🦅 There's No Money in Books

In this issue, you’ll find:

• There's no money in books, unless you become a creator

• News creators should know

• Will AI kill newsletters?

There's No Money in Books, Unless You Become a Creator

When Alex Hormozi hit over $70M in book sales in 24 hours, writers everywhere started celebrating.

But here's what nobody wants to admit: I bet it has zero to do with his writing.

Today, like last week, there's still no money in books.

Hormozi proved there's serious money in being a creator and having an audience. Most self-published books make nothing, or close to that. And multiple analyses show people are reading fewer books:

Hormozi's book didn't succeed due to his writing style or because it contains tactics that no business writers have ever shared.

Don't get me wrong: there's lots of value in it, but I could say the same of a bunch of other books that nobody ever heard of.

Hormozi crashed records because 4.7 million people already trusted him enough to buy whatever he made.

Most writers are solving the wrong problem. They're obsessing over style, agents, query letters, and getting picked by publishers. Meanwhile, true creators build an audience first. Then, selling anything becomes easy.

Here's how you get there 👇

1. Do Interesting Shit and Share It

Hormozi didn't just talk about business theory. He bought companies, scaled them, sold them, and documented the whole process. People followed because he was doing real stuff worth watching.

Stop creating content about creating content. Nobody cares. Instead:

• Launch something publicly and share the journey

• Learn a skill and document your failures

• Take on challenges that scare you

• Share what actually worked (and what didn't)

People don't follow talking heads. They follow people doing interesting things and sharing their first-hand experiences.

2. Show Up Every Damn Day

Hormozi didn't post when he felt inspired. He posted daily for years (of course, if you're doing cool shit, this becomes way easier!).

Pick one platform where your people hang out. Become the person they expect to see.

Focus on it for 6 months. Document your journey, share what you're learning, and engage with your niche. Consistency beats everything else.

3. Email List From Day One

Hormozi's launch worked because of his email list, not just his social following.

Every single piece of content should drive people to your list. If you're active on LinkedIn or 𝕏, use Hypefury's Autoplugs to promote your lead magnets at the right time automatically.

Here are a few freebies that work:

• Free chapter from your future book

• A template that solves a real problem

• Case study showing your process

• Mini-course fixing one specific thing

Forget about writing the perfect book and being picked by a publisher.

Build your audience. The creators winning in 2025 are building trust at scale, then turning that trust into money. Books, courses, consulting—doesn't matter what you're selling if you have the right people buying.

User-Generated Content Drives Fastest Startup Growth

Companies like Notion, Duolingo, Canva, and Figma scaled rapidly by turning user actions into distribution loops where created content attracts new users who then create more content. The key is seeding initial content, incentivizing quality contributions, and integrating sharing mechanisms into core workflows, rather than relying on artificial viral features.

→ Find out more

ChatGPT Traffic to Websites Plummets 52%

ChatGPT referral traffic to websites dropped 52% since July 21, with Reddit citations up 87% and Wikipedia up 62% as OpenAI favors "answer-first" sources over branded content focused on conversions. The top three sites now account for 22% of all ChatGPT citations, suggesting brands must shift from sales-focused content to providing direct answers to user queries.

→ Find out more

xAI's Massive Scale-Up to Beat OpenAI and Meta

Elon Musk announced xAI plans to scale up to 50 million Nvidia H100 chips within five years, currently running 200,000 compared to Meta's planned 600,000. He's also open-sourcing all Grok models starting with Grok 2.5, though questions remain about transparency given Grok's built-in Elon bias.

→ Find out more

Last poll: Did you cancel your ChatGPT subscription?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 No (80%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yes, I moved to Claude

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yes, I moved to Grok

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Yes, I moved to another AI

That’s it for now, everyone! We’ll meet again next week to discuss some more of this!

Don’t forget to try Hypefury (for free) if you haven’t yet.

Feel free to reply to this email. It goes directly to me.

Cheers,

Yannick Veys
Co-founder and CMO of Hypefury