June 10, 2026
Charlie Hoehn’s advice for authors
Charlie Hoehn went on Farnum Street to talk about how to write a book.
It’s the best advice I’ve ever heard for authors of prescriptive nonfiction — business books, self-help, and personal development.
If you haven’t heard of Charlie, here’s a quick bio from the show notes:
Charlie Hoehn is the founder of Author.Inc and a 3-time New York Times bestselling editor. He’s the mind behind some of the influential books from Tim Ferriss, Ramit Sethi, Codie Sanchez, and Noah Kagan. Charlie’s expertise has helped sell over 10 million books.
Here’s Charlie Hoehn’s core advice, organized by phase:
Before writing a word - Lock your table of contents first — it’s the foundation, not an afterthought. Don’t write until it’s solid. - Write for one specific real person, not a general audience. The paradox: specificity reaches more people. - Become the embodiment of the book first. You can’t write it as someone you haven’t yet become. - Test your TOC with real target readers before writing. Ask: "Which of these is a hell yes?"
Title - It’s the single most important marketing decision. Must be tip-of-the-tongue, easy to say, not embarrassing to recommend. - Test with PickFu. Watch for wrong expectations, not just appeal — mismatched expectations equal negative reviews.
Structure - Front-load the best material. Most readers drop off early; bury nothing good in the back. - Three parts, two to four big milestones. Zero-to-hero arc. - Chapter formula: hook → thesis → body → takeaways → segue.
Marketing - Co-create with your audience during production — surveys, title votes, cover options, progress updates. Emotional investment before launch is the whole game. - Pre-launch is where sales are determined; launch week should be a victory lap, not a stress spiral. - Set up an evergreen email sequence delivering real value excerpted from the book.
On AI - Useful for structure suggestions, cleaning transcripts, and idea generation. Not a writer — it degrades fast beyond a paragraph or two. - Record conversationally, then use AI to clean the transcript. Speaking is 8x faster than writing and avoids writer’s block.
If you’re thinking about writing a business book, do yourself a favor and listen.
Yours,
—J