Tim Ferriss and "The Publishing Disrupter" A New Archetype Is Born (SYBT)

This is a beautiful time to be alive for writers, the wheels of destiny have turned and there is no going back, the publishing industry is doing a headstand and we, spectators of this decade, watch in awe. The emerging writing/publishing energy is putting the ball in our court, the writer's court, and what we do with it is the stuff of mythology.

Tim Ferriss is one of them, such mythological characters, he just published and released (last week) The Four Hour Chef.   The book has been flirting within the first 10 spots on Amazon (reached as far as #2 a few days ago for all books) and in doing so it is not just becoming a best seller,  it is also sending a message.

The book teaches how to cook in any setting
all the way from the wild to the professional, and a lot
of other things, you can click on the image to see inside

Tim decided to publish his book through Amazon (meaning that he worked with them using them as publisher, in other words, he did not self-publish per say,  but after being with the major league guys chose to experiment with the new and bright minds at the forefront of the new industry).  

This prompted Barnes and Nobles to ban the book from all of its stores, no physical copies can be found there. What did Tim do? Go around, of course.

Tim's book can be found in many small bookshops across America, in the Canadian chain of Indigo bookstores (which kind of looks like Barnes and Nobles when you enter it, at least in Toronto where I was last month), and even Cosco.

Further, he made a deal with Panera, the bread and coffee shop. He designed a "slow carb" dish for them and in doing so gets people like me to re-enter the store (I had swore never to eat a bagel again rendering Panera useless in my mind, but now things are changing).  In this way Tim gives Panera the reputation of a shop that caters to the growing majority of people who do not eat bread anymore (or wheat) and in exchange some Paneras stores carry his book.  Tim did a talk in one of them in mid-town NYC last week.

I read The 4 Hour Chef cover to cover already and could not put it down because it is (a) extremely charming and entertaining  (b) not all about cooking, and (c) gives some wonderful advise, for example:

I now know that putting the oven at 350(F) is fine, no matter what, in 90% of the cases you can't really go wrong. I also know how to brew the best coffee in the world after the experiences that Tim had with the 2008 world champion barista Stephen Morrisey. But perhaps the biggest secret I learned is to put vinegar in the salad BEFORE the olive oil (otherwise the vinegar sinks to the bottom) a wonderful tip from chef Marco Canora (the brilliant mind behind New York City restaurant Hearth). How did I not think of that?

At The Cutting Edge Of Inspiration

James Altucher is a visionary thinker and the best writer of my generation and I don't say that just because he is my husband, he simply is, and others agree with me like for example Michael Ellsberg and Michael Lazrow, both of whom I personally heard saying the same thing and to their own friends.

James started a stir about a year ago when he published "Why And How I Self Published A Book". After having four books published in the traditional way James suddenly changed the course and took many of us for the ride.

That article led James to be invited to several Amazon conferences and books exhibits (here is the story of one of those times).  He followed up with "Self Publishing Your Book Is The New Business Card".

This also prompted several writers to quit making excuses and take the dusted manuscript from the drawer and just put it on Amazon already! One of these success stories is Kamal Ravikant, and in the yoga realm: Anthony Hall  and myself, among many others.

James gets people to think differently and he says it in words you feel could have been your own!  His way of expression is so unique that he is now the first blogger to have a comic book about him.

I am happy to be immortalized in its pages
looking great in the story of how we met

But the story does not end there.

Author As King (Or Queen)

A few weeks ago Tucker Max, the author of the NY Times best seller "I hope they serve beer in hell" published an astonishing article about how, for his third book, he hired a publishing company just for distribution.

JUST FOR DISTRIBUTION is key in that sentence if you did not get the jest.  He kept all control over the book, including the maximum possible amount of royalties. This IS how books need to be published, the author is king and Tucker crowned himself.  Here is that article if you are curious.

A movie was made out of his first book

The Punchline

Now hear this, on November 8 all books published by major houses temporarily lost their "buy now" button.  Amazon claims it was a glitch. What do you think?

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May the force be with the authors, may the publishing industry come full circle supporting the sprouting of new writing energy, and may we all benefit.