Garyvee (aka Gary Vay•ner•chuk) is crushing it. The wine retailer-turned-video-blogger is cashing in his Internet fame for a seven-figure, 10-book deal with HarperStudio. That comes to at least $100,000 per book, which is decent for first-time an unproven author, but he is going to have to hustle to keep up the interest for ten books. His first one comes out in September, and is called: Crush It! Turn Your Passion into Profits in a Digital World.
One thing Vay•ner•chuck has going for him is a built-in audience he cultivated one e-mail at a time, starting with his his popular video wine blog, Wine Library TV. Then he started branching out beyond wine into marketing, motivational speaking, other Web video shows, wine-review site Corkd, and even T-shirt search (because everyone is always looking for a good T-shirt).
So can Garyvee turn his 80,000 daily videoblog fans and 160,000 Twitter followers into actual paying customers for his book series? Do those people even read books anymore? If only 10 percent end up buying each book, HarperStudio will be happy.
Update: Vay•ner•chuk responds in a few places via video in comments below. In this comment, he points out that what attracted him to HarperStudio is a 50/50 revenue share (presumably once each book hits profitability) which gives him a bigger upside should the books do well. That is a much more entrepreneurial model than most book publishers are comfortable with, and hopefully we’ll be seeing more like them.
please excuse my profanity, but FUCK YEAH GARY you PIMP! nice work.
Garyvee is a killer!!! one of the most amazing guys i have ever seen in this world,,,, i just wish him success to achieve his goal of buying the NY Jets one day
He isn’t a first time author, he already wrote one book about wines:
http://www.amaz...1234&sr=8-1
my bad. fixed
Once again not doing ten seconds of research before posting.
He’s hitting the mainstream…similar to twitter nowadays. Great job Gary!
The mainstream?
Crush It! Turn Your Passion into Profits in a Digital World. is not the title of a mainstream book.
I love how the goal of all the social media guys is to get traditional media attention.
Zoe not my goal, mine is to buy the NY JETS! Hope we cross paths!
I am amazed at your energy level and commitment to every single persons response! These are rare qualities in today’s world. I admire you; yet also remind you to stay centered in your own Truth. You know why you are doing this and don’t need to answer to each and every accusation that gets thrown your way. Congratulations on your passion, drive, and success! Blessings.
Awesome, I love the energy of that guy (he’s also extremely nice in real life). Congrats!
Isn’t this contradictory to all the “eye balls are down on traditional media” crap he floats out to us everyday? I mean, awesome he got a deal and yeah he’s a cool dude…but this has some stank ass smell to “crushing” a paycheck grab rather than all of the information he is regulary waxing poetic about as “advice” for us to follow. I’m sure I’ll be the only one to actually say something negative or factual about this. Que the Vaynernation rants in 3….2….1
That is a good point, maybe his books will be digital.
dude that is a valid point, I am very curios and excited to make it work but I hope u understand that I feel I can make this work for me and harper Studios otherwise I wouldnt do it, I hope we get to meet and yap on it! I don’t know ur name since u used “sellout” but pls email me garyv@winelibrary dot com
I just felt the lightning reading this. Good for Gary, and nice to see.
(I feel the lightning, others crush the thunder. Either way we’re exploding at some point.)
awesome i always liked this guy
10 books? I’m writing one and it’s hard enough. That’s insane but if anyone can do it, Gary can.
I love Gary. I want 10 copies of each of the 10 books.
LOL. Go Andrew that is hilarious.. Your make the publishers happy alone!
i like the guy, but 10 books?
Reminds me of that Foxworth cartoon where the nerd wants to make money on the internet, so he sells a book on how to make money on the internet.
Huge challenge but I think I have a play, we will see?
I love Gary. But It’s funny to note that at his SXSW keynote, he said “I looked at blogging and thought that’s not for me – I can’t write”
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Agreeing to do 10 books is just nuts in my mind.
Good on him for getting the deal, but I reckon he could make a lot more by self publishing and doing his good ol “Hustling”.
He could probably make the million by doing just 4 books. Or heck, just one.
I saw Gary speak in Portland and he told attendees not to read books or other content produced by other people, just to focus on producing their own content. I like Gary a bunch but that advice really surprised me and I will probably give him a hard time about it until I get to talk to him next in person. Congrats on the deal though Gary, fortunately the web 2.0 scene is still small enough that there are loads of people out there that haven’t heard your advice to stop reading books yet
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I was so stoked to see Gary checking in too see what people had to say about this, but the videos from Seesmic seem to have some serious sound issues or maybe it was just when you uploaded the video, not sure. Just saying they need to fix that, we want to hear your voice loud and clear Gary.
Thanks Gary! I will stop giving you a hard time in public about this now, but I do look forward to seeing you the next time I get to. Congrats again!
Gary who?
Who are you, and why are you on the Internet?
Great for Gary! He works hard and deserves it. We’ve already bought his first book. I’m sure we’ll be back for more.
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thanks Gary, linked to this comment directly from the post. You might want to check your mic, btw. Kinda rattling.
is it my speakers or does it sound like he’s too close to the mic?
I am an economist and blogger and I have written an article about the interesting economics behind this experimental book deal. check it out at cheeptalk.wordpress.com
http://cheeptal...book-contracts/
Never heard of him… but let’s say he got $1mil… He has 160,000 followers, so that’s about $6.25 per follower. I have 234 followers, so I wonder when I can get a $1,462.50 book chapter deal…
Yea, why write 10 books ?
He already has a blog, a video show, public speaking opportunities, enough chances to communicate… Please save us the arrogance of your own self-achievement, and save a few trees while you’re at it (with much due respect)
well said!
Dude I hope we get to share a beer and u can see my “arrogance or self-achievement” is far less then I think u are feeling, I wish you and ur fam well! oh and hey anonymous invitation extends to you!
+20
Note that Harper Studio is built on a new model: lowe radvances (maxing at $100k) in return for sharing half the profit with the publisher. Very nice new deal and it figures GaryVee would be smart enough to take the gamble.
(Full disclosure: HarperCollins published my book, What Would Google Do? and I wrote about Harper Studio in it.)
so does this officially make gary a sell out?
Gawd. I’d love to say fuck you to that comment but I’m just not gonna do it.
A) Anonymous = Fuck you
B) No capitalization = Fuck you
C) Create something to STFU.
From Harper’s perspective I really don’t get it. From your blog you say they’d be happy with 10% of his 160,000 Twitter followers. Okay, so, 16,000 people buy at $20 per book. That’s $320,000 with 50% going out to this guy… and they’re already advancing him $100,000?
Harper’s walks away with $60,000? I haven’t even factored in the fixed cost of producing the books.
Why bother? Am I missing something?
The $100K would be factored into that as an advance most likely. And most hardcovers go for $25, which would make the whole pie $480K. Not hard to build a case where they are past break-even at that point, and then anything else is gravy.
in the book world, selling more than 10K copies is considered a success.
Ok guys you’ll guilty of some bad math there.
While a hardcover book does retail for $20-25 the publisher wholesales it for about half that or $10-12 per book.
So if they sell 16,000 copies that $160,000 – 192,000 gross profit.
just wow
A year ago in his vblog he said he wanted to help people.. I emailed him twice for advice and never got a reply back.
He once said word of mouth was the best form of advertising, but he is wrong, the best form is your product. Word of mouth second.
Very charismatic, but a major smoke blower. I see right through you Gary. Enjoy your millions.
Brandon I find this hard to believe dude, I have emailed back 100’s of thousands and I am sure all of them can confirm, please dude email me so I can see what email you used to see if I sent you anything or it went to a filter or I missed it somehow? garyv@winelibrary dot com
Hey Brandon, every time I email Gary he responds. He is a really nice guy, passionate and kind. This is a wonderful book deal for Gary and his family. I am not related to him, only know him casually, so this is an unsolicited response on his behalf. I was unhappy with the rudeness of your comment and had to jump in here, and now you have another side of the story.
Aha, the book deal makes much more sense after the 2nd Seesmic video Gary.
Good job on gambling on yourself. That’s how it should be.
At first I was thinking you got hosed with a deal like that, but considering the potential with that type of thing I would of bet the farm on myself too.
Best wishes.
I’ll buy the book!
CONGRATULATIONS GV!!!! WOOT. I will buy this book and share it with everyone. Awesome!! And for anyone that says that Gary doesn’t write back-you are not emailing the right address. Gary always keeps his word and I commend him for that among everything else.
ROCK IT brotha.
KO
Call him ‘The Dude’ {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/yer6uCH2ku_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Call him ‘The Dude’ ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/wPgns56SH0″}}}
Congrats Gary! I will buy your books! I bought several of the “101 Wines”
http://macmaniapodcast.com
Gary-
Phenomenal—excited to see the book(s) and great idea on the 50/50 split. True entrepreneurial style…
Can’t wait—I’m open to preview/unbox/promo the book early…just let us know and chat with you soon!
Funneling the energy from your keynotes into a book is exciting.
Keep killin’ it!
Nothing against the guy but the bullets in the name within a sentence just blow. Logo, fine. In a title? Maybe. In a sentence, and after the second or third time, it’s just annoying. I’m sure he likes you guys already for the coverage, and we can pronounce 3 syllables for the most part. So I’m probably missing the point.
man so many haters..why do we choose to tear down our giants instead of learning from them?..human nature I guess.
congrats bro!! I wish you the best of luck on your new journey and hope to learn even MORE from you in your books. Keep tweeting from manhattan and I’m sure we’ll intersect so I can buy you a scotch..(no wine!!)
It’s called “crabs in a bucket”
http://guidezon...story_crabs.htm
Congrats, this is awesome! The excitement never ends when Gary V is around
Congrats, Gary V！ i like u & buy your books.
from Japan
Why is this guy so popular?
The book deal is awesome, but what’s the deal with Cork’d? You mention it in the article as part of the Gary V empire, but the last news story is from a year ago and the last blog post is from 2007.
internet millionaire like Joell Comm now LOL
I’m a great fan of his Winelibrary TV reviews, he does a great job and totally took the snottiness out of wine-tasting without turning it into a “Joe 6-pack” joke fest. Kudos!
Nice work Gary! You’re constantly rocking it.
Gary’s passion and enthusiasm definitely comes across well in all his videos.
Will be interesting to see how well that translates into book form.
I honestly think that it is pretty hypocrite to say don’t read books and then write 10 books! and expect people to buy and read them.
BTW if you ever come to Spain I would love to invite you to some awesome Rioja
yea..”only 10% ”
you sound like a first year biz student Eric. Easier said then done to get “only” 10% conversion…
very nice post and the comment off Gary Vaynerchuk
Celebrity babies 20 years from now and more
celebrity babies 20 years from now and more
Two words… Flawless Execution.
I have been following Gary Vee for a few months now, and the one thing about him that makes him so unique is his ability to live within HIS DNA in such a way that he carves out paths of opportunity that were not there before. THIS is something we can all learn from. The book deal is simply a bi-product of what happens when you find your zone and decide to re-invent “business as usual” – This whole thing about Gary saying do not read books, is totally being taken out of context, WHAT he is saying is, stop reading books and trying to be exactly like what you read. Gary has mastered being in-touch with himself, knowing his strengths and laying them play out to his advantage… Again another nugget we can learn from!!
Gary… Hustle out of control man!! This is a huge step for ALL of us! Thanks for being a Path Maker I will be watching, and learning!!
Cheers!
I don’t get the negativity. Even if you don’t know who Gary V. is, even if you don’t like his wine store, or his videos, or anything else, why would you not want to see the guy succeed?
I think there’s a lot the guy can say, and his approach to communicating clearly has resonated with a lot of people. If you apply a similar level of hard work and passion to what you do, whatever it is, you can also succeed – that’s something to be shared.
Maybe the negative comments are coming from folks who haven’t learned to apply hard work and passion to what they do, and instead of doing that, they prefer to tear someone down.
Gary, like fine wine you ferment people’s passions with your unique bouquet (for good or for ill, it would seem by many of the comments!) I loved your Wines 101 book- kept one for me and gave out 4 as gifts which were received with everything from giggles to guffaws, even from my wine-smart European friends. I, for one, look forward to your next tomes with anticipation!
As long as Gary can keep connecting to people he will be great. He brings that personal side to everything he does. Since Gary does not read books I will start the Gary V Book Clube- Hell if Oprah has one so should GV.
Hopefully the new book covers will be a little better than the first;)
As long as Gary can keep connecting to people he will be great. He brings that personal side to everything he does. Since Gary does not read books I will start the Gary V Book Clube- Hell if Oprah has one so should GV.
Hopefully the new book covers will be a little better than the first;)
Gary – been watching your meteoric rise over the last 18 mos. Those that voice all the negativity just have issues with their own ego’s. Congrats on getting another piece of the empire in place.
When you do own the Jets it will be even sweeter when the ‘Fins kick their ass
What’s your deal man? How did you get this gig? This is a wack article. First of all, $100 grand for an “unproven” author is not just “decent” as you say, it’s a huge payday for an author, especially today.
Secondly, Gary Vee already wrote a book (as someone else pointed out).
Thirdly, if ten percent of his fans (which by your math would by 24,000 out of 240,000 total fans) bought his books, Harper Collins would barely pay back the investment in the books. You’re way off dude.
Your writing style just leaves a lot to be desired. Gary Vaynerchuk is such an awesome guy and he deserves better. Get a real writer on the case.
I have no doubt that Gary will crush with these books.