In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews indie‑author and self‑publishing expert Eric Zee, the founder of ZBooks. Eric shares a personal story about spending years chasing artistic passion (airbrushing, tattoos) only to realize that market validation is essential. He outlines his core "cheat sheet method"—publishing a short 500‑word preview on Amazon to test demand quickly. He discusses the practical toolset he uses, including KDP Rocket, KD Spy, and Facebook A/B testing of covers. Eric emphasizes two foundational business strategies for authors: proactive networking to leverage word‑of‑mouth and early mastery of SEO, which supports both book discoverability and broader product visibility. He stresses persistence, focus, and his mantra "the beauty of going deep," advocating deep concentration on a clear target. The conversation also touches on the Pareto 80/20 principle, his favorite book Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich (which he reads backwards, starting with the fear chapter to build a master plan), and a favorite quote from Pat Flynn about going deep. The episode concludes with Eric directing listeners to his site ZBooks.co.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. Today I have Eric Zee with us. He's a great friend of mine. He's the creator of ZeeBooks, which makes the most effective resources for independent authors. So welcome to the show, Eric.
Hey, Tyler. Thanks for having me on. It's great to talk to you again.
Yes, great to chat with you again. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Eric, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Oh, I, I, I'll try to make it short. I started with art and I was misguided by people that told me to follow your passion and Let me tell you something, passion in this respect is baloney because you can be misguided with passion. What you need to do is validate your ideas. So what happened was, you know, I thought I was going to be the next H.R. Giger. You know, I had an airbrush and I was airbrushing people's t-shirts and I was making money. I had an online business. No, before internet, I already had a PO box business. And I was sending t-shirts all across the nation. And then I got into tattoos. I was tattooing people from San Francisco to San Diego just on word of mouth alone. But then I got this idea to follow my passion and get an airbrush and do this H.R. Giger stuff, and it just totally fell in the river, you know. And it was— so I think the underlying message there is to Follow the intersect between what you like and what people want to buy. It's validating your idea. I wasted almost maybe even 20 years of my life following my passion, just thinking, oh, you just got to do one more airbrush painting and you'll be the next H.R. Giger. And guess what? Nobody was buying them. The people were buying t-shirts and tattoos from me like crazy. So you have to find the intersect in life between your passion and what you can make and what people want to buy.
I love that. I think that is key.
Yeah.
The next one I have for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I actually just said it, the validation part. I'm really into cranking out books, very short books. I went from throwing the spaghetti at the wall to seeing what works, to then using the tools of the trade like KDP Rocket, KD Spy, networking with other people, and A/B testing your book covers in Facebook, stuff like that. So the key tool of the trade, like I just mentioned, is to validate your books. There are many methods. My main method is to put out a cheat sheet right away an idea of your book, the first chapter, maybe, maybe just 500 words, a character synopsis, a prequel, something really quick to get your feet wet. Get it on Amazon right away. And this is called the cheat sheet method. And there are many cases on my blog, for example, the 7-day challenge. I show some examples of people that are really crushing it with that. And so this is my main tool or method is the cheat sheet method, which gets you clarity right away.
Love it. And what is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry specific?
Well, oh, I got, I got two of those. Number one is networking. Uh, other people that have— I have interviewed, I've asked them, what would you do different if you could do it all over again? And they, they said they would, uh, they would network first. They would they would have done more networking because influencers and just your network, just people, word of mouth is probably going to sell you more books than anything else. Now, if you're an introvert, uh, the next piece was SEO. Do the SEO first, learn SEO first, search engine optimization, because it's going to help you in everything from your books, your website, even if you have physical products. And you can't do it later. SEO is not something that you can put back in later. You have to learn it and start with it, and it will kill two birds with one stone. It will help you with that keyword I was talking about, validation, and it will make sure that you're making something that people want. So those are the two. I know you asked for one, but I gave you two.
No, thank you. We're always happy to get more. And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, I think you kind of gave that in the underlying message, but maybe you have another piece or you want to expand. Yeah, your younger self, one piece of advice, what would that be?
Yeah, it would be if you persist, you shall succeed. The key, though, is to get the steering right. And that's what I was saying. The passion was the wrong steering. You got to get clarity and then If you persist, you'll perceive. Actually, my new byline now is, um, the beauty of going deep. Yeah, so focus, focus, focus. Get your clarity, get your target, and then focus on it like a you-know-what.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness? How much time do you got? The key to happiness is to make children, embrace the chaos, And 80/20, Pareto, everything you do. Again, I can't get away from that validation that has to do with validating, you know, the 20% that gets you the 80% of the results. So make a lot of babies, embrace the chaos, because life is chaos, and Pareto, 80/20.
I love it. And what is— this will be a great question for you— what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
Ever or lately?
Uh, I'd say ever, but it's up there.
Oh, that's hard, that's hard.
Uh, you can go lately.
Okay, I got it, I got it, I got it. The global view is it's, it's got the wrong title. Uh, Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. It's really how to achieve your dreams and how, how to persist and succeed. And I don't like the title, Think and Grow Rich, but at the time they thought that was appropriate. But Think and Grow Rich is a master plan for life. And if you do the book, you do it backwards. You start in chapter 13, which is all about fear and overcoming fear, and then you make your master plan. And you know what's so crazy? I did it. I made a master plan, and anytime I'm just in doubt, I go and look back, and damn it, it's right every time. My master plan has been right for the last like 5 years. I've I did it about 5 or 6 years ago, maybe more.
That is so cool.
Yeah, and but so you have to do the book, and I suggest doing it backwards. The chapter about fear first, and then make your master plan, and then read the rest of the book.
I'm going to reread it again backwards. That's awesome.
Very cool.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
My new favorite quote is The beauty of going deep. It's from Pat Flynn's podcast with the guy from Leadpages. And he was talking about how he started Leadpages. Man, I can't, he's got a name like Casey or Chase or something like that. And so yeah, the beauty of going deep, which is focusing on your goal. And if you persist, you will succeed.
Yes, dude. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
ZBooks.co. Very simple.
Perfect. Thanks again, man. We appreciate it.
Thank you, Tyler, and keep up the good work. Keep up your momentum.
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