Earlier this week we published the first part of an interview with author and investor Tim Ferriss, who will be speaking at The Next Web Conference Europe 2013, which takes place on 25 and 26 April.
Here’s the concluding part of the interview, in which Ferriss discusses why he took the controversial approach of publishing his latest book with Amazon Publishing, his startup investment strategy and what the future holds for him.
TNW: Your latest book, The 4-Hour Chef
is published by Amazon Publishing, an unconventional approach. Why did youtake that route and how’s it been going?
Tim:“It’s the first major book acquired by Amazon Publishing and they actually announced the existenceof Amazon Publishing with the acquisition of the book. It’s been a very exciting rollercoasterof a ride to put it very mildly, which has had some incredible pros; meaning I’ve been on the homepage of Amazon, I can look at metrics that I’ve never had access to before –I can look at the top 20 traffic referring URLs to my book product page. That’s cooldata. Super cool.
“I can identify all sorts of fascinating aspects of my customers so that I can better serve themand better reach them. Simultaneously, Barnes & Noble hasboycotted the book nationwide in the US, as have many independent bookstores.
“It’s been a tumultuous experiment, but one that I would do again. The reason I chose to gowith Amazon was because I developed a relationship with them over time because of thevolume of sales I was pushing through Amazon for the first two books. When the opportunitycame about to work with them, I decided to take it because it’s exciting to be ableto be the first to do just about anything, and I was willing to take some risk in doing that.
“Random House, Simon & Schuster, these traditional publishers sell to the head categorybuyers at a Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million. They do not know their end users, they haveno data about their end users, nor do they have any way to communicate with their end users.Amazon, in many ways I would say, knows me better than I know myself just based on myAmazon Prime purchasing behavior as well as what I refer people to through my blog, whichthey can track of course.
“That’s fascinating to me. I’m not anti-bookstore, I’m pro-reader. There’s a big difference. Myreaders, if you look at the percentage of digital sales in my three books, The 4-Hour WorkWeek began at about 6% digital and it launched more or less simultaneously with, Iwould say, a user-friendly version of the Kindle.
“Right now, the lifetime sales to date are 20% digital for The 4-Hour Work Week, 30% for The 4-Hour Body and almost 50% for The Four Hour Chef, which is veryunusual for a cookbook.
“So if you were to look at, let’s say, cookbooks as a category where I sold 37,000 or so Kindlecopies in the first week, my closest cookbook competitor in print sold probably in the hundredsor less than 2,000 certainly. I feel very comfortable saying that.
“I think if you were to look at my audience as, not exclusively but very much heavily weightedtowards, early adopters, I think that’s the future. I think that’s a glimpse into what will be formost books, not too far from now.”
TNW: Aside from your books, you’re heavily involved in the tech scene as an investor instartups. What do you look for when you invest?
Tim: “There are a few criteria that I have and my model is quite simple. Whetherit’s Shopify, Uber, Evernote, TaskRabbit, I look number one for a product that I can be a poweruser for, something that I would pay for even if it’s free in the case of Evernote for instance.
“I look for a service or a product ideally that already has a certain degree of traction. I makeexceptions for that with entrepreneurs that I’ve worked with before or founders who havealready displayed success.
“In the case of Uber, for instance, I was already an advisor to StumbleUpon and knew GarrettCamp very well and Travis Kalanick who came in as a CEO, I had already invested with in two orthree companies. So I was very confident in investing in that team even though it was startingfrom scratch.
“One social proof point is recommendations from myreaders. So I actually connected with both Evernote and Shopify by spotting patterns in myreader feedback on Twitter and Facebook.
“Then lastly, ideally it would be a product that I would feel comfortable pitching to the NewYork Times as part of a trend piece because that means that it has both the simplicity and thetimeliness to scale to a mainstream audience. That’s pretty much it.”
TNW: Are you still looking to invest in more companies or are you just happy with your portfolio as itis?
“I’m going to become a bit more selective by necessity, given time constraints. But I still spend30 to 40 percent of my time on startups. I will continue to do that for a very long time so I’mnot into any rush. I don’t feel like there is a gold rush that I have to cash in on in the next 12months and, in fact, I think there’s probably going to be a nuclear winter of sorts in the not toodistant future and that doesn’t bother me because I will still be into the all the startups whenall of the fairweather investors go away.
“If you look at, let’s say, the dotcom depression of 2002 as one, that’s when Facebook andLinkedIn were founded. I think that’s when the real entrepreneurs who are driven show theirtrue colors and that’s also when investors show their true colors and can also invest at veryreasonable prices.”
TNW: Finally, what’s next for you? Is there another ‘4-hour’ book on the way?
“I haven’t decided what’s next just yet besides taking three to four weeks off after this lastbook push. I’ll probably focus on some type of physical skill like surfing along with a languageof some type. I’m thinking about Southeast Asia specifically but to take some time to createnegative space so that there’s room for the big ideas.
“I think for 2013, I was reading a book by the twoof the people that led the Clinton campaign in 1992 and the presidential campaign which wassuccessful of course; Buck Up, Suck Up . . . and Come Back When You Foul Up.
“One of their concepts, which was borrowed from Newt Gingrich withwhom they have nothing politically in common necessarily, but the concept was focusing onantelope instead of field mice. What that means is or the analogy of the story that was used is,as a lion you can keep yourself fed everyday all day by eating field mice. You just have to spendall day eating field mice, 300, 400, 500 field mice or you can reserve your energy and focus onone antelope.
“I think it’s extremely easy in the digital world, certainly involved with start ups or running astartup, to become very reactive where you’re reacting to field mice all day long. So I’m goingto take a break to determine what the antelope will be for 2013.
“I’d like to experiment with the visual medium more. I’ve had a lot of fun working on videotrailers for the books which have been some of the most successful ever created. I’ve donesome experiments for television but teaching through the visual medium is something I think I’llfocus a lot on in 2013.”
Tim Ferriss will be speaking at The Next Web Conference Europe 2013. Tickets are available now.
Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see ourTerms of Service.
)
