The 4-Hour Chef Launch — Marketing/PR Summary of Week One

What a whirlwind of a week!

For those of you interested in how I sequence launches, or how punishing the last 7 days have been, or what’s required if you want a shot at #1 New York Times or BookScan, below is a very partial list of media coverage and partnerships. They are in rough chronological order. If I missed anyone, please let me know in the comments!

I’ve done more here than in my last two book launches combined, and reader results (Twitter examples here) have made it all worth it.

I was pleasantly surprised by how many bookstores are now stocking The 4-Hour Chef, which sat at Amazon #2 for most of this week (Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a juggernaut, but Ina Garten is my real competition).  According to my readers on Facebook, stocking stores now include Tattered Cover, Copperfields, Powell’s, Elliot Bay, Vroman’s, Prairie Lights, Changing Hands, Boulder Bookstore, and even some Books Inc. (my local fave).  Barnes & Noble continues to boycott nationwide, but indies are picking it up, which makes me very happy, of course.  It’s exactly where I want a 600+-page full-color book!

Last but not least, sincere thanks to everyone who’s left Amazon reviews!

If you have read the book (or are reading), pretty please take 30 seconds to leave a short review — it would really mean the world to me.  Just click here.  I have read every review and commented on many of them.  At the very least, if you take a look here, there are some great conspiracy theories in the 1-star reviews.  Many folks don’t seem to grasp the idea of ADVANCED copies of books, which all authors send out, often in the hundreds. Doing the same doesn’t make me a Scooby-Doo villain or clever mastermind, alas.

Now, to an incomplete list of media from the past 168 hours or so, excluding national advertising…

Offline/traditional names

USA Today‘4-Hour’ author Timothy Ferriss returns as a chef

The New York Times – Fête Accompli | 4-Hour Feasting

The Wall Street Journal – ‘4-Hour’ Man Masters Food, The Good Life

Bon Appetit – A Bird in the Pan: Testing “The 4-Hour Chef”

Outside MagazineFrom Modern to Mallman (one of three online, also a print piece)

Wired Magazine – “Better, Faster, Smarter” (Tim Ferriss tests smart drugs) — not yet online but in Dec print.

CBS This Morning (Charlie Rose, Gayle King)Timothy Ferriss talks food, life lessons

WNYC – The 4-Hour Chef: Lengthy Book Offers Short Cut to Kitchen Excellence

Fox & Friends‘Recipe’ for Success

The New York PostRequired Reading

Dr. Oz (almost an hour total on TV, plus online)Health-boosting Secrets From The 4-Hour Chef Tim Ferriss

Dr. OzTim Ferriss’ Plan to Master Cooking in 4 Hours, Pt 1

Dr. OzTim Ferriss’ Plan to Master Cooking in 4 Hours, Pt 2

Dr. OzTim Ferriss’ Vitamin-Rich Recipes

Partnerships

BitTorrent (160 million+ users — more coming on this)

Panera Bread (1,500+ locations)

TaskRabbit (1,000s of hours saved)

Rally (1,000+ books sold)

Samovar Tea Lounges (SF) (1000s of people relaxed!) –  Signed copies at every location!

Blogs/online press

PaidContentFerriss: Even if I sell a million Kindle books, some people will call it a failure

PaleoHacksIf you could become world-class in anything in 2013, what would it be?

BoingBoingTim Ferriss’s new book about learning

The Huffington PostNew Timothy Ferriss Book, ‘4-Hour Chef’, Has A Great Trailer (VIDEO)

Small Business TrendsRetailers Fight Amazon with Ferriss Boycott

Seeking AlphaAmazon Is Crushing It

Digital JournalReview: ‘The 4-Hour Chef’ is more than just a cookbook

TechCrunchWith Amazon Publishing Stonewalled By Retailers, Tim Ferriss Taps BitTorrent To Market His New Book (and more press here)

The Huffington Post“4-Hour Chef” Tim Ferriss Reveals Secrets of Meta-Learning and Living the Good Life

Ramit Sethi – Live webcast w/ Tim Ferriss this Wednesday, 9PM EST

Danny RoddyMy Interview With Bad Ass Mother Fucker Tim Ferriss

LivestrongMake Better Meals In Less Time

TubeFilterWith Help Of YouTube, Tim Ferriss Makes Book Trailers Go Viral

MetroThe art of learning

Goins WriterHow to Become World-class at Anything: An Interview with Tim Ferriss

Entrepreneurs-JourneyTim Ferriss Talks About His Latest Book “The 4-Hour Chef”, How To Learn Anything In Half The Time And Why He Went To Sniper School

99UTim Ferriss: On The Creative Process And Getting Your Work Noticed

The Art of ManlinessHow to Make the Best Beef Jerky in the World

Cooking for EngineersCrunchy Bloody Mary

InsideHookCulinary Design

Man Vs. DebtRapidly Learn Any Skill (Including Cooking): An Interview with Tim Ferriss about “The 4-Hour Chef”

GreatistThe 4-Hour Chef: Tim Ferriss’ Crazy, Brilliant Cookbook

Personal Branding BlogPersonal Branding Interview: Tim Ferriss on The 4-Hour Chef

5 Minutes for MomAn Interview with Tim Ferriss- Author of The 4-Hour Chef

SlashfilmAuthor Tim Ferriss Lists His Favorite Cooking TV Shows and Movies

AskMenTim Ferriss On The 4-Hour Chef

AppSumoThe 4-Hour Chef launches and we got exclusives for you

ForbesWhat Cooking Can Teach You About Learning

Chronicles of StrengthHow to Learn Anything: Pat Flynn Interviews Tim Ferriss on The 4-Hour Chef

RunkeeperWe’re giving away 20 copies of Tim Ferriss’s new book!

LifehackerI’m Tim Ferriss, and This Is How I Work

Shira Lazar: What’s TrendingHow to Complete All Your Facebook Tasks in Just 4 Hours: A Tim Ferriss Presentation

GothamistAfter Thanksgiving, Go On A Manhattan Food Marathon

Refinery29How To Get Into Every Resto In Town, A Primer By Tim Ferriss

The GrindstoneTim Ferriss Will Teach You How To Cook In 4 Hours And Conquer The World

Food BabeThe 4-Hour Chef – The Coolest Cookbook I’ve Ever Read

KrisKrisThe 4-Hour Chef – Interview With Bestselling Author Tim Ferriss

Wellness MamaHow to Cook Like A Pro and Learn Anything

BoingBoingTimothy Ferriss: Cheat Sheets for Everything

Cracked8 Cheap Ways to Fake Being a Pro Chef

The Huffington PostThe Anti-Hunter’s First Hunt (Exclusive Excerpt)

Gear PatrolInterview: Tim Ferriss on Steak, Kitchen Tools and the Return of the Polymath

AskMen – The 4-Hour Chef: Exclusive Look: Tim Ferriss’ New Book

Wall Street Cheat SheetTim Ferriss: The 4-Hour Chef Controversy Displays the Future of Publishing

SmartPassiveIncome – Tim Ferriss on Promotion from Scratch, Accelerated Learning, Experiments Gone Wrong, Publishing and More

Social TriggersThe simple path to becoming a highly-paid expert (new podcast with Tim Ferriss)

AllFacebookHumor: How To Complete All Of Your Daily Facebook Tasks In Just Four Hours

Business InsiderThe 4-Step Process For Mastering Any Skill

LifehackerUse Tim Ferriss’ Four-Step Process to Master New Skills

Cook Taste EatPork Loin with Walnut Purée, Poached Carrots and Bacon Frisée Salad

Evernote BlogHow Tim Ferriss Used Evernote to Write His New Book, The 4-Hour Chef

Yelp! BlogTim Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Chef,” talks Yelp, favorite San Francisco restaurants and eating brains

Podcasts/video/YouTube

Andrew Zimmern: Go Fork Yourself PodcastGo Fork Yourself: Tim Ferriss & The Four-Hour Chef

creativeLIVEThe 4-Hour™ Life: Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

The Joe Rogan ExperienceJRE #285 – Tim Ferriss, Brian Redban

The Robb Wolf PodcastEpisode 159

Mirasee – 4-Hour Book Launch Advice from Tim Ferriss

Shira Lazar: What’s Trending“4-Hour Chef” Tim Ferriss Reveals Secrets Of Meta-Learning And Living The Good Life

Samovar TeaSamovar Tea Talks with Tim Ferriss

MixergyTim’s Rapid Learning Method And The Four-Hour Chef – with Tim Ferriss

The Art of Charm: Pickup PodcastEpisode #178: Tim Ferriss, FourHourChef.com (FourHourWorkWeek.com)

The New Man PodcastTNM 125: Tim Ferriss – How to Be Kickass Fast

SiteVisibilityTim Ferriss – Podcast Episode #189

SourceFedGreatest Day Ever: a Guide

SimplePickupHow To Make a Sexy Steak with Tim Ferriss

Sources of InsightTim Ferriss Interview on The 4-Hour Chef

The Rise to the TopTim Ferriss on How to Become World Class in Anything in 6 Months or Less

Radio-TV Interview ReportSteve Harrison Interviews Bestselling Author Tim Ferriss About Book Writing, Promotion and Ways to Learn Any Skill Faster

Alex DayUnrealistic Goals and Tim Ferriss

New Media RockstarsAuthor & Internet Entrepreneur Tim Ferriss Talks to NMR About His New Book The 4-Hour Chef and More! [Interview]

Zen HabitsHow to Learn Anything

Big ThinkTim Ferriss: Cooking to Learn Like a Pro (in 4 Hours)

Wall Street Cheat SheetTim Ferris: The 4-Hour Chef Controversy Displays the Future of Publishing

Six Pixels of SeparationSPOS #333 – Learn To Do Anything With Tim Ferriss

BONUS

Here are some goodies from weeks 2-3:

PARTNERSHIPS

Quarterly.co 

MEDIA

Zagat – Tim Ferriss Wants You To Spend Less Time Cooking, More Time Eating

NPR — Brian Lehrer Show – Four Hours to Learn Anything

PaidContent – Amazon Publishing takes on Europe; Kirshbaum to head U.S. unit in reorg

Dean Dwyer – Deconstructing Tim Ferriss

Fluent in 3 Months – Tim Ferriss, interview on language learning

USA Today – Book Buzz: Give the gift of books this holiday season

Food Republic – Timothy Ferriss Thinks You Can Channel Your Inner-Batali, Without Even Trying

Smart Passive Income – Tim Ferriss on Promotion from Scratch, Accelerated Learning, Experiments Gone Wrong, Publishing and More

Riverfront Times – Panera Bread Debuts Hidden Menu Crafted by 4-Hour Chef Tim Ferriss — But Not in St. Louis

ReadWriteWeb – Is BitTorrent The Future Of Book Publishing? Tim Ferriss Is Banking On It

AppNewserTim Ferriss BitTorrent Bundle Downloaded 211,000 Times

The Next Web – Thanks to BitTorrent, The 4-Hour Chef goes from being boycotted by Barnes and Noble to a bestseller

The New York Times – BitTorrent’s Plan for 2013? Go Legit

Business Insider – 85,000 BitTorrent Users Visited Tim Ferriss’ Amazon Page in 7 Days

BitTorrent Blog – The 4-Hour Bestseller (Thank You)

Financial Times – Amazon expands print publishing to Europe

Business Insider14 Tips For Learning Any Skill Incredibly Fast

BoingBoing – Gweek 077: Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Chef

Wall Street Journal – An Author Cooks Up a Tiff with Bookstores

San Francisco Chronicle – Tim Ferriss: Sustenance in balanced life

The New York Times – What We’re Reading

BlogcastFMHow to Become World Class in 6 Months with Tim Ferriss

Business Insider – Here’s What’s Wrong With The ‘10,000 Hour Rule’

The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.

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leora
leora
11 years ago

This is awesome. I’m looking forward to reading the book. Tim, would you ever be willing to write a blog post that was like a step-by-step how to article in self-publicizing a book? You do everything write, youtube videos, amazon, blogging, facebook, etc. But you know what works and what doesn’t.

Don Carlo Arias IV
Don Carlo Arias IV
11 years ago

Will you have another party like you did for the 4hour body 2years ago at Green House

Would you like to do it at Negro Claro’s Ganesha Garden looks like your meditation room

instagram.com/DonCarloIV

Twitter.com/DonCarloIV

GladHe8Her.com

thank your for changing my life

khaiyong
khaiyong
11 years ago

Hi Tim! I bought your book mainly because of the meta-learning (i wanted to learn korean). I found a meta-learning map for korean in the form of an infograph that I think would interest other readers:

http://themetapicture.com/learn-to-read-korean-in-15-minutes/

Enjoy! 🙂

-K.

Lode
Lode
11 years ago

Hi Tim,

That’s a impressive list !

I just started a webshop a few months ago. Would you recommend sending free samples to bloggers and journalists as a profitable marketing strategy in general ? Or would you only do it with books ?

Lode

Srinivas Rao
Srinivas Rao
11 years ago

Hey Tim

Thanks for the link back and taking the time do an interview with us on BlogcastFM. I’ve been using some of the concepts I learned from you about book marketing to help an author that I’m working with on his launch.

Cheers- Srini

Marcella
Marcella
11 years ago

My husband and I love the book, we are having a blast reading it and discussing it. Made the first two dishes, but have the stupidest question about the scrambled eggs!!! What does it mean for an ingredient to be “chile”? Is that like chili powder? Or maybe green chile from a can, like scoop out a teaspoon? Or cut up some sort of chile pepper? Not sure I am spelling chili/chile correctly in any of these cases. Help! Major gringo alert! We want to try the different flavors of the eggs, but clearly we need help like we are new-born babies or something!

Guy Morgan
Guy Morgan
11 years ago

Hey Tim, got a copy of 4HChef from our friends Dean & Joe and love it. Got inspired to learn how to swim from your notes inside. In less than 6 weeks went from not knowing how to swim to yesterday swimming 2.5 miles in open water swim here in La Jolla where I live. Joined the La Jolla Cove Swim Club and signed up for the the Big Chill Tonga where participating members log miles to equal distance to Tonga before April 13, 2013. My goal is contribute 100 miles to effort. Another great book and resource… thanks my friend. Going for a swim now…

Dre
Dre
11 years ago

Loved your interview on London Real Tim http://bit.ly/UHO9nn was hoping to catch you whilst you were in London but I didn’t realise you were coming until too late and all the appearances were booked out.

Catch you next time 🙂

Bodnar Bruno
Bodnar Bruno
11 years ago

I bought your book after a review posted on “The Society” website.

I was so impressed with the book that I bought 4 more copies, one for each of my four children (adults), because it contains many of the things I should have taught them when they were growing up, and I would have, if I had know them myself. Thanks for a great book. I also have “The 4 Hour Body”. However, I find that the links in the book for things like Pine Pollen are no longer on the website? Or am I missing something?

Anton Volney
Anton Volney
10 years ago

Wow, It’s clear that there’s A LOT that goes into promoting a new book. Duely noted for when mine comes out…

Steve West
Steve West
10 years ago

Congratulations Tim, that’s awesome, this is very inspiring!

Cheers, Steve

K. C. Mitchell
K. C. Mitchell
9 years ago

Tim, I just found your web site a few days ago when I researched, “How to create a book trailer”. I can’t seem to stop reading your material. I am a self-publish author (about to launch the sequel to my first book, The Tapestry of A. Taylor). I have not done ANY of the media you’ve done and yet had a measure of success. Honestly, I don’t see how any new author, without the money or connections you obviously have, could possible launch the way you did! That must have been a tremendous undertaking! Congratulations!

Any advise for those of us, equally hungry for success but without your resources, to boost our online awareness once I get my book trailer finished? Thanks & continued success to you!

Wout
Wout
9 years ago

Hey Tim, I’m a great fan of your work, very cool that you gave out a free audiobook version of the four hour chef. But now I want to buy your book and get cooking! Only thing is, I’d really like to have a Dutch version. What can I do to get it translated and published in Dutch?

Johnny Walker
Johnny Walker
9 years ago

Hey Tim, Which pine pollen provider would your recommend?

Flavio from Munich
Flavio from Munich
3 years ago

Awesome. Waiting now for “The 4 hour marketeer” 😉