You either love him or hate him – a common reaction when you hear the name Tucker Max. But there’s more to this foul-mouthed #1 New York Times Bestselling author of I Hope They Sell Beer in Hell than meets the eye. Tucker Max was one of the guest speakers in the Traffic and Conversion Summit 2013 held early this year and he shared some practical and valuable insight as to how he became a successful author despite the odds against him. Here are some of the nuggets he shared during the event:

Publishing a book is just a “Trojan horse” to establish your reputation and do bigger stuff. Published authors have a lot of more perceived prestige and respect vs. marketers.

Book is the best way to become an authority of your field. Use books to build media and brands

Ryan’s model for launching a new brand: Find a thought leader, publish a hardback book, use as a self-liquid offer, use that to build a brand and media

At the very least, publish a Kindle book

Tucker’s Tips:

On Getting Opt ins from books:

• In the first 10% of book, Amazon shows a “look inside” feature, include a link to your opt-in page. It’s even clickable on Amazon. Ex. “For readers only, get the bonus chapter/audio version over here.”

On Publishing Model

• Competing goals of publishing a book: NYTimes best-seller, make a lot of money, spreading your message. If you’re not in Barnes and Nobles, it’s hard to become NYTimes Bestseller. Making money – selling stuff off the backend. If you’ve been self-published, it’s hard to get a big 6 publisher to pick you up later on. Easier to get mainstream media if you’ve been published with big 6 publisher.

On Manipulating Mainstream Media

• Tucker bought sponsored tweets from big celebrities. You only have to pay if celeb accepts. He got Kardashians, Snookie to tweet about his book.

On Dealing with Competitors

• Don’t compete with them and try to be entertaining. Be a different category completely and known as the “serious guy”

According to him,

“As marketers, we’re often seen in a bad light. Society views us scammers. It doesn’t matter how much money you’re making, you’re always going to be associated with scams, frauds and a lot of other slimey stuff.

But if you’re a published author, then everything changes. Suddenly, everyone respects you. Because you wrote a book. You almost have the same social status and prestige as movie stars and musicians now.The coolest part is, you don’t need to seek a publisher. You can self-publish on Kindle nowadays.

Also, keep in mind, you don’t want to publish books to make money (because chances are most people won’t make much, no matter how many little kindle eBooks they pump out). The real purpose is to use your book as to establish your authority and expertise in your niche.

Don’t go out and look for attention. Just focus on creating the best thing you can create. Worry about what you’re creating 80% and the marketing/selling 20%.

Tucker Max generated a huge following on his website prior to publishing his first and highly successful bestselling book. He has published several books since then. He had an epiphany that started after his first book was published and has announced that we was leaving behind the lifestyle that made him famous. He has turned into a health buff and he is also a mixed martial arts practitioner.

Have you ever dreamed of publishing your own book but just don’t know where to start? Here are some of key points shared by well-known author, Guy Kawasaki, during the Traffic and Conversion Summit 2013 held early this year.

Write for the right reason

Wrong reasons – make money (probability to make lots of money is very low), increase consulting, increase speeches. Not to say these won’t be the result, but they shouldn’t be the core reasons

Right reasons – enrich people’s lives, further a cause, meet an intellectual challenge

Use Microsoft Word to write

Use “styles” feature to keep book consistent

MS Word is the standard among editors, testers, designers, and resellers

Write every day – 1-2 hours per day

Most people’s idea of writing is too idealistic. Writing is the process of vomiting out your knowledge then refining everything later.

Build your marketing platform – do this from the very start

Earn the right to market to your audience by constantly providing value. This will trigger reciprocation.

Take the curator role and share topics in your niche. This will establish yourself as an expert.

Start with the simplest path – start with a Kindle eBook

Amazon has 51% of eBook market share

If it’s successful on Amazon, it will also be successful on other platforms, guaranteed

Tap the crowd – don’t tell your publisher this:

Guy’s 3 step writing process: Outline, manuscript, PDF

Outline – spend 2 months outlining book. Share outline and ask for feedback on social media. Edit for another 2 months

Manuscript – Gives his friends to read manuscript to get feedback and comments via social media

PDF – Right before it’s done, he asks his social media followers with blogs to review it

Hire a copy editor

Hire a great cover designer

Very important to have a good cover on the books (people judge books by their cover)

Test your eBook

Test your book on various devices – tablets, apps, cloud readers, nook, kobo, ibooks

Some people think they only have to read a Kindle book on Kindle tablet. They don’t know about other apps.

Never, ever give up

Stephen King, George Orwell, and Kerouac were all rejected

Self – publishing stigma (self publishers can’t get picked up by publishers) is a MYTH nowadays

No one even knows who published a book on Amazon. People just look at # of stars and read a few reviews

Artisanal publishing – giving author control of everything

Hall of Fame self publishers:

• Birds of America – James Audobon
• Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
• 50 Shades of Grey

Guy Kawasaki is an author, publisher, entrepreneur and was recently a guest speaker at the Traffic and Conversion Summit held earlier this year (2013). Guy Kawasaki is the author of APE, What the Plus!, Enchantment, and nine other books. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web.