Hello to all my Modern Authors!

First and foremost, I wanted to say a hearty welcome to all the new subscribers to our newsletter. Over the past few months we've had more than 300 of you join our newsletter and community. Welcome and thanks for being part of this.

Many of the individuals who have been told "you should write a book" are often at the early stages of leading something new... aiming to spark a movement. They may be:

• Running for political office or trying to make a public policy change
• Leading a nonprofit or social venture aiming to create massive societal good
• Galvanizing an underheard population or community for recognition or growth
• Sparking a new, more accessible way in a broken, expensive or inaccessible industry

And a book often can be that rallying cry or shared manifesto.

Now let me say the quiet part out loud: most “movement” books don’t move anyone.

They inspire. They tug at heartstrings. They might even get a few standing ovations at book clubs. But after the applause fades? Nothing changes. No structures. No follow-through. No momentum.

And that’s the tragedy... because when a book is designed as a catalyst, it doesn’t just spread ideas. It mobilizes people. It sparks identity. It builds collective action.

From well-known Catalysts like Arianna Huffington and Simon Sinek who sparked movements about sleep and purpose to emerging Catalysts like Maddi Niebanck and Valeria Aloe (catalyzing the stroke recovery movement and Latina ecosystem), there's an art to the use a book to create more than readers.

Welcome to Part 9 of the Profitable Author Series where we've been deconstructing the models behind successful authors from coaches and builders to speakers and teachers. Today we're going to look at one of the most lasting business models for Modern Authors: Catalyzing a Movement.

That’s why I tell my aspiring Catalyst authors: don’t just write a book that people like. Write a book people rally around.

Because in today’s noisy world, what spreads isn’t just a message. It’s a movement. And Catalyst authors are the ones bold enough to build them.

📖 Your book is the hook.

🧠 Your persona is the system.

💸 Your business model is the result.

Am I a Catalyst Author (or something else)?

Sometimes its hard to know if you're catalyzing a movement or something else. The reality is sometimes you don't quite know until long after the movement has taken shape.

Catalyst authors are architects of momentum. They’re not satisfied with private wins or personal transformation: they want to bend the arc of culture. And it's why their topics are often big, socially charged, and tied to public policy or politics.

While the Teacher creates clarity, the Coach drives transformation, and the Builder delivers systems, the Catalyst engineers movements. Their question isn’t, “What will one person do with this?” but, “How do I get thousands of people to do this together?”

That shift in scope makes everything different about their books.

Catalyst books:

• Name the movement. They give readers an identity they can claim (“Why Not Me?”, “Lean In”, “Uncolonized Latinas”, "Modern Authors").
• Provide a manifesto. They don’t just inform; they lay down a credo readers repeat, post, and share.
• Offer collective practices. They show readers how to act together: hashtags, challenges, summits, ambassador programs.

Formats Catalysts thrive in:

• Campaign-driven launches with clear rallying cries.
• Branded communities with visible member identity.
• Events that double as accelerants for the cause.
• Partnerships and alliances that multiply reach.

Their superpower? They make belonging feel like action.

And that’s why Catalyst books can’t just be memoirs or collections of essays. They must be architected. Structured not just as a story, but as a pattern people can adopt and spread.

Why Category Design Matters for Catalysts

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned working with Catalyst authors is this: if you’re going to spark a movement, you need more than a book. You need a category.

That’s why so many of the most impactful Catalyst authors, from Simon Sinek with Start With Why to Arianna Huffington with Thrive, didn’t just write books. They defined new categories of thought. They gave people a lens to see the world differently, and a vocabulary to carry it forward.

This is deeply personal for me. When I set out to build my new book Modern Author OS, I wasn’t just writing another book on writing. I wanted to define a category: the operating system for modern authors. Because books aren’t just stories anymore: they’re platforms, businesses, and ecosystems. Designing that category wasn’t just about differentiation. It was about giving authors the tools to catalyze long-term change in their industries.

It’s also why we built Manuscripts as a B-Corp and a community-first venture. We knew this wasn’t just about publishing more books. It was about catalyzing a new movement around authorship: helping authors build ecosystems, not just manuscripts.

And that’s the truth about Catalyst authors: they play the long game. Their books aren’t quick wins or transactional products. They’re designed to launch movements that endure, precisely because they anchor to a category people rally around for years to come. And that's why I even became much more disciplined about this newsletter... it's a movement (not just a book).

📖 For Catalysts, the book is the hook.

🧠 The category is the system.

💸 And the movement is the result.

It's Often the Reluctant Authors Who Become Movements like Maddi Niebanck

When Maddi Niebanck came into my orbit, she wasn’t thinking about building a movement. She was just trying to process her own story. She had been a student of mine at Georgetown: bright and smart, but not particularly standout-ish in class. But at 22, Maddi suffered a massive stroke. Most people wouldn’t have survived. She not only survived but began to write her way through it.

Her first book was about an industry she loved: Fashion. And the book helped her land a job at Hermes. But it wasn't the book that sparked me and others to rally behind her. It was that she decided to write the book, against her doctors wishes, to help her recover from her stroke... faster.

After seeing her journey in the first book, people began to ask for her to talk about her process. That process became her second book, Fast Forward: The Fully Recovered Mindset. It wasn’t meant to be a manifesto. It was a lifeline. A way to show that young stroke survivors didn’t have to accept the grim statistics handed to them. But here’s what happened: the book didn’t just resonate with survivors: it gave them a language, a rallying cry.

Maddi told me in one of our early conversations: “People kept telling me, ‘You’re putting words to what we feel but couldn’t say.’ That’s when I realized this wasn’t just my story... it was our story.”

Her book was polished corporate-speak; it was real, raw, and rallying. And suddenly Maddi was being pulled into a leadership role she never planned: building communities of stroke survivors, caregivers, and young people facing sudden trauma.

That’s the essence of the Catalyst persona. Maddi didn’t build a business plan first. She wrote a book that became a banner. And once the banner was raised, people started gathering around it.

Name What Was Hidden like Valeria Aloe

Valeria Aloe is one of my favorite stories because she shows how a book can be both deeply personal and radically catalytic.

Her book Uncolonized Latinas began as a passion project. She was tired of watching incredibly capable Latinas undervalue themselves in professional spaces, staying quiet when they should be speaking up. In her own words, from one of our sessions: “I kept hearing the same phrase over and over: ‘I don’t feel like I belong at the table.’ And I thought, if we all feel this way, the problem isn’t us. The problem is the table.”

So she wrote the book. And here’s what’s fascinating: the moment she named the problem, she created a movement. Suddenly, organizations wanted her to speak. Communities formed around her frameworks. Other Latinas began writing to her, saying, “You’ve described my life. You’ve given me permission to name what I couldn’t.”

Valeria didn’t just stop with the book. She built the Rising Together movement, the Latino Career Assessment tool, runs cohorts, and consults with companies. But the center of it all is the identity her book unlocked. She gave people language, and once they had that, they wanted to gather.

She told me that in today's politically charged environment, her work has become harder, making it even more important.

That’s the Catalyst playbook: your book isn’t the end. It’s the ignition. The real work starts when people begin to see themselves in your words and organize around them.

Catalysts at Scale: Lessons from Arianna Huffington & Simon Sinek

If Maddi and Valeria show us the grassroots version of Catalyst authorship, Arianna Huffington and Simon Sinek show us what happens when you scale it.

Arianna told me when she visited our Modern Author community, “When I collapsed from exhaustion, I realized burnout wasn’t my story, it was everyone’s story.” Her book Thrive didn’t just sell copies; it birthed an entire company, Thrive Global. Today, that company builds systems, trainings, and corporate programs around the very ideas she put into print. The book was the spark. The ecosystem became the fire.

Simon Sinek’s story is just as instructive. In his visit to our Modern Author class he said, “Start With Why wasn’t about me. It was about giving people a tool to reframe their work. I just happened to be the messenger.” Think about that. His book created one of the most viral TED Talks in history. But the TED Talk alone wouldn’t have lasted. It was the book, with its clear, repeatable framework, that allowed thousands of leaders, managers, and teachers to carry the “Why” message into their own organizations.

Catalyst authors don’t just build audiences. They build infrastructures for belief.

And because of that, their books have to do more than tell a good story. They have to show a pattern. They have to be designed for replication.

But What's the Catalyst’s Business Model?

Catalysts don’t sell “information.” They sell momentum.

And there can be a bit of a delicate dance for the Catalyst as many times they are appealing to audiences who are underserved, underheard, disenfranchised, or struggling somehow.

That said, Catalysts thing differently about their models.

Their book is the ignition switch. But the real revenue comes from how they package the movement around it, and often this persona requires a suite of offerings:
• Events & Summits → Paid tickets, sponsorships, and partnership deals. (Think: Arianna Huffington’s Thrive events.)
• Membership Communities → A cause-driven membership base with monthly or annual dues.
• Campaign Partnerships → Corporate sponsors backing the message (diversity, wellness, resilience, etc.).
• Certification Models → Training others to spread the mission (facilitators, ambassadors).
• Media & Influence → Podcasting, shows, newsletters that extend the reach of the movement.
• Advisory & Policy Work → For some Catalysts, the book becomes their entrée into governmental, nonprofit, or board-level influence.

The difference? Where a Teacher monetizes through curriculum, and a Builder monetizes through tools, the Catalyst monetizes through scale of belief.

The more people who buy into the cause, the more valuable their ecosystem becomes.

How to Write a Catalyst Book That Actually Sparks Change

This is where too many authors go wrong. They write memoirs of struggle, or collections of inspiration, but they don’t design for adoption.

A great Catalyst book has to do three things:

1. Name the Movement

People rally behind language. “Start With Why.” “Uncolonized Latinas.” “Stroke of Luck.” "Modern Author." Without a name, your movement is just a feeling.

2. Show the Pattern, Not Just the Story

Your story matters, but the framework is what spreads. Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle wasn’t just his experience. It was a pattern others could apply. Valeria Aloe turned her personal story into the archetype of systemic barriers Latinas face, and then provided the framework for dismantling them.

3. Engineer On-Ramps

A Catalyst book should feel like an invitation. → “Join this circle.” → “Start this challenge.” → “Bring this to your company.” You’re not just teaching. You’re handing people the first steps to join the cause.

The Unsexy Ops Behind Every Movement

Movements can look magical from the outside. But every Catalyst I’ve worked with knows the truth: if you don’t operationalize, it fizzles.

What this looks like in practice:
• Volunteer → Leader Ladders: How do excited readers grow into facilitators? Maddi Niebanck didn’t just speak to stroke survivors. She built pathways for them to become advocates, teachers, and peer leaders.
• Cadence of Touchpoints: Weekly emails, monthly calls, annual summits. The heartbeat of a movement matters.
• Clear Playbooks: Scripts, slides, and toolkits so people can host events in their own communities.
• Measurement: Arianna once said, “We measure what we value.” Thrive didn’t just preach wellbeing. It measured sleep, burnout, and engagement to show progress.

Catalysts are part author, part activist, part COO. If you don’t structure the back end, the front end flames out.

Here are the mistakes I see most often:
• Memoir Trap: You write the story of your struggle but forget the pattern that makes it replicable.
• Over-Reliance on You: If you’re the only torchbearer, the fire dies when you stop showing up.
• No Invitation Architecture: Without rituals to invite others in, growth stalls.
• Fuzzy Outcomes: Movements without a clear “win condition” fade fast.
• Chasing Virality Instead of Depth: Catalysts need staying power, not fleeting attention.

The “Catalyst-Ready” Book Checklist

Here’s how we evaluate Catalyst manuscripts inside the Modern Author Accelerator:

✅ Movement has a clear, memorable name
✅ Book frames the issue and the path forward (story + pattern)
✅ First three chapters include simple on-ramps for readers
✅ Tools provided for grassroots action (kits, scripts, guides)
✅ Stories highlight community adoption, not just author experience
✅ Invitation rituals baked in (challenges, bring-a-friend, events)
✅ Clear next steps to deepen (summit, membership, certification)
✅ Metrics defined for tracking impact & credibility

If a reader can’t take action with others within 7 days of finishing your book? It’s not Catalyst-ready yet.

What's Next & My Final Thought

Let me bring this home.

Movements don’t spread because of passion alone. They spread because they’re designed.

Maddi Niebanck turned her personal fight into a blueprint for stroke survivors to find each other.
Valeria Aloe didn’t just write about her story. She gave Latina professionals a framework and identity to rally around.
Arianna Huffington and Simon Sinek? They’re proof that when you name the movement and systematize the spread, your ideas outlast you.

That’s the Catalyst difference.

📖 Your book is the hook. 🧠 Your persona is the system. 💸 Your business model is the result.

If you feel called to spark change, don’t just write your memoir. Architect your movement.

If you’re dreaming of building a book that launches not just readers, but catalyzes your movement… this is the playbook.

Happy Sparking (and Writing), y’all.

Eric

⸻

🟦 This is Part 9 of a 10-Part Series on The Profitable Author. In our last post (next week), we’ll be diving into the Storyteller, breaking down exactly how this persona uses stories as a profit engine and growth system.

📬 Subscribe at www.modernauthorguide.com to get the rest.

🟩 Want help designing a book that catalyzes your movement?

Reply and let’s talk. Or grab 15-minutes... I'd love to chat: https://go.oncehub.com/ManuscriptsBookTopicChatf​