10 Ways TO WIN! | Self-Publishing Secrets

Oh, I'm back. Okay, I'm back, I'm back, I'm back. Let me call Rishi again. Let me call Rishi. Let me call Rishi. Okay, let's see if it's working. Come on, Rishi.

Hello?

Hello? I got disconnected. Got disconnected.

At what point did I— was I just talking, talking, talking? At what point did I get cut off?

It was the whole question. I missed the whole— but I like, I got a kill and then, uh, and then it just— my computer, like the, the internet went down. Oh man, now we're on a roll. We were on a roll. Anyway, it looks like our team is still winning. That's mega frustrating. Anyway, we're good, we're good, we good, we good.

So the game is lost, that game, or you're still on that game?

No, I'm still on that game, but they had to play without me for a while.

Oh, okay, okay, gotcha. Okay, question comes from Luke.

I'm stressed, I don't even know how the game is going now. Here we go. Okay, yes, yes.

So Luke is, uh, Luke. —an author, Luke. And so this is a question about whether he should get a traditional publisher or self-publish. He's wondering if you know of really— if there's been really any truly successful self-publishers, because he really wants to, I think, avoid some of the things that come with being with a traditional publisher, but wants to kind of get your feedback. And yeah, shout out to Your One Word in pre-launch right now with Evan's book. If you guys have gotten it yet, awesome. And so I was just going into all of my excitement about writing my first book, Evan, before we got cut off.

Oh wait, you're writing a book?

No, I'm not, but I can't wait till I do. I'm really excited about actually one day writing a book. I feel like eventually that will be something that I really want to do. But, so I have not gone through the process of writing a book. But I do, just in general, for those of you who might be interested in knowing some of the main kind of benefits of self-publishing, I know is that you have much more control over story and like the platforms. Like this, Luke is saying that he really wants to be able to distribute the book everywhere. So you have much more control over that. You, you can write it in your own timeline. You don't have the deadlines in the same way that you would with a traditional publisher. The royalties are going to be higher. And so, you know, I, and I guess some of the The conventional wisdom says that whether you self-publish or go with a traditional publisher, if the book is great, it's going to do well. So yeah, make sure that whatever way you decide to go, that the book is something that you really believe in yourself and are providing as much value as you can. Make the book great, just like we said. Make the app great. Make the— product for the e-store, eShopGreat, it all comes down to, you know, is the book something that is something that you're really proud of? But maybe Evan, you could talk a little bit more about, even though you have how many, how many episodes do you have about your book writing now at this point? Do you know?

I don't know, there's a lot, yeah, there's a lot. I don't remember, but it's a lot. I got my first—

So yeah, what do you think about that?

So, you know, for me it depends on what success means to you. There's a number of reasons why you want to go with a publisher versus going self-publishing, but depends on what your goals are. So if you want to make a lot of money, then you're going to make more money being self-published than going with a publisher. This just— this Twisted Fate is bothering me. My teammate is not being a good teammate. I'm not a fan of this teammate, this so-called teammate of mine here. Anyway, let me get this. Yes, good, good job. J-Rise is doing work. So if your goal is just to make money, then don't go with a traditional publisher because you're going to get killed on royalties and just in general. The system is set up— oh, we got a kill, nice. Yeah, the system is set up so that it really hurts. It hurts you as an author to go with a traditional publisher, again, if that goal is just revenue. I just got a kill. We had a pretty intense team fight there, so I'm pretty excited about that. I went with a traditional publisher, and if you're having questions about writing a book and what you should do, I do recommend going out and checking out the book series because I cover my path of writing a book and the ups and downs and happiness and struggles. Uh, that I deal with in dealing with a major publisher. Uh, I went with a major publisher because I wanted to get the reach. And I just felt like I would get more reach with a major than only trying to do it myself. I would make more money doing it myself, but I would get more reach going with a major. And that's my goal. Like my goal was to have impact. It wasn't just to make money. I wanted to have impact. Um, right. So again, depending on what your goal is, is there's options for you. Um, there are increasingly authors, like the question was, can I have success if, if I'm not with a publisher? Yes. There's a lot of authors who are only going with, with their own self-publishing methods. Like I was, I had James Altucher on the channel. You love him. He's the Choose Yourself guy. I had him on the channel, you know, a couple weeks ago. And he has, you know, New York Times bestselling books and he's gone with the major publishers and his books are like years old and still selling really well. Whoa, this is a crazy fight. But now he wants to go self-publish. So you get, you know, you have way more options, you get less restriction, way more freedom when you self-publish. And that's, you know, and I guess making more money too. That's probably all of the above is why he wanted to do it. And, you know, that's okay. So it just depends on what your goal is. There are lots of people who have self-published There's lots of guides, there's lots of blog posts, there's lots of people who've gone through the process and they've shared their wisdom and expertise. Yes, you can do it. I think increasingly more people are doing it. I think a combination because of the money and because of just wanting to have the control. My next book, depending on which one, I have two books in mind. I would not be able to do one of them with a publisher. Because of the restrictions that they, that they have. Like, just from dealing with them on, on the book that I have now, I know that I would not be able to deal with them, uh, on this other book that I had in mind. So depending on what I do, uh, we will see. So yeah, check out the book series, you'll learn a lot. So yeah, you've got an upcoming book from me, a second one. Uh, Rishi's gonna have her own book too, talking about her ownership in Snapchat, and lots to look forward to.

Yeah, I'm excited. Well, so did you feel— I know the answer to this, but just for those who may not know— how much did you have to give up of your quote unquote storyline, because the control of the story, because you were working with a publisher? Was it more than you expected, less than you expected?

I want to say it was probably more than I expected because I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't— it wasn't that much, you know. Like, as much as I may have complained and, you know, made videos about it, like, at the end of the day, like, I got for the most part what I wanted. Which is great. But it fits with what this book is all about. Like, my next book, at least the ideas for one of the books, it wouldn't be possible. Like, they would never agree. Like, I don't know if they would even want to sign up for it. Just too many issues. Yeah, so It's an old industry. They have really restrictive ways of doing things. And so if you can work within them for the purpose of your book, then that's awesome. And if you can't, then you may need to consider going on your own. But there are tons of people who are doing it on their own and having lots of success with it. So I wouldn't let that be a reason for you not to feel like you can achieve success on your own.

Yep. Okay, great. How's the game going?

I'm about to get a kill, so I'm excited about that. Oh, maybe not. Oh crap. Oh, am I gonna get a double kill? Double kill! Give it to me! Oh, I got it! Oh, now I'm gonna die. No! All right, I died. I got greedy. I got greedy, Rishi. Sometimes when you get greedy, you pay the price. That's what just happened there. I got greedy and I paid the price. But the game, we are ahead. I have 5 kills and 2 deaths, so even with my disconnection there, we're doing well. JRise is probably hard carrying us. Yeah, he's doing well. So yes, good. We're doing well. We're excited. I'm dead right now, so I'm focused.

Okay, next question comes from Nilsa. Okay. And Nilsa actually is a young mother, young single mother, and she has a 17-year-old son and basically has a lot of just struggles academically. And, but also is very gifted artistically. So some of the things that he's interested in is cartoon, he wants to be a cartoonist and a web designer. But anyway, she's just feeling a little helpless because she really, she knows that he needs guidance for some of the struggles that he has, and where she lives, she doesn't feel like they have the resources that are, you know, enough to meet his needs. And so she just decided to kind of ask for your thoughts because she really wants to help her son. She wants to give him the best to be able to pursue his dreams. And but just doesn't know what to do next because it sounds like there really isn't a lot where they live. So, got it. Yeah, so I guess for me a couple things come to mind. She did mention that they kind of go between Mozambique and South Africa, and so obviously I don't live there, I've never been there, so I wish I could be more helpful in terms of guiding you to helpful services and things where you are. What I can tell you is that I'm familiar with an organization called IRIS. And IRIS is a global organization that's actually located in both Mozambique and in South Africa, and they have a lot of services for children, young adults, up to adults. So just on a practical level, for some help, if you're seeking help directly in your area for your son, you may want to check out IRIS Global. And, um, yeah, maybe there's some, at least someone or something there that could could help. And then the other thing, you know, I thought of is just specifically in terms of him being passionate about cartoonists and web design, you know, there's— you can find just about anything on YouTube, and I bet there's tons of cartoonists and just all kinds of information that you could probably find for him on YouTube. And I just— if you know about Evan's channel, then I'm assuming then you have access to all of the possible other YouTube channels that might be able to help, uh, with his love for, for drawing and for web design and all of those things. And that's all I got. I love it.

Um, so I, I love this, and And I'm feeling the motherly love, and you know, there isn't something that a mother wouldn't do to help their kid, you know, learn and get better. And so, thank you for writing in and caring. Uh-oh, uh-oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is Danger zone here. Can we do it? I don't think so. Oh, we got the— oh no, J-Rice cleaned it up. All right, good job, good job. I died. J-Rice got a kill. Um, I think— I feel like I would have killed them though anyway, but it's all good. I'm good. I'm glad J-Rice got killed. Um, I think back to when I was— when I was in my first venture, uh, growing up, it was like baseball cards. I love doing baseball cards. And even though my parents had no idea about baseball cards, they still tried to help me and took me to baseball card shows. And I'm sitting there like, you know, 12 years old negotiating with 40 and 50-year-olds over baseball cards and literally nickeling and diming them and say like, "Can you give me 5 cents off?" Wow. Really honing my negotiation skills on, you 25-cent baseball cards that I would get down to 10 cents using some 11-year-old, 12-year-old charm. And again, they had no idea what I was doing, what it was all about, but they could see the passion, and so they wanted to help me. And so I remember that, and that really helped me on my path. I agree with Rishi in that You are part of a much larger community now. Like, you have YouTube, man. I wish I had YouTube growing up. Uh, the things that, that I would have, uh, learned by using that platform. And when I think of, uh, this problem, I think of, uh, Julius Yego, who is a javelin thrower, and I believe he became the world champion, and he's based out in Africa. I want to say Kenya, but I could be wrong. And he taught himself to javelin all from YouTube. Like, he became the world champion javelin thrower. Uh-oh, I'm being attacked. Because of YouTube. And so they call him Mr. YouTube, and if you look up Mr. YouTube, you'll find him. I did a video on him not that long ago when in espresso, uh, and he had like nobody around him who believed in him. He didn't have support, uh, and he just started analyzing their technique. He had no coach, you know, he just started looking at how they were doing it and said, you know what, I want to try to do the same. And he copied them and he got better and he started winning tournaments in Africa and then he started competing on the global stage and he started winning there too. And so you can learn a lot just from YouTube if you put in the work. And the good thing about it is he's got you. Like, he doesn't need the— uh-oh, my team is all dead. My team is dead. He doesn't need the, um, he doesn't need the coach. Like, can it help? Sure. But you know what he's got? He's got you. And if you sit there and help him and go through the videos with him and show your love and support and help him find videos and encourage him when nobody else believes in him, uh, that's great. And that's all you need to do to start. And yes, you know, there may not be the same opportunities that there are here. There may not be as many organizations. I mean, you could check out the one Rishi recommended, but there may not be tons of organizations for you that put in programs, but don't let that— don't let that stop you. Don't let that be the reason why you don't go out and, you know, continue to chase that dream for him. It's so easy to say, well, I come from here, and so I'll never be successful, where really— oh, I died— where really It's about, it's about resourcefulness, it's about entrepreneurship, it's about doing the thing that, you know, finding a way through. And so, you know, the way my parents did it was they took me to baseball card shows and we drove for like, you know, why? I went every year to Florida because spring training was there and because I wanted to meet all the Blue Jays players and and I would go to their parking lot, and I would know who the players were when they were driving in, and I would sit there and get autographs. And I did that every year when I was growing up. And so my parents, again, didn't understand the passion, but knew that I was passionate about it and wanted to encourage me to keep going. So I have no doubt that if my parents were in that situation, that's what they would be doing, is they would be trying to find YouTube videos to help me learn, to look at coaching programs that are free online with some— there's so many people who do drawing videos now online, tons, that you can learn a lot from, that, that are probably better than what you would learn from a local person anyway. Yeah, that's so true. And so I have no doubt that my parents now, if if they were in Africa, if we were switching spots, that's what they would do. And that's what I would do. And that's what I still do. Right? Like, I want to learn from— I want to learn from world leaders. I want to learn from successful entrepreneurs. I want to learn from people who've done it more than me. And I don't know how to do that locally. I don't have anybody that I can talk to and do it locally with. And so I get that by going on YouTube and And that's why I started my channel. Everybody on my team died except for me and J-Rize, so we'll have to carry this. So yeah, I mean, I still do it. I think it's insanely powerful. I think that's what I would do. And look up Julius Yego as an example of a guy who has, you know, came from Africa. And basically just studied on YouTube and, and, you know, became a world champion. And so your son can become a world champion at what he's doing if you, uh, if you give him a little bit of belief and confidence and help guide him by finding resources and just being a supportive voice. It can make a huge difference.

Love it. I'm looking at videos now of Julius Diego. Never heard of him until today.

You know, I didn't either, and then Ivan, who's on my team, was researching videos and he found it and he's like, I love this story, can we use it as an inspresso? Nobody requested him. Usually all of our videos are requests. Nobody actually requested him, but I agreed. I love the story. This is amazing. We have to find a way to use it. And yeah, I'm excited. Julius Yeager, who knew? Mr. YouTube. There's gonna be more too, like he's only the first. People look at, you know, Mark Zuckerberg now and the success he had with Facebook, and that inspires a whole generation of people to now want to become entrepreneurs. Like Julius is just the start of what's going to be coming of people who learn an insane— like how much have people learned from my YouTube channel. You know, not that, uh, you know, I'll tout my YouTube channel a little bit. I'm not necessarily saying I have the greatest YouTube channel in the world. Um, I do believe it's pretty good though. Uh, well, I do. Uh, I think we're gonna win, we're gonna win, we're gonna win! Just go for it! Yes, GG, we won again!

Hey, the streak continues! I really think we've never lost.

I don't know. I feel like we have, but it's— I don't know, maybe not. It's close. I feel like you—

Yeah, so you were talking about your channel. You were talking about your channel.

Even with me disconnecting and being out of the game, we still pulled through. That was a rough one. That was a rough one. Connection timeout. I got the best score on the team. I love it. Yeah, so, so, you know, the resource— you have the resources. The resources are there. It's called YouTube. Go out and start learning and encourage your son and help him when he's down and help him when nobody believes in him and be proud of the work that he's putting together and just show your support. And that's, that's what he needs. And I'm excited. And I'm excited, and, and, you know, that love is special. The mother-son love is special. So, um, I'm curious. I want to see— you know what, I want to see one of his artworks too. I want you to watch a video and then send in one of his pieces of art so we can show it off. I want to see it.

Oh, I love that. That's awesome.

Cool. All right.

And, and I— yep, I know you're about to wrap up, Evan, but just to your point, I know this is really truly just a genuine plug of your channel Like, when I'm watching your channel, I'm amazed by the kind of information that is available to people right here, right now, for free. Like, there really is no excuse. Like, it's insane. I just sometimes I'm watching and I'm going, wow, like, if people want to be successful, it's all just right here available and and I'm just— it's just amazing to me that how much is at people's fingertips if you're really hungry for it.

100%. It's never been easier and there's never been fewer restrictions and there's no reason to have an excuse to say you don't have access to mentors or information because it's there. It's there. You just gotta consume it and do the work. Alrighty. Alright. Well, thank you, Rishi. Where can people find you if they want more Rishi love?

More Rishi love can be found at Rishi Cup TV. Place for good music, good food, and good talk and reset. What's in your cup? I love it.

Well, thank you guys for watching. Thank you, Rishi, for co-hosting. Thank you, J-Rise, for being in the game. We'll see you guys again on Friday. Friday morning. Continue to believe, or whatever your one word is. I'll see you soon.