Jimmy Soni — The Publishing System is Broken (EP. 295)
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
In this engaging conversation between publishing partners Jim O'Shaughnessy and Jimmy Soni, they explore what's fundamentally broken in traditional publishing and how they're revolutionizing the industry through Infinite Books. (00:20) Soni shares his experience publishing "The Founders," the story of PayPal's legendary team, and reveals how basic improvements like AB testing cover art dramatically increased audience engagement. The discussion delves into their forthcoming book "The Dao of Kobe," which repositions Kobe Bryant not just as a basketball legend but as a polymath and creative genius. (60:00) They outline their mission to make authors millionaires while challenging industry conventions around marketing timeframes, author treatment, and creative freedom.
Speakers
Jim O'Shaughnessy
Founder and CEO of O'Shaughnessy Ventures and partner in Infinite Books. O'Shaughnessy is a legendary quantitative investor and bestselling author of investment classics including "What Works on Wall Street," "How to Retire Rich," and "Invest Like the Best." His books revolutionized evidence-based investing and he experienced firsthand the challenges of traditional publishing over a 20-year career.
Jimmy Soni
CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Infinite Books, and acclaimed author of "The Founders" (about PayPal's origin story) and "A Mind at Play" (about Claude Shannon). Soni has spent years researching legendary teams and breakthrough innovations, with his work focusing on the intersection of technology, creativity, and human achievement. His forthcoming book "The Dao of Kobe" explores Kobe Bryant's creative genius beyond basketball.
Key Takeaways
Authors Have More Power Than They Realize in Today's Digital Era
Traditional publishing treats authors as the "lowest on the totem pole," but this dynamic has fundamentally shifted. (22:48) Authors today often come with massive social media followings, email lists of hundreds of thousands, and more direct reach than their publishers. Soni emphasizes that authors should embrace being "problem authors" who push back on publishers and demand better processes. The digital landscape means authors have unprecedented leverage - they just need to recognize and use it. This shift requires authors to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, as every author in 2025 is by definition an entrepreneurial author, whether they're effective at it or not.
AB Testing and Data-Driven Decisions Transform Book Marketing
Simple process improvements can dramatically impact book sales, as Soni discovered when AB testing his book covers. (07:41) His custom-illustrated cover won "by a country mile" against Getty stock photo alternatives. The testing revealed audiences wanted diverse faces representing the actual company makeup, not just famous men. In today's digital-first world, where 80%+ of books are bought online, publishers have only 3-15 seconds to capture attention versus the 1-2 minutes available in physical bookstores. (11:25) Rapid feedback through AB testing allows publishers to optimize for the actual buying behavior rather than assumptions, yet most traditional publishers resist this basic market research.
Writer's Rooms and Collaborative Development Improve Book Quality
Infinite Books pioneered using Hollywood-style writer's rooms for book development, bringing together teams to dissect projects in real-time rather than after completion. (33:20) O'Shaughnessy's fiction project benefited enormously from this process, with participants identifying plot conflicts and suggesting improvements that significantly enhanced the story. The key innovation was conducting these sessions mid-project when authors aren't attached to every detail, combined with AI tools like Notebook LLM to facilitate discussion without requiring extensive homework. (34:34) This collaborative approach, done in-person to minimize distractions, helps identify blind spots and generates ideas that isolated authors might never discover.
Marketing Must Embrace Mass Customization Over Spray-and-Pray
Soni's breakthrough strategy involved building targeted email lists of 14,000 university professors in relevant fields for his Claude Shannon book, achieving zero negative responses through thoughtful, personalized outreach. (45:47) Rather than generic blast emails, they research recipients' backgrounds, publications, and interests to ensure relevance. Technology now enables scaling this personalized approach across entire book campaigns. (50:02) The traditional publishing model of sending identical pitches to massive, generic lists generates annoyance rather than engagement. By contrast, reaching people who are genuinely interested in specific topics creates gratitude and authentic engagement, leading to dramatically higher open rates and conversions.
Long-Term Marketing Perspective Creates Sustainable Success
Traditional publishing's 2-3 week marketing window makes no business sense when books can sell in perpetuity and continue generating royalties for decades. (72:00) Soni's "The Founders" launched the day before Russia invaded Ukraine, completely disrupting his media coverage, yet he continued marketing long-term rather than accepting defeat. Publishers face a time famine that forces them to move quickly to the next title, but this short-term thinking wastes the long-term value of each book. (73:15) By maintaining automated, ongoing marketing campaigns and building books as long-term assets rather than short-term products, publishers can create sustainable revenue streams that benefit both authors and the business over time.
Statistics & Facts
- More than 80% of books are now purchased online, with some categories reaching over 90% digital sales. This fundamentally changes the buying experience from 1-2 minutes of browsing in bookstores to just 3-15 seconds of online attention. (14:00)
- Two-thirds of contemporary readers are consuming books in digital formats (ebooks and audiobooks), yet the publishing industry remains focused primarily on physical book production and marketing. (88:28)
- In some categories, audiobook sales represent over 50% of total weekly unit sales for individual titles, with Soni's own books consistently selling more than half their units in audio format week over week. (88:44)
