Inside the Creator-Author Boom đź“š

Book publishers are paying close attention

Good morning. Yesterday, Anthpo held a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in NYC’s Washington Square Park with a grand prize of $50. What ensued was a 500+ person crowd, an appearance from the cops and…Timothée Chalamet himself. Between this and his Cheeseball Man stunt, Anthpo has proven he can draw quite the crowd. Marketers, take notes.

How Book Publishers Work With Creators

Book publishers are increasingly turning to creators not just to market authors' books but to write their own, too / Arne Dedert/Getty Images

Last week, we wrote about the increasingly popular strategy of creators—everyone from veteran writers to first-time authors—releasing books.

What’s driving this trend? We spoke with Payton Mitchell, a social media strategist who’s worked with publishers like Penguin Random House and creators such as Hank and John Green, to learn more. Here’s the rundown on the creator-to-author pipeline →

Not every book needs to sell millions of copies. Mitchell said John Green is a creator whose name “packs a punch” on a book cover given the mainstream popularity of his previous titles, such as The Fault in Our Stars.

But Green is the exception, not the rule. Mitchell pointed to the power of niche creators who can presell 10,000 copies in their first week by focusing on their specific audience—and deliver publishers a medium-sized win. “Most first-time authors are not getting [those presale numbers]…I don’t think [a niche creator’s book] will be No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list, but I don’t think it has to be,” Mitchell said.

Publishers are looking for creators whose books can match the style of their video content. 

  • One of Mitchell’s clients, Michael McBride, created a book of fun facts after growing an audience with history and science explainer videos. 

  • Alexis Nikole Nelson (aka BlackForager) makes content about foraging and is currently writing a cookbook for wild food.

While neither McBride nor Nelson aspired to write a novel, publishers approached both creators upon realizing their content was a good fit for nonfiction, Mitchell said.

The pipeline works both ways, as fans benefit when authors become creators. Even though some writers have pushed back against the need to self-promote, Mitchell sees authors as “cool and creative people” who can contribute new ideas and share new sides of their personalities on creator platforms.

Plus, Mitchell said that publishers are more than willing to provide support (such as hiring strategists like herself) if authors express interest in creating video content. “The authors don't want to be making terrible TikToks, and Penguin Random House definitely doesn't want that either,” Mitchell said.

Ludwig’s Offbrand Launches First Video Game

Offbrand Games publishes its first game, Rivals of Aether II (and it's already a hit) / Steam

Earlier this year, Ludwig Ahgren’s Offbrand production studio launched a gaming division, Offbrand Games. It’s now published its first game, Rivals of Aether 2, and it's taken off—out-selling popular titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Counter-Strike 2 on online game platform Steam.

How Offbrand got here →

  • Offbrand launched its game division in February, hiring streamer Jason “Thor” Hall (aka PirateSoftware) as its director of strategy.

  • Offbrand Games started working with gaming org Aether Studios to develop a sequel to its fighting game, Rivals of Aether. 

  • In September, Ahgren announced the game’s October launch date. Since then, Ahgren and Hall have been promoting the game on their respective YouTube and Twitch channels, where they have a combined 13 million subscribers.

  • On launch day, Rivals of Aether 2 outsold its predecessor and peaked at 10,700 concurrent players, 3x higher than the all-time peak player count of the original Rivals of Aether.

Big picture: As the video game industry continues to struggle across the board, creator-run companies like Offbrand and Typical Gamer’s Fornite development studio JOGO are experiencing a boost thanks to their established reach within their respective online communities. 

Sponsored by Kajabi

How To Build a Creator Business That You Actually Own

That’s us, on a billboard in Times Square—thanks Kajabi, for making a childhood dream come true  ✌🏻✌🏽

Kajabi is putting us and other creators on billboards as part of a campaign to celebrate creators building sustainable education and membership businesses on a platform they own. We built our audience on YouTube, and then we built our course, Creator Startup, on Kajabi.

Launching Creator Startup hasn’t just diversified our revenue streams—it’s given us the ability to build a platform where we connect directly with our audience and capture more of the value our content creates. Growing on social platforms is often called building on "rented land." But with Kajabi, you’re investing in land you truly own—where you set the terms, control the value, and keep what you create.

Kajabi is proof that in today’s creator economy, you don’t have to have millions of followers and views to be a full time creator. Learn more about Kajabi’s mission to make going full-time possible for more creators.

— Colin and Samir

Creator Presidential Roundup: Podcasts + Streaming

Tim Walz plays Madden live on Twitch with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez / Twitch

With just six days until the 2024 US election, presidential candidates are putting their creator collabs into overdrive. Here’s what the Trump and Harris campaigns have been up to →

  • Former President Donald Trump went on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, netting 23 million views on YouTube in less than 24 hours. It’s Rogan’s most-viewed video in the last four years of his podcast.

  • VP candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz played Madden with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez live on Twitch to over 100,000 concurrent viewers.

  • Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on The Breakfast Club podcast and morning radio show, which received over 500,000 views in 12 days. 

đź‘€ Creator Moves

  • Mythical is hiring a director of analytics to provide optimization recommendations across the company’s programming.

  • Epic Gardening is hiring a staff writer with a strong knowledge of gardening to pitch and write stories for its site.

  • Chloe Shih is looking for a video editor to edit 4–8 videos per month.

Looking to bring on new team members? You can post opportunities on our (free) job board here.

🔥 Press Worthy