A couple of months ago I signed a deal with Authors Equity to republish both my audiobook and paperback. I retain rights to the ebook and my premium hardcover, and will be able to revert rights when the deal expires. It’s a straightforward profit-sharing deal. After any royalties cover their costs, we split the royalties based on our agreement.
I’m pretty pumped about this. I’ve been looking for a partner since turning down Penguin’s deal in 2023 to take my book global via retail and other channels. No matter how great self-publishing is, it is nearly impossible to get access to retail bookstores at scale. This remains a sizable chunk of book sales, especially outside of the US.
I’ve suspected if given the shot, The Pathless Path will do really well in retail bookstores and reaching a market beyond my own audience. The book continues to sell (74k+ copies of the English edition) and I somehow continue to receive about two emails a week, every single week.
I had a call with their team last week and it was pretty exciting to see a team of 10+ people behind me with industry and market expertise. It’s literally just been me for the past five years.
So here’s the plan:
Step One: Relaunching my audiobook tomorrow
On the audio side, this will actually help me get a higher royalty percentage AND reach more distributors. Right now, I can only get 40% royalties if I am exclusive to ACX, which is owned by Audible. If I wanted to also list the book on Spotify, I’d have to lower my share to 25%. Right now I earn about $3.75 per audiobook listen, which is lower than I get from the paperback and ebook. By partnering with Authors Equity, who distributes through Simon & Schuster, I can get a higher % AND go wide to several distributors. Given how much Spotify is investing in audiobooks, I’m very excited to see how my book will do there.
Brandon Sanderson, one of the most successful authors, talked about the economics of his books with Tim Ferriss, noting that he earned the same amount even after introducing a publishing partner.
“I have ebook and audiobook and I have a profit share on the print with them. And then the ebook and audiobook, the ebook, straight up, is better. The audiobook we make more, but we would make almost the same with the publisher.”
Even though I’m doing a profit-sharing arrangement with Authors Equity, I suspect this will still be win-win, meaning I’ll make more from either selling more copies or capturing a share of a higher royalty or both of those things.
I recently re-recorded the audiobook in Taipei, which was a fun way to reflect back on the book. I added a little intro to the audiobook edition but it mostly remains the same barring a few minor fixes here and there. The audio is also a step up from my original, which was half recorded at a DJ studio and the other half in a friend’s closet.
If you have the old version, no worries, you will have that forever. But if you’d also like to support this version, it’s launching under a different listing. You can find it here:
Pre-save it on Spotify to help me out (you don’t need to order!)
Direct purchase on Amazon for $10
Let me know if you have any questions!
Spotify Offer: If you want to try out audiobooks on Spotify, I’m giving away gift copies of the Spotify Good Work Audiobook. While you’re there, all I ask is that you “pre-save” The Pathless Path, such that Daniel Ek notices.
Before we talk about the paperback, a quick story of turning down another traditional publishing deal before partnering with AE
The reason I reached out to Authors Equity was that I had another inquiry from a traditional publisher out of the UK this January, who approached me with a similar profit-sharing deal.
The person that reached out was a reader and “got” my approach to writing and publishing. She went out of her way to pitch her superiors to offer me a unique profit-sharing deal. Unfortunately, that offer just felt a bit too lopsided in their favor to make it a win-win. Which is a shame. I would have loved to work with the people at that imprint and only have nice things to say about them. But they are ultimately tied to the structures and incentives of a large publishing house. I was somewhat open to the deal when we first talked, one that would have been a UK + Commonwealth deal, but the time from first phone call to official offer was almost four months. As someone who left bureaucracy behind, I wasn’t excited about engaging with a large organization again.
This inspired me to reach out to Authors Equity. I had originally talked with them when they launched about doing a print-only deal for The Pathless Path but they passed because they were still building out their team and process, and wanted to start with new books. In the last couple of years, however, they’ve had success re-launching books with self-published authors like Eric Jorgenson and Joseph Nguyen, both of whom are people with a similar approach to me.
After waiting on the UK imprint, I was impressed by how fast and how author-friendly Authors Equity was. I talked with Madeline, the CEO, and a few other people, and finalized a deal in less than a week. Their pitch also inspired me to give them global rights to the English edition, to see what they might be able to pull off with the US retail market, even though I make a lot of money self-publishing my own paperback. Engaging with them was a genuinely delightful experience and I’m excited to be partnered with them. They share a similar vision for not only helping authors do original and interesting work, but remaking the publishing industry. I am happy to be betting on them just as much as they are betting on me.
Although the deal is for a limited length, meaning I can revert rights after a certain # of years, it is a profit-sharing agreement, so we are both incentivized to continue to work together as long as possible.
Step Two: Re-launching The Pathless Path print edition
People think I’m a hardcore self-publishing advocate. This would be wrong. I am an advocate for authors owning their work and seeking out partners that are aligned in a win-win way. I think I can sell more books with better distribution and I finally have a great partner to test that hypothesis. If that hypothesis is right, we will both make money.
As of right now, my paperback book has stopped selling on Amazon. We pulled it out of distribution a few weeks ago not knowing how long it might take for the new pre-sale edition to “win” the buy button on Amazon. It seems to have taken over quicker than we thought, so there’s a bit of time between now and the relaunch, which is scheduled for January 22, 2027.
The book is essentially the same, with some small rewrites to a couple of sections, a new author’s note for the fifth anniversary and a foreword from Ali Abdaal, which is the same one he wrote for my premium hardcover edition. It’s got a subtle update on the cover but more or less the same book. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right?
Here’s the cover if you are curious:
I am not quite sure how I’ll handle this “launch.” I’ve never been great at all-or-nothing launches but told the team I intend to have as much fun as possible and also want to involve existing readers. For me, readers have been the fuel of this whole journey. People keep reaching out and saying they love this book and share it every single week. And so I believe them. It’s also why I think this book can reach far more people through this relaunching I’m doing with Authors Equity. Everything with this book has been beyond what I ever imagined and I suspect the next five years offer even more surprises.
If you have any specific ideas or want to help with this relaunch, please reach out. I am planning some combo deals with some of my notebooks for bulk orders as well as contests for my premium hardcover.
If you are like, okay I want to purchase my 7th copy of this book and help this book reach a million people, here is the chance you have been waiting for:
More on Authors Equity
The most interesting thing about Authors Equity is that it is co-founded by arguably the biggest non-fiction author in the world, James Clear. To me, it’s an indicator that the existing models are not working, even for the most successful authors.
This convo on Nathan Barry’s podcast with James and Madeline (the CEO) was fantastic and I encourage you to listen to it if you are interested in the publishing industry.
Some questions you may have:
You might have questions if you own copies of my books or still want to buy them:
My ebook remains for sale, it is updated with all the latest updates, I will likely add the new 5th anniversary intro in January
My premium hardcover remains for sale via Shopify
Anyone who purchased my audiobook on Audible, Amazon, or iTunes should have lifetime access to that version. If you are having issues, contact me and I will help you out
Will I still share royalty info? TBD. I definitely will keep sharing sales numbers, though I am not sure if I will be able to show detailed royalty info. I am going to honor any legal agreements I have signed.
Four months to an offer versus a deal closed in a week. I spent my corporate years inside the four-month version, where bureaucracy killed more good work than any bad idea did. Owning the book is what made the choice yours to make.
Congrats, Paul. This feels like a perfect extension of what you're doing. I know Carly, the CMO, from college and her advice to me on publishing was formative. It's a great model and, over time, hope it creates pressure on the rest of the industry.