Big Book Payoffs
A short book by Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, and Tucker Max, co-founder of Scribe. It makes the business case for writing a book to an audience of entrepreneurs, then lays out a lighter version of the process. Free as a PDF by email; the hardcover is free if you pay shipping.
- What it is
- Big Book Payoffs: Why Every Entrepreneur Should Write a Book (and How to Do It), published 2020.
- Format
- PDF, or a printed hardcover.
- Length
- 178 pages: an opening section, five chapters and a conclusion.
- What it asks
- Your details to get the PDF by email. The hardcover is free with $9 shipping and handling, US addresses only, paid through Stripe.
What is in it
The table of contents is short:
- Why read this book? An opening on why Dan Sullivan tells his coaching clients to write a book.
- Why every entrepreneur should write a book. The longest chapter: the payoffs in authority, sales, reach and legacy.
- Sell yourself before you start. Getting clear on why you are doing it, so you do not quit halfway.
- The entrepreneur book-specific outline process. A structured way to outline, with worked chapter examples.
- Write your book (without the pain). Tips for drafting and editing.
- The entrepreneur's trick to publishing. The publishing choices and the marketing basics.
Then a conclusion and short author bios.
Who it is for
Business owners who are still asking "why would I spend my time on a book?" It speaks their language: payoff, effort, the best use of their time. If you are already convinced and want to start, The Scribe Method is the more complete manual and needs no email.
It is a poor fit for memoirists, novelists, or anyone writing for reasons other than business.
What you come away with
- A clear statement of what a book can do for a business, useful if you need to convince a partner or yourself.
- An outline process with example chapters you can copy the shape of.
- An overview of writing and publishing in under 200 pages.
What it asks of you
For the PDF, your details; the page says it will also send occasional publishing tips. The PDF is about 1.2 MB. For the hardcover, a $9 shipping and handling charge and a US address. Either way you are now on Scribe's list. The page features a quote from one author about record revenue after his book; treat that as one author's result.
How to get the most from it
- Read chapters 1 and 2 if you are deciding. Stop there if you are not convinced; that is a fine outcome.
- If you are convinced, jump to chapter 3 and do the outline exercise with your own book, not just read it.
- Use it with a partner or team. It is a reasonable thing to hand a co-founder who thinks a book is a vanity project.
Its honest limits
- It is an argument for writing a book, written by people who coach entrepreneurs and sell book services. It is not a neutral weighing of costs and benefits.
- It overlaps with The Scribe Method, which goes deeper on every stage after the outline.
- It was published in 2020. The thinking holds up; check any platform details against current terms.
- The hardcover is not free in practice: it costs $9 to ship, and only to US addresses.
Before and after
Before: nothing. This is a deciding-stage resource.
After: try the Book ROI Calculator with your own numbers, then move to positioning with the North Star tool. The use your book for business path shows where it fits.