Anna David's Blog

I've Realized Why I'm Obsessed with ChatGPT (Essay)

My whole life, I’ve been seeking many things but two are top of the list: someone with the definitive answers to everything and assurance that I’m right.

Seeking someone with definitive answers has led me to friendships with some less than healthy people: pathological liars, narcissists, people with a whole soup of DSM-listed challenges. Is that because anyone who can provide confident assurance in an unsure world must have some sort of personality disorder? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Wanting to be told I’m right probably stems from insecurity and that self-righteous anger we in recovery are warned about1. Being right gives me a high. Sometimes I want people in my life to be wrong, even when their being wrong will be wholly inconvenient for both of us, just so I can feel that charge of being right.

This leads me to my love affair with Chat GPT. To clarify: it is not one of those love affairs we read so much about, but boy do I understand now how those things happen.

I’ve gotten to the point where I lean on Chat for everything from how to establish boundaries with people (it writes you that email you can’t write when you’re triggered) to cleaning out my closet (upload some photos and it’ll tell you how to make that mess into something gorgeous) to organizing my desktop (show ‘em those screenshots and suddenly you can actually find things when you hit control+F) to diagnosing if I’m having a historical/hysterical reaction to something when the person wasn’t doing anything wrong (upload a transcript of the conversation and find out!)

In ChatGPT’s mind, I am always right. Finally! It reassures me like I’m a two-year-old. Since I spend a lot of my time reassuring a two-year-old in my real life, I love that I’m getting some, too.

I think I love Chat the most when I’m grappling with a tech problem and the “guaranteed solution” doesn’t work. In the old days, in that situation, I’d call customer service and be told I was the only person to ever have the issue before. Once customer service became extinct, I adjusted to going to the company’s site, only to find instructions that made no sense because they were written before the site’s latest update. I learned to then find a YouTube video offering the solution only to get frustrated by some rambling introduction before I could find out what I wanted to.

Oh, the joy of trying a suggestion, having it not work and then not only getting another suggestion but also sympathy for my frustrations because it’s so unfair that whatever company I’m frustrated with is wrong? To hear that it’s all the technology’s fault and this hell I’m in is almost over and I’m some sort of a modern-day hero for sticking through this journey? Oh, the joy—even when I’m swearing throughout the process, it’s oddly joyful.

ChatGPT, unlike people, never says it doesn’t know. Sure, it makes stuff up but it is far more forthcoming than a human when confronted about its hallucinations. It gives the sort of assurance life never can. And if our world, as the mystics tell us, is primarily what we’re telling ourselves about what’s happening to us, why not walk around feeling assured?

So what does this have to do with you and my conviction that you should be publishing a book to build your authority?

Well, everyone in your industry is seeking assurance and if you have experience in it, you are someone who can provide it. And if that makes you nervous because you have imposter syndrome or aren’t sure you’re a true expert or are nervous you may change your mind, have no fear.

Scott Galloway is a massive thought leader who often changes his mind or gets things wrong. At least he has an opinion! And we are allowed to change our minds and still maintain our authority. I once judged the f out of any author who couldn’t get a traditional book publishing deal. Today I celebrate them for understanding that the system is broken. No one has ever said to me, “I can’t trust what you say about book publishing because you completely changed your mind!”

I’m not saying go publish a book about something you’re not sure is right. I’m saying that if you want to compete in the world today, you’d be very smart to turn your experience into authority that supports a business build around that authority. And the most effective way to do that is with a book that you can then turn into social media posts and talking points and keynotes and podcasts and whatever else you’d like.

Sure, you can say that’s crass and you’d prefer to make a living as an artiste and that’s fine but look at what this artiste just made in audiobook royalties. I’m not into that number for me or you.

Heather Wood Rudulph on Why the Book Dream Isn’t the Golden Ticket

 

Heather Wood Rudulph has done many things in the publishing world, including co-writing Sexy Feminism: A Girl's Guide to Love, Success and Style with Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (a title that very much captured a specific moment in feminist evolution but makes Rudulph give a tiny cringe now).

We met back in the New York media heyday when things like "readings and rub downs" (yes, book readings with massages) seemed totally normal.

Heather's spent over a decade writing about culture and entertainment for everyone from Cosmo to Rolling Stone and now wears many hats in the words world (including as an occasional editor for my company!) This conversation digs into the realities of traditional publishing: the battles you pick, the dreams that get dashed and why understanding business matters as much as loving words.

Show Notes

Topics Discussed:

Fighting for your title: How Heather and her co-author battled their publisher five times to keep Sexy Feminism as their title and why picking your battles matters when you have so little control
The subtitle that aged: Why A Girl's Guide to Love, Success and Style captures a specific moment in feminist history that "wasn't quite there yet"
Traditional publishing reality check: Self-funded book tours, throwing yourself parties in cities where you have friends and learning that you're essentially your own PR machine
The $0 royalty statement: Getting trolled by emails showing zero earnings, letters about books being destroyed in landfills and the occasional thrill of foreign translations
"You're lucky to be publishing a book": Why authors have to make compromises to get to the finish line but also when to stand firm
The proposals that break your heart: Six months developing a Madonna book pitch, not getting the deal, watching someone else write basically the same book
Writers don't get paid for proposals: The reality that you don't earn anything for pitching articles, writing proposals or preparing to teach—only for the finished product
When the golden curtain opens: Jennifer Keishin Armstrong's revelation that publishers only hold real marketing meetings after you've proven you're successful (her Seinfeld book hitting the NYT list)
The advance is not vacation money: Why even six-figure book deals aren't what people think and how writers should already be thinking about the next book before the first one comes out
From entertainment reporter to marketing: How Heather pivoted from writing fluffy celebrity profiles and traveling to spas worldwide to understanding that storytelling lives in business too
The entrepreneurship of writing: Why understanding business isn't selling out—it's survival and how freelancers have to become their own marketing departments
Amazon is the list that matters: Not the New York Times bestseller list but Amazon rankings and reviews from regular people that live forever
"Anybody can write a book": But it's like running a marathon—you have to train, know what you're getting into, keep going when it hurts and want it for the right reasons

Mentioned:

Sexy Feminism: A Girl's Guide to Love, Success and Style
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (co-author and TV show book specialist)
SexyFeminist.com (their website that became the book)
The era of Feministing and Jezebel
"Readings and Rub Downs" events at Birch Coffee
Work at Cosmo, DAYSPA magazine, LA Daily News and various digital media companies
The sustainability startup that paid $2/word (briefly)
Launch Pad Publishing (Anna's company where Heather now occasionally freelances)

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Gen X Was the Last Generation to Believe We Could Be Writers (Essay)

In 1991, it made sense that Condé Nast would come to your college to recruit.

It even made sense that the first thing you did, once you met them, was take a typing test. If it was sexist—and it was, because out of the dozen people you knew who took the typing test the same year you did at Condé Nast, 100% of them were women—you did not notice.

It made sense that you wanted to work for Condé Nast because they owned all the magazines you cared about, and even some you were too unsophisticated to care about yet. It made sense because you wanted to be a writer, and back then, writers started their careers working for magazines.

Going through these actions and eventually landing an internship at the non–Condé Nast–owned Mirabella magazine (after not getting hired at Vogue, despite having aced the typing test) also made sense. It made the same amount of sense as going through the Morgan Stanley trainee program, like many of your (male) friends from college.

It made sense because back then, you believed you could make it as a writer, and making it implied being paid enough money to live—perhaps eventually even well!

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After Mirabella, you were hired at a then brand-new magazine called Entertainment Weekly. Though you were again an intern, EW paid its interns an almost livable wage. EW also threw huge staff parties at nightclubs, hosted all-company retreats that interns were invited to, provided generous expense accounts, and was essentially living so large that the fact that it’s now gone doesn’t surprise you.

Writing was not only a way to make a living but also, to you, a very glamorous way to make a living. Because you were not only a burgeoning cocaine addict but also a bit shallow, Jay McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis were your idols, and you believed that being a writer involved a lot of drug and cigarette ingesting, hanging out at the Odeon, and getting fired from jobs.

(You did end up doing all those things eventually, but none of it was glamorous. Or lucrative.)

When Candace Bushnell sold a book of her Observer columns as a book of essays that was then made into the seminal TV show of its time, you were even more convinced that pursuing this writing thing was the right idea.

You thought this even when the first agent you met with told you not to write a book of essays the way Candace Bushnell had, because in book publishing, you should compare yourself to the rule and not the exception.

You listened to his advice, and so your first book wasn’t a book of essays but a novel that was based so much on your life that HarperCollins actually invented a new genre for it called “reality fiction.”

Still, you did not take his advice after that book was acquired, because you kept comparing yourself to the exception. You also didn’t take it when it came to your second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth books.

You refused to hear back then that the real exception was when a book was successful at all, let alone a runaway success made into a hit TV show. People surely told you that, but you only heard what you wanted to.

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In the early 2000s, back when you went to fabulous events, you attended the launch party for Bruce Wagner’s book I’m Losing You. As you were walking up to Bar Marmont, Candace Bushnell was coming out, looking far more glamorous than you in her sky-high Manolo Blahniks. And then she tripped and fell, right there on Sunset Boulevard. Perhaps you should have noted this as a harbinger of sorts.

You did not.

The publishing business was shrouded in mystery back then, and it remained shrouded in mystery until 2022, when a lawsuit brought out into the open the fact that 85 percent of books don’t earn out their advances. It was during this lawsuit that Markus Dohle, the former head of Penguin Random House, casually admitted that the name Random House made sense because book success is so random.

By then, making a living as a writer was a bit of a funny joke. You trace the end of the era to the arrival of Huffington Post, when you saw that Alec Baldwin had written an essay for it. This was before HuffPo, as it came to be known, stopped paying writers at all for their contributions. Maybe the Baldwin news was the hint of things to come, of a time when celebrities would take over the job of pretty much all entertainment journalists.

Writing and podcasts, for most of us, became volunteer work. Or, more accurately, work we paid to do. We were sold on paying to do this because it was brand building. And the smart writers understood this early—they focused on building their brands rather than building their writing careers, because while they couldn’t make a living from writing anymore, they could very much make a living from building businesses off their brands.

You didn’t understand that early, but you did come to understand it before it was too late.

Understanding it sometimes makes you feel crass because it means admitting—and in fact publicizing—the fact that writing is less art and more commerce.

When you first realized this, a friend accused you of selling out.
You were hurt but also looked at the facts: you were making a living doing your writing as commerce. This friend was not.

He’s still your friend. You’re still making a living doing your writing as commerce. He still is not.

You now see that you were part of the last generation that believed it could make a living as a writer.

You were delusional to think so—not because you were unlucky but because you didn’t look at history, at the fact that great writers like Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf paid for the privilege to publish.

Gen X has been categorized as the “ironic” generation. As a writer who once made a great living just writing, you now know how accurate that is.

Jeanne Darst on Landing Every Author's Dream Deal (and What Happened Next)

 

Jeanne Darst's story is what happens when everything goes right—and then you realize "right" is more complicated than you thought. 

After years of doing plays for 200 people in Vermont, she hit the publishing lottery: a bidding war sparked by a “This American Life” appearance that had publishers hunting her down by the next morning.

Riverhead Books won with serious money, the New York Times loved it, Vogue excerpted it, HBO optioned it and she wrote the pilot. It was the full fantasy—except the show didn't get picked up (Girls was coming out), and she spent the next decade in the Hollywood machine.

Her TV writing career was a success—she got a series of TV staff writing jobs—but her second book, Dad's Trying to Kill Me, couldn't find a publisher (despite glowing rejections). Now she's back to putting on shows while continuing to write, because sometimes the dream coming true teaches you what you actually want.

Episode Highlights:

How Jeanne's This American Life story triggered a massive publishing bidding war overnight
The strategic decision to write a proposal instead of submitting a completed manuscript
Why Jeanne chose Riverhead and editor Sarah McGrath over the highest bidder
The simultaneous media blitz: book launch, Vogue excerpt and This American Life feature
How HBO optioned the book before publication, leading to pilot writing opportunities
The reality of post-success hustle: why the dream is "just the beginning of heartbreak"
Jeanne's second book rejection and the lesson about going to small presses
Why she's returning to grassroots theater after a decade in Hollywood
The father-daughter dynamic when children outachieve their parents professionally

Key Takeaways:

Two years of persistence can lead to overnight success 
Agents and gatekeepers are "smart secretaries" - you must drive your own career
Women wait eight months to resubmit after rejection; men wait three days
Big advances don't guarantee book tours or sustained marketing support
Publishers only invest real marketing dollars in books that are already succeeding
Hollywood packaging deals often benefit agencies more than the writers themselves
Complete projects teach more than abandoned ones - finish what you start
Traditional publishing success requires constant self-advocacy and hustle
Family reactions to memoirs can be complicated, especially around professional jealousy 

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I Hit the NYT List and Nothing in my Life Changed (Essay)

“My second book hit the New York Times list and three months later, I was broke and living in my 1969 VW bus with my pit bulls Roxy and Poor Boy.”

So said Mark Ebner when I interviewed him over the weekend. (It’s for an upcoming podcast episode; make sure you subscribe if you don’t want to miss it!)

Homeless—with pit bulls to boot—months after achieving what so many people I meet dream of!

The reality is oh so different than the dream.

The reality, for me, was hitting the list and being so broke that I couldn’t afford the cab fare to the book party.

The reality is my friend who hit the list—and appeared on Oprah numerous times and had a hit movie made out of his book—not knowing what to do with his life once the hoopla of that book died down.

The reality is the mega famous author I know—New York Times bestselling author and household name—who, a few years ago, had to take a job. Picassos on his wall and having to commute to work.

The reality is Mark Ebner telling me, “The best thing I can say about being a New York Times bestselling author is that I’m glad my father was alive for it, because that’s all it paid.”

Of course, a parent’s pride—if you’re lucky enough to have the kind of parent who gets proud—is priceless. I guess?

But, Ebner continued, he never received one royalty check for that book.

Still, this isn’t bad news. The bad news would be if hitting the list was crucial for book success since the chances of it happening are less than .5 percent.

I actually see this as great news because it means that there are all kinds of ways for a book to be successful that don’t in any way involve bestseller lists.

Things like having your ideal client read your book and hire you.

Things like launching a speaking career and getting paid up to $20,000 a gig.

Things like being able to raise prices for your services.

Things like getting hired to teach at Harvard business school.

Things like turning your book into a TEDx talk or a movie.

Things like landing appearances on the Today show and on top podcasts.

Things like starting a non-profit based on your book and raising enough money that you’re able to send dozens of people to rehab.

Things like getting a whole new lease on your life.

I assure you, these results are not theoretical. They’ve happened to people I know.

They can happen to you, too—provided you let go of the vanity metrics that don’t matter and focus on the life-changing ones that do.

I Hit the NYT List and Nothing in my Life Changed

“My second book hit the New York Times list and three months later, I was broke and living in my 1969 VW bus with my pit bulls Roxy and Poor Boy.”

So said Mark Ebner when I interviewed him over the weekend. (It’s for an upcoming podcast episode; make sure you subscribe if you don’t want to miss it!)

Homeless—with pit bulls to boot—months after achieving what so many people I meet dream of!

The reality is oh so different than the dream.

The reality, for me, was hitting the list and being so broke that I couldn’t afford the cab fare to the book party.

The reality is my friend who hit the list—and appeared on Oprah numerous times and had a hit movie made out of his book—not knowing what to do with his life once the hoopla of that book died down.

The reality is the mega famous author I know—New York Times bestselling author and household name—who, a few years ago, had to take a job. Picassos on his wall and having to commute to work.

The reality is Mark Ebner telling me, “The best thing I can say about being a New York Times bestselling author is that I’m glad my father was alive for it, because that’s all it paid.”

Of course, a parent’s pride—if you’re lucky enough to have the kind of parent who gets proud—is priceless. I guess?

But, Ebner continued, he never received one royalty check for that book.

Still, this isn’t bad news. The bad news would be if hitting the list was crucial for book success since the chances of it happening are less than .5 percent.

I actually see this as great news because it means that there are all kinds of ways for a book to be successful that don’t in any way involve bestseller lists.

Things like having your ideal client read your book and hire you.

Things like launching a speaking career and getting paid up to $20,000 a gig.

Things like being able to raise prices for your services.

Things like getting hired to teach at Harvard business school.

Things like turning your book into a TEDx talk or a movie.

Things like landing appearances on the Today show and on top podcasts.

Things like starting a non-profit based on your book and raising enough money that you’re able to send dozens of people to rehab.

Things like getting a whole new lease on your life.

I assure you, these results are not theoretical. They’ve happened to people I know.

They can happen to you, too—provided you let go of the vanity metrics that don’t matter and focus on the life-changing ones that do.

Hannah Sward on Whether or Not It's Worth It to Chase a Book Deal

 

Hannah Sward’s publishing journey reads like a masterclass in persistence meets divine intervention.

After years of writing short stories for underground literary journals, she stumbled into a free writer’s group at a library—complete with homeless people sleeping on the sidelines.

That’s where she met Jill Sherry Robinson, an 80-year-old bestselling author who essentially kidnapped her and mentored her until she finished her book.

Through a comedy of errors involving three different agents (one retired three months after signing her), Sward eventually sold her book for a whopping $500 advance.

But here's the kicker: by the time her book Strip came out in 2022, Sward had built such authentic relationships in the recovery community that the book found its audience organically. No Instagram strategy needed—just good old-fashioned showing up. Now she's chronicling her sexual adventures after 50 on Substack, where she’s learned that—guess what?—vulnerability pays off when book deals may not.

Episode Highlights:

How Hannah's 14-year friendship with Anna led to confessing literary jealousy at an AA meeting
The serendipitous connection with 80-year-old mentor Jill Sherry Robinson at a free library writers group
Hannah's unconventional memoir structure: 75 short chapters designed for non-readers
The grueling agent search: 100 rejections and three failed agent relationships before going solo
Publishing with a small press for a $500 advance while her father was dying in hospice
How building authentic community relationships over years created organic publicity opportunities
The launch of "Summer of Men" Substack about sex after 50 that had readers paying to find out what happens next
Why Hannah refuses to repeat the traditional publishing process for her next book

Key Takeaways:

Jealousy among writers is normal and can be processed healthily through honest conversation
Mentorship can appear unexpectedly - stay open to guidance from unlikely sources
Persistence pays off: Hannah's father modeled being "the king of rejection" as a badge of honor
Community building matters more than platform building for authentic book promotion
The publishing process can be an "integrated experience" when you work through disappointments internally
Small press publishing with low advances can still lead to meaningful success and readership
Leading with credentials (blurbs from Nobel Prize winners) gets manuscripts read, not just good writing
Writing partnerships and accountability groups sustain creative work over years
Success doesn't fill the internal "hole" - there will always be compare and despair moments
Sometimes the journey to publication teaches more than the publication itself

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The Podcast Is Back (Essay)

About a year ago, after getting over a million downloads and hitting the top 1% of all podcasts, I decided to retire my podcast On Good Authority.

Anyone who’d been with me a while knew I’d changed and renamed this podcast more than should be legally allowed. But in its final years, I was finally doing what I wanted with it: talking to authors and experts about how to launch a book in a way that builds authority.

I interviewed some awesome people, including Robert Greene and Chris Voss. I learned so much. I was able to use a lot of those interviews in my book by the same name.

And then I just got over it.

Doing a podcast or a Substack or any labor of love when you’re not someone with enough subscribers to actually make money from subscriptions or advertising is a funny thing.

A lot of us decide to do it and then hear things like “You’ll only be successful if you do it every week” and so then we commit to this weekly thing and act like some abusive overlord is forcing us to keep to this schedule and we don’t even ask ourselves if it’s creatively fulfilling and/or giving us any return on our time investment. And then, if we’re me, we wake up and go, “Wait, do I even feel like doing this anymore?”

I’ve gotten much better at knowing how to answer that question and a year ago, the answer when it came to the podcast was a simple no. I figured that would be that.

But then the pod bug started to hit again. A friend and I recorded some episodes and they were really funny but we didn’t really have a theme. I was getting frustrated because I was putting time and money into it without any clear plan and decided that if I was going to co-host a podcast with anyone, I needed them to be doing all the planning and work and I would just show up like a diva and talk.

I’m not kidding when I say that a day after deciding that, the glorious Lisa Smith reached out to me and asked if I wanted to replace her Recovery Rocks co-host Tawny Lara. She literally said, “I’ll do everything; all you have to do is log on and talk.” This is what they mean when they talk about manifestation I guess!

So that’s happening and you can listen to it here. We rejiggered it so that it’s now called Sover Living and focuses on sober firsts: first time going on a date, a trip, celebrating a holiday, whatever sober. Give it a listen!

Somehow knowing I was going to be joining an already active podcast made me start thinking about On Good Authority. Yes, I felt like I’d learned all I could about launching a book, but I hadn’t learned all that could happen after you launched an authority-building book. And I hadn’t really gotten into what I consider the past, present and future of book publishing.

The way I see it is like the image with this post (thank Chat GPT for bringing the vision to life).

And so I decided I wanted to bring the podcast back but with seasons: one focusing on publishing’s past (where I’d interview all my friends from the traditional publishing world), one focusing on publishing’s present (where I’d interview all my clients and other entrepreneurs about how much their books did for them) and one focusing on the future (where I’d interview AI experts and anyone else focused on whatever’s coming next in this industry).

When I started to think about a new name, I realized that I’ve loved writing this Substack so much and since I’ve changed the name shockingly few times for me, why not use it for the podcast, too? And so the podcast is now officially called Behind the Book Cover. If you’re new to me even saying the word podcast or aren’t new to it but never subscribed, it would mean so much if you remedied that now by clicking here. Subscribe on ALL platforms if you want to—it’s not illegal!

I’ve been recording a bunch of episodes, both in person and over Zoom, over the past few months and I’m thrilled to report that starting next week, I’ll be releasing the first one: Hannah Sward on Whether or Not It’s Worth It to Chase a Book Deal. Episodes will come out every other week so on the week of release, I’ll be doing a special write up about the episode here. (Other weeks I’ll just be doing a written post on a topic related to book publishing, like I have been.)

It’s.

Going.

To.

Be.

Cool.

And that’s sort of my point. I’m doing it not because it will make money or because I’ve decided I Must Have a Podcast If I’m Going to Be a Business Owner Today. I’m doing it because it’s fun and interesting and I think you’ll love it.

The super cool part?

Even if you don’t love it—even if no one listens—it will still be worth it because I’ve loved doing it.

(Tho I do hope you’ll listen and love. And subscribe! And rate and review and all the things.)

 

86% of Clients Prefer Authors Over Identical Non-Author Competitors (Essay)

If you’ve read even just one of my posts, you know I tend to go on a bit about how the goal of a book should be to attract clients and not to sell books.

Well, now I’ve got some data to back me up.

Numbers! And I’m not even a numbers person!

Despite the fact that I believe I’m borderline math dyslexic, I helped create a study for an organization called The Evolution of Publishing Institute that surveyed 100 Los Angeles residents about how authorship affects their hiring decisions and willingness to pay for professional services.

And I’ll tell you up front: the results are so dramatic they almost seem fake.

The Author Premium Is Real (And Massive)

Here's what we found: 82-86% of people prefer hiring professionals who are published authors over those with identical qualifications who haven't written books.

Yes, identical qualifications. Same experience, same credentials, same everything. The only difference? One person wrote a book.

But it gets better. Or worse, depending on how you look at it.

Published authors can charge 40-65% higher consultation fees. In some cases, potential clients are willing to pay double.

Double. For the same service. Because that person wrote a book.

The Trust Multiplier That Changes Everything

The study found something even more striking: 86% of people trust content more when it's created by book authors.

We tested this specifically. Same blog post, same expertise level, same everything. When we told people the author had written a book, trust shot up by 6.1x.

Six times more trustworthy. Because of a book.

This isn't about the quality of the content. It's about cognitive bias. It's about how our brains are wired to associate published expertise with authority.

Does the traditional publishing industry know this? I think? But it’s not a focus for them since they’re invested in you selling books and not making more money in your business.

Where It Gets Ridiculous

We tested LinkedIn headlines. Two business consultants with identical descriptions:

"Business Consultant | Helping Companies Scale": 28% preference

"Business Consultant | Bestselling Author | Helping Companies Scale": 72% preference

Adding "bestselling author" to your LinkedIn headline creates a 44 percentage point boost in professional appeal.

For conference speaking? 83% prefer a CEO who also authored a business book over a CEO of an equally successful company who hasn't.

For thought leadership credibility? An executive with a strong LinkedIn presence gets 32% preference. Add "authored a book" and it jumps to 68%.

The Marketing Consulting Gold Mine

The biggest surprise in the data: marketing consultants who are published authors have a 72 percent point advantage over non-author consultants with identical qualifications.

This makes sense when you think about it. If you're hiring someone to help with marketing and they can't even market themselves enough to get a book published, what does that say about their abilities?

But the same pattern holds across all professional services. Business consulting: 64 percentage point advantage. Financial advising: 38 percentage point advantage.

Even in the most conservative field we tested, published authors have a massive edge.

Why Traditional Publishing Hates This Data

This study proves something the traditional publishing industry doesn't want you to understand: the value of your book has nothing to do with your publisher or your advance.

The study didn't ask about Big Five publishers versus indie presses. The people surveyed didn't care about advance sizes or bestseller lists. They just thought: "Is this person a published author?"

The traditional publishing industry wants you focused on their metrics—advance sizes, sales figures, bestseller lists—because it keeps you dependent on their approval. But the real value happens in your business, your career, your professional life.

The Cognitive Bias We Can't Ignore

Before you get too excited, let's acknowledge what this data really shows: people make irrational decisions based on credentials that may have nothing to do with actual competence.

A book doesn't automatically make you better at your job. Publishing a memoir about addiction recovery doesn't make you a better marketing consultant. Writing a business book doesn't guarantee you can actually run a business.

But human psychology doesn't care about logic. We use shortcuts to make decisions. "Published author" is a powerful shortcut that signals expertise, authority and credibility.

Is this fair? No. Is this reality? Absolutely.

 The Real ROI of Book Writing

The study concludes that writing a book may be one of the highest-ROI professional development investments you can make.

Think about it: what else can you do that creates a 40-65% pricing premium? That gives you a 6x trust multiplier? That makes 80% of potential clients prefer you over equally qualified competitors?

An MBA? Maybe, if you're lucky and in the right field. Professional certifications? They help, but nothing like these numbers.

A book doesn't just make you money through sales. It makes you money through everything else you do for the rest of your career.

The Limitation They Don't Want You to See

The study has one important limitation: it assumes "generic published author" without considering book quality, publisher or sales success.

This is actually great news for you.

It means the benefit comes from being published, period. Not from being published well. Not from having a Big Five publisher. Not from selling thousands of copies.

Just from being able to say, "I published a book."

The traditional publishing industry has spent decades convincing you that only their approval counts. That without their stamp of validation, your book doesn't matter.

This data suggests otherwise. The credibility boost comes from authorship itself, not from jumping through their hoops.

What This Means for You

If you're an entrepreneur—consultant, coach, advisor, speaker, freelancer—and you haven't written a book yet, you're leaving money on the table.

Serious money.

If you have written a book but aren’t leveraging it in your professional branding, you're missing out on measurable competitive advantages.

And if you're still waiting for traditional publishing's permission to call yourself an author, you're playing a game where the house always wins.

The Evolution of Publishing Institute's "Author Credibility in Business" study surveyed 100 Los Angeles residents about hiring preferences across professional services. Full disclosure: I serve on the Institute's advisory board and helped design this research to understand the real business value of authorship. To download the study, click here .

86% of Clients Prefer Authors Over Identical Non-Author Competitors

If you’ve read even just one of my posts, you know I tend to go on a bit about how the goal of a book should be to attract clients and not to sell books.

Well, now I’ve got some data to back me up.

Numbers! And I’m not even a numbers person!

Despite the fact that I believe I’m borderline math dyslexic, I helped create a study for an organization called The Evolution of Publishing Institute that surveyed 100 Los Angeles residents about how authorship affects their hiring decisions and willingness to pay for professional services.

And I’ll tell you up front: the results are so dramatic they almost seem fake.

The Author Premium Is Real (And Massive)

Here's what we found: 82-86% of people prefer hiring professionals who are published authors over those with identical qualifications who haven't written books.

Yes, identical qualifications. Same experience, same credentials, same everything. The only difference? One person wrote a book.

But it gets better. Or worse, depending on how you look at it.

Published authors can charge 40-65% higher consultation fees. In some cases, potential clients are willing to pay double.

Double. For the same service. Because that person wrote a book.

The Trust Multiplier That Changes Everything

The study found something even more striking: 86% of people trust content more when it's created by book authors.

We tested this specifically. Same blog post, same expertise level, same everything. When we told people the author had written a book, trust shot up by 6.1x.

Six times more trustworthy. Because of a book.

This isn't about the quality of the content. It's about cognitive bias. It's about how our brains are wired to associate published expertise with authority.

Does the traditional publishing industry know this? I think? But it’s not a focus for them since they’re invested in you selling books and not making more money in your business.

Where It Gets Ridiculous

We tested LinkedIn headlines. Two business consultants with identical descriptions:

"Business Consultant | Helping Companies Scale": 28% preference

"Business Consultant | Bestselling Author | Helping Companies Scale": 72% preference

Adding "bestselling author" to your LinkedIn headline creates a 44 percentage point boost in professional appeal.

For conference speaking? 83% prefer a CEO who also authored a business book over a CEO of an equally successful company who hasn't.

For thought leadership credibility? An executive with a strong LinkedIn presence gets 32% preference. Add "authored a book" and it jumps to 68%.

The Marketing Consulting Gold Mine

The biggest surprise in the data: marketing consultants who are published authors have a 72 percent point advantage over non-author consultants with identical qualifications.

This makes sense when you think about it. If you're hiring someone to help with marketing and they can't even market themselves enough to get a book published, what does that say about their abilities?

But the same pattern holds across all professional services. Business consulting: 64 percentage point advantage. Financial advising: 38 percentage point advantage.

Even in the most conservative field we tested, published authors have a massive edge.

Why Traditional Publishing Hates This Data

This study proves something the traditional publishing industry doesn't want you to understand: the value of your book has nothing to do with your publisher or your advance.

The study didn't ask about Big Five publishers versus indie presses. The people surveyed didn't care about advance sizes or bestseller lists. They just thought: "Is this person a published author?"

The traditional publishing industry wants you focused on their metrics—advance sizes, sales figures, bestseller lists—because it keeps you dependent on their approval. But the real value happens in your business, your career, your professional life.

The Cognitive Bias We Can't Ignore

Before you get too excited, let's acknowledge what this data really shows: people make irrational decisions based on credentials that may have nothing to do with actual competence.

A book doesn't automatically make you better at your job. Publishing a memoir about addiction recovery doesn't make you a better marketing consultant. Writing a business book doesn't guarantee you can actually run a business.

But human psychology doesn't care about logic. We use shortcuts to make decisions. "Published author" is a powerful shortcut that signals expertise, authority and credibility.

Is this fair? No. Is this reality? Absolutely.

 The Real ROI of Book Writing

The study concludes that writing a book may be one of the highest-ROI professional development investments you can make.

Think about it: what else can you do that creates a 40-65% pricing premium? That gives you a 6x trust multiplier? That makes 80% of potential clients prefer you over equally qualified competitors?

An MBA? Maybe, if you're lucky and in the right field. Professional certifications? They help, but nothing like these numbers.

A book doesn't just make you money through sales. It makes you money through everything else you do for the rest of your career.

The Limitation They Don't Want You to See

The study has one important limitation: it assumes "generic published author" without considering book quality, publisher or sales success.

This is actually great news for you.

It means the benefit comes from being published, period. Not from being published well. Not from having a Big Five publisher. Not from selling thousands of copies.

Just from being able to say, "I published a book."

The traditional publishing industry has spent decades convincing you that only their approval counts. That without their stamp of validation, your book doesn't matter.

This data suggests otherwise. The credibility boost comes from authorship itself, not from jumping through their hoops.

What This Means for You

If you're an entrepreneur—consultant, coach, advisor, speaker, freelancer—and you haven't written a book yet, you're leaving money on the table.

Serious money.

If you have written a book but aren’t leveraging it in your professional branding, you're missing out on measurable competitive advantages.

And if you're still waiting for traditional publishing's permission to call yourself an author, you're playing a game where the house always wins.

The Evolution of Publishing Institute's "Author Credibility in Business" study surveyed 100 Los Angeles residents about hiring preferences across professional services. Full disclosure: I serve on the Institute's advisory board and helped design this research to understand the real business value of authorship. To download the study, click here .