How David Goggins Turned Down a Big Publisher, Kept His Story, and Sold 3 Million Copies of Can't Hurt Me
David Goggins is a retired Navy SEAL, an ultra-endurance athlete, and one of the most recognized voices in personal discipline on the planet. When a major traditional publisher offered him a multiple six-figure advance for his memoir, he turned it down. He published Can’t Hurt Me with Scribe instead, kept ownership of his story, and made 3.5 times more in royalties on a book that has sold more than 3 million copies.
He turned down a six-figure traditional deal
After Goggins was profiled in Jesse Itzler’s Living With A Seal and started drawing big podcast audiences, the offers came. He had a $300,000 advance on the table from two of the top five publishing houses, as he recounted on the James Altucher Show. For a man who started out as an exterminator making $6.25 an hour, that was about five years of his old military salary in a single check. He turned it down anyway, because the deal meant handing over control of his own life story: “I want to own my own life. I don’t want to have to ask you what to put in my book.”
“I wanted to put myself in it. I didn’t want anybody to own it. This is my life. No one did this but me.”
— David Goggins, on London Real
Why David Goggins chose Scribe
Goggins and his manager researched the details most authors never ask about: royalties, payment terms, and who would own the intellectual property. This was his life, and how it reached the world mattered more than the size of the check. Scribe offered what a traditional deal could not: a full professional team to write, edit, design, and market the book to a bestseller standard, while he kept 100% ownership of his work, his story, and his royalties. That combination, big-publisher quality without giving up control, is why he chose Scribe. He published Can’t Hurt Me in 2018 through Scribe’s Lioncrest imprint.
What owning it was worth
Choosing professional publishing over a traditional deal earned Goggins 3.5 times more in royalties than he would have made otherwise, on a book that hit every bestseller list and has sold more than 3 million copies. It reached #1 on Amazon’s Most Sold list, broke out after a now-legendary Joe Rogan appearance, and still holds a 4.8-star rating from more than 105,000 ratings.
He said as much in the book itself. In the acknowledgments to Can’t Hurt Me, Goggins wrote:
“Finally, my sincere gratitude and appreciation for the amazing team at Scribe Media. From the first contact with Tucker Max to the last and every touch point in between, you and every member of your team over-delivered just as you said you would! Special thanks to the consummate professional Ellie Cole, my Publishing Manager; Zach Obront for helping create an amazing marketing plan; Hal Clifford, my editor; and Erin Tyler, the most talented cover designer I could ever imagine, who helped create the sickest book cover of all time!”
— David Goggins, in the Can’t Hurt Me acknowledgments
Four years later he published his follow-up, Never Finished, with Scribe again, and closed its acknowledgments the same way:
“I thank you and your team for having character. The character to take care, not take advantage, of each and every one of your clients. The work you all do is second to none.”
— David Goggins, in the Never Finished acknowledgments
It gave other authors permission
Clip · Sarma Melngailis on why Goggins’ choice validated her own
Goggins’ decision became a reference point for other authors weighing the same choice. Raw-food entrepreneur and Bad Vegan subject Sarma Melngailis turned down traditional publishing to control her own story, and she has said Goggins’ path is what made her sure. Even Adam Skolnick, the writer who helped Goggins turn his spoken story into Can’t Hurt Me, went on to publish his own debut with Scribe.
Sources: Robb Report, Amazon, Lioncrest, Scribe’s Author Hour, London Real, the Can’t Hurt Me and Never Finished acknowledgments, the James Altucher Show, and the Sarma Melngailis clip.
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