THE FREEDOM SHORTCUT

Twin entrepreneurs share their secrets of publishing success on Amazon and Audible in this business book.

Siblings Rasmus and Christian Mikkelsen, credited as “the Mikkelsen Twins,” offer a book about passive income, which they appealingly describe as “income that requires no effort to earn and maintain.” Their passive-income method involves self-publishing books on Amazon and audiobooks on Audible. This book, based on video training sessions available on their website, is divided into six modules: “Foundations,” which includes the twins’ story and offers a primer on the aforementioned platforms and the basics of the authors’ message; “Choose,” detailing how to choose topics for nonfiction books; “Outsource,” explaining how to publish books using a ghostwriter and find a designer to create a book cover; “Launch,” featuring tips on how to launch a book on online platforms; “Multiply,” showing their methods for how to continue making money off a book after its initial launch; and “Discoveries,” summing up the lessons the brothers learned along the way. Each module includes short chapters and, except in “Discoveries,” a handy roundup of tips at the end. The work also includes plenty of success stories—both the twins’ and their followers’—as well as accounts of a few failures, lending a bit of relatability, which is a key element to this book’s success. The twins write in an inviting, informal style, relating their journeys from two jobless young men to victorious entrepreneurs. Christian found success with his first self-published book, How To Be a 4.0 Student in College, Like Me(2018), and Rasmus with his own series of fitness books; both say that they came to realize that audiobooks would be an even more reliable income stream. They effectively teach what they practiced in these pages, imparting a range of practical steps along the way. Their excitement is contagious, and they make their end goal seem attainable—an appealing one-two punch that not all moneymaking guides land.

A practical and often entertaining publishing manual.