Jimmy Soni, CEO and editor in chief of Infinite Books, is back on Infinite Loops. We discuss what’s broken in traditional publishing and how we’re fixing it. We also dig into Jimmy’s forthcoming book on Kobe Bryant, why the world needs more “problem authors,” and why our goal is to make our authors millionaires.
We explore why most industries optimize for prestige instead of outcomes, how digital distribution has reshaped attention, and why authors — and creators more broadly — have more leverage than they realize.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
5:00 What Traditional Publishing Gets Wrong
9:30 Why Book Covers (and A/B Testing) Actually Matter
14:30 Prestige Industries and Resistance to Change
20:30 Authors, Power, and the Shift in Incentives
28:00 Writers’ Rooms, AI, and Rethinking the Creative Process
36:30 Long-Term Thinking in Publishing and Marketing
55:15 The Story Behind The Dao of Kobe
1:15:30 What It Means to Be a “Problem Author”
