Entrepreneur Press Acquires Fandom Playbook and Fanocracy Paperback From David Meerman Scott, Adding an AI Chatbot Companion

Entrepreneur Press Acquires David Meerman Scott's The Fandom Playbook and Launches an AI Learning Companion

Entrepreneur Press has acquired two titles from international bestselling author David Meerman Scott: a new paperback edition of Fanocracy and a major new work, The Fandom Playbook, scheduled for mid-2026. The Playbook will be paired with an interactive AI chatbot built with Cone.ai and fine-tuned on Scott's decades of work.

For creatives and writers, this move signals a practical model for turning books into ongoing learning experiences-without giving up creative control.

What's new

• Two releases: Fanocracy (new paperback edition) and The Fandom Playbook (print + AI companion).
• AI companion: A "walled-garden" chatbot trained on Scott's content, including Fanocracy, blog posts, speeches, and select podcasts.
• Release window: Mid-2026 for both books and the AI tool.
• Partners: Entrepreneur Press (published by Advantage Media) and Cone.ai.

Why this matters to creatives and writers

Books don't have to stop at the last page. This model turns your IP into an interactive learning product that answers reader questions in real time and helps them implement your ideas.

Scott's approach also prioritizes author control. By fine-tuning AI on his own content, he keeps ownership central while scaling teaching and community-building.

How The Fandom Playbook was built

• Source material: Fanocracy plus millions of words from Scott's original work-20+ years of blogs, written content, talk transcripts, and curated podcast episodes.
• Structured learning: Cone.ai and a team of learning experts (instructional designers and psychometricians) created a first draft of frameworks, checklists, brainstorming tools, and exercises.
• Author-led refinement: Scott edited, added stories, and reshaped the tools for clarity and usefulness.

What readers will get

• Always-on guidance: The AI companion answers questions as readers apply concepts from The Fandom Playbook.
• Actionable tools: Frameworks, checklists, and exercises to build deeper fan relationships around a brand, product, person, or idea.

Key quotes

"This use of AI is a milestone in the publishing world, an opportunity for authors like me to take control of our creative process," says David Meerman Scott. "That's precisely why this new approach is so important-it puts control over intellectual property back into the hands of the author."

"The Fandom Playbook combines David's powerful voice with learning tools partly created via AI, benefiting people and organizations of all types who want to build fans," says Adam Witty, Founder and CEO of Advantage Media, publisher of Entrepreneur Press.

"It's important that amazing authors like David can keep creative control in the Age of AI," says Jason Freeman, CEO of Cone.ai.

"The Fandom Playbook challenges publishing norms and explores the frontier of how to apply AI to the creative process," adds Paul Roetzer, CEO of SmarterX and host of the Artificial Intelligence Show.

Practical takeaways for your next book or course

• Audit your IP: Identify the articles, talks, posts, and interviews that consistently drive results. This becomes the training corpus for your own assistant.
• Define outcomes: Turn your core ideas into checklists, prompts, and step-by-step exercises readers can act on.
• Protect your data: If you build an assistant, use a walled-garden approach so your content stays private and under your control.
• Co-create, then curate: Let AI draft structures and tools; you add stories, nuance, and edits only you can provide.
• Ship a hybrid: Pair a book or course with an assistant that answers reader questions at the moment of use.

Who's involved

• Author: David Meerman Scott - nearly a million books sold in 30 languages; author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, Fanocracy, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, Marketing the Moon, and Newsjacking.
• Publisher: Entrepreneur Press, published by Advantage Media.
• AI Partner: Cone.ai - building an active learning model and walled-garden application for this project.

If you want to build your own assistant or AI-powered companion

Strengthen your skills with curated training for creative pros and authors. Explore job-focused AI learning paths at Complete AI Training.

Release timing

The Fandom Playbook (print) and its interactive AI companion, along with the new paperback of Fanocracy, are expected in mid-2026.

Contact

Media Inquiries
Miguel A. Casellas-Gil
mcasellas-gil@theauthoritycompany.com
+1 813-395-9362