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A self-published book that spent its nine months of writing building a 14,000-person launch list — then used the launch spike to make Amazon stock and promote it.
a top-five Amazon bestseller (he says the only book he could not knock off first place was Elon Musk's) · a follow-up Udemy course voted the number four startup program in the world in 2022 · the book adopted as an MBA course text at California State University · a Forbes interview and print feature
"When I published the book on Amazon, I clicked the button send on Mailchimp. 14,000 emails." Amazon read the launch-day spike as real demand, printed a print-on-demand book into its own warehouse, and started promoting it.
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Donatas Jonikas opens his conference talk by admitting he is the only non-developer in the room — a marketing guy from Lithuania who is, in his words, not even in Vilnius. Then he puts a screenshot of the Amazon bestseller chart on screen. His book, Startup Evolution Curve, sits in the top five; he says the only author he could not knock off the first position was Elon Musk. The mechanism behind that chart is the whole point of the talk. He wrote the book over nine months, and he spent those same nine months building a waiting list of readers. On publication day he clicked send in Mailchimp to 14,000 subscribers, followed by a sequence of five to seven emails over consecutive days: the book is out, here is the best price it will ever be, here are the bonuses, invite friends and get free mentorship. Amazon noticed. It was a self-published print-on-demand title, which normally means a copy is printed, bound and shipped after each order. One reader emailed him confused: he had ordered yesterday and already had a shipping notification. Jonikas checked, and Amazon was showing the book as in stock. The launch spike had convinced the platform to print inventory into its own warehouse and start promoting the title itself. The book became an asset rather than an income line. It brought a Forbes interview and a print feature, recognition in Georgia, Chile, Mexico, Argentina and the United States, and adoption as a course text for MBA students at California State University — a country he says he has never visited. A Udemy course followed, launched the same way off its own waiting list, and was voted the number four startup program in the world in 2022. Today the ladder ends in a paid training and coaching membership for SaaS founders.
The first readers existed before the first chapter was finished. Jonikas treats the waiting list as a parallel project to the product itself: nine months of writing, nine months of list building, and on launch day 14,000 people who had already raised their hand.
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Data credibility: A conference talk by the author about his own products, self-reported and unverified. The Amazon top-five placement is supported only by a screenshot shown on stage, with no category, date or copy count attached; the 14,000-subscriber launch list, the nine-month writing period and the Mailchimp sequence are his own account. The Udemy award — described as being voted the number four best program in the world for startups in 2022 — is relayed from an email he says he received, and the awarding body is never named. The Forbes interview, the print feature and the California State University MBA adoption are likewise stated without references. No revenue figure, royalty, student count or membership number appears anywhere in the talk, which is why this entry carries traction rather than revenue.
The first dollars arrived in a compressed burst rather than a trickle, and the compression was the strategy. One Mailchimp send to 14,000 subscribers on publication day, then five to seven follow-up emails on consecutive days.
The first turn was Amazon's. Hundreds of orders landing within hours convinced the platform that a self-published print-on-demand title had genuine demand, so it printed copies into its own warehouse and began promoting the book on its own surfaces.
Nine months of writing with no readers, no sales and no ranking is a long time to work on faith. What makes the waiting list a survival tool rather than just a launch tactic is that it converts that silence into a daily scoreboard.
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