Ownership Is Everything

I wanted to share a core concept I've been thinking about recently.

Keep in mind that I'm writing from the perspective of an author selling books—but this can really apply to creative entrepreneur who wants to make money with their work.

Most people think you have to sell thousands (or millions?) of copies to make any meaningful money from a book...but that's a myth. In my experience, the real money isn’t in one-time book sales—it’s in what you build around the work.

The real revenue driver from creative work is made on the back end: the products and services that readers buy into once they know, like, and trust you. It's all in the followup game.

This is exactly the mindset innovators like ​Nipsey Hussle​ and Ryan Leslie have been preaching for years.

Nip said it best:

Right now, it's the creators who are becoming the titans of industry by creating products and services that are consumed directly by their fanbase. The giants are going to be the ones who create the business models around their fans. That's what we're doing with this collab with Ryan Leslie.

Ownership is everything.

You can only capitalize on the backend once you own the relationship with your customers and build a rapport with them. This is done by collecting their email addresses, mobile numbers, and even direct mail info — then tactfully staying in touch on a regular basis by creating helpful content, personalized experiences, and occasionally, new offers.

In order to do this, it takes a bit more work.

You can and should still sell your work on major distribution platforms like Amazon, Apple, Spotify, etc. But these platforms will not share customer contact info with you. That means the only way to build a sustainable business from your creative work is to create your own systems for collecting customer info, contacting them, and deepening the relationship over time.

That's what Ryan has been focused on at ​SuperPhone​ for over a decade. He even helped Nipsey launch one one of the most successful DTC campaigns in music history called Proud2Pay, which was birthed from a desire to challenge record label dependency. Nip’s mixtape “Crenshaw” sold out of 1,000 physical copies in 24 hours for $100 each, including a purchase of 100 copies by Jay-Z. His followup mixtape “Mailbox Money” sold 100 physical copies for $1,000 each.

He was able to create such an incredible ROI by using technology collect fan info, follow up with premium offers and, ultimately, own the customer relationship directly.

At New Wave Press, we're standing on the shoulders of giants. We've taken a page out of Nipsey and Ryan’s book by helping authors directly own the relationship with their readers—and because we also manufacture + ship our books in-house (not just print on demand), we also get customer information from Amazon, which is an absolute game changer.

I’d rather have 1,000 customers in my own database that I can contact on a anytime I want than 10,000 people who’ve purchased my work, but I cannot follow up with.

When you own the customer relationship, you own the income stream.

That's it for today.

PS: My team at New Wave Press is awarding a ​$250,000 Full Publishing, Marketing + Media Scholarship​ to one entrepreneur who’s ready to turn their expertise into a book that elevates their brand, drives high-ticket leads, and positions them as the authority in their industry. Click here to apply