Everything's drowning in AI-slop sameness. An original, specific POV breaks through the noise.

His best tip for getting there: Write the whole book to one person. Not an audience. One real human you're trying to help.

Tactics expire.

The first version of Chandler's book Published was full of Amazon screenshots and step-by-steps. Six months later the platform changed, the screenshots were wrong, and the 1-star reviews rolled in.

Strategies are durable.

Developing your strategies into memorable frameworks can make a general strategy into an idea you own.

I’ve talked about this before with Katelyn Bourgoin — how creators like Codie Sanchez, Justin Welsh, and others are turning ideas they own into big businesses.

Chandler’s example: The M.O.R.E writing method. Mindmap, Outline, Rough draft, Editing.

A lot of people won't write a book because they're scared it'll cannibalize their course sales. Chandler says that's backwards.

He uses Russell Brunson’s value ladder: the book is the 30,000-foot view, a course is the click-by-click, a service is "just do it for me."

Different people want different levels of services and access, but you’ll be more effective at selling higher ticket items IF you provide value at every step and move your customers through these levels.

Listen & watch the full conversation: