NYT Best-Selling Author and Finance Expert Dave Ramsey on Self-Publishing

By Aneya Fernando 

a11999Dave Ramsey self-published his first book, Financial Peace, mostly out of necessity. Nobody would publish it, he says, so he went ahead and did it himself, transporting and selling the books out of the trunk of his car. Little did he know that a mere five years later it would go on to become a New York Times best seller.

In the third week of Mediabistro’s Profit From Your Passion series, Ramsey talks about his publishing house, Lampo Press, his new book, Smart Money Smart Kids, which he co-authored with his daughter, and the dos and don’ts of self-publishing:

What advice do you have for a new author who’s deciding whether they should self-publish or try to find a traditional publisher?
I think you have to have a plan if you’re in the nonfiction world to sell the book, whether you’re self published or you’re working with a publisher. If you’re looking to write a book and hand it to someone, and let someone else do all the work, those days are completely gone in our world, with very, very rare exceptions. So publishers are looking for an author that has a willingness to hustle and has a platform of some kind. How are you going to leverage things you’ve done in the past? How are you going to leverage your PR appearances, your knowledge, your Twitter base, your fan base on Facebook?

To hear more from Ramsey, including how his personal finance advice applies to the publishing industry, read: Hey, How’d You Become Your Own Publisher, Personal Finance Expert Dave Ramsey?

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.