Lilly Singh’s Books

When Lilly Singh’s first “book brand” came into being it did so in the most literal way possible: through a book. How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life was published on March 28, 2017 — a 336‑page, Ballantine Books release that turned an internet catchphrase into an entry ticket to mainstream publishing and live events. The decision to write a business‑friendly self‑help/memoir was not accidental: Singh had spent most of the 2010s converting audience attention into revenue, and when publishers began knocking she says she waited to write until she felt she had “something to say that deserved to be in a book.” The launch was built as a cross‑platform moment: book, #BawseBook tour and merchandising, backed by a global audience cultivated on YouTube and social channels. ([penguinrandomhouse.com](^[1]), [teenvogue.com](^[2]))

The earliest forays that would later be folded into the books brand began before the hardcover hit shelves. In May 2016 Singh partnered with Smashbox on a limited‑edition liquid lipstick shade called “Bawse” — a commercial brand tie‑in that demonstrates how she treated creative IP (a phrase, an attitude, a color) as cross‑sellable product early on. That collaboration illustrated the playbook that would define Lilly Singh’s Books: text as platform and platform as funnel to other revenue lines. ([prnewswire.com](^[3]))

From a celebrity‑brand standpoint, Singh has been unusually hands‑on. The author credit and public interviews show she wrote, curated visuals, and toured speaking to the book’s ideas; later initiatives (a second title, a virtual book club and a production arm) were developed under her creative umbrella. Her credibility stemmed from a genuine origin story — videos started in 2010 while she was studying psychology and coping with depression — and from demonstrable audience scale: by the mid‑2010s she was regularly listed among Forbes’ highest‑paid YouTube stars, which translated into leverage at publishers and brands that were eager for built‑in reach. That mix of authorship plus distribution muscle made Singh more than a licensing face; she was an active architect of the books business. ([forbes.com](^[4]), [penguinrandomhouse.com](^[1]))

The business journey for Lilly Singh’s Books was pragmatic and iterative rather than the outcome of a single corporate plan. Key strategic moves: (1) sign with a major trade publisher (Ballantine/Penguin Random House for How to Be a Bawse), which gave immediate global bookstore distribution and publicity muscle; (2) convert the book into a touring live property (the #BawseBook Tour in Spring 2017, which took the book’s concepts onstage internationally); (3) extend the IP with product partnerships (for example Smashbox in 2016) and digital community plays (a dedicated book microsite and later Lilly’s Library, a virtual book club); and (4) fold publishing into a broader content business anchored by Unicorn Island Productions, a production company Singh founded in 2018 to develop scripted and unscripted adaptations and children’s projects. Those moves connected retail book sales to live ticketing, brand partnerships, and TV/streaming deals. ([penguinrandomhouse.com](^[1]), [acappellabooks.com](^[5]), [prnewswire.com](^[3]), [bellmedia.ca](^[6]))

Not everything went smoothly. The publishing market is opaque on economics: neither public sales tallies nor Lilly’s publisher discloses an item‑by‑item revenue breakdown or a book advance publicly available in press records, which leaves outsiders estimating ROI from bestseller positions and tour sell‑outs rather than wholesale figures. The second problem was timing: Lilly’s pivot into mainstream television with NBC’s A Little Late (premiered September 16, 2019) required time and attention that competed with authorial work and promotion cycles; the show was canceled in 2021, and that reshuffle of priorities affected the cadence of book‑centric activity. Finally, celebrity authorship attracts both intense fandom and amplified criticism: some reviewers questioned the depth of advice in How to Be a Bawse and the trade press has debated how much of the book’s success was organic versus platform‑driven. Those frictions didn’t derail the franchise but they shaped the strategy — more emphasis on community programming and IP development, and more conservative commitments on release timing. ([en.wikipedia.org](^[7]), [buzzfeednews.com](^[8]))

The accomplishments are concrete. How to Be a Bawse reached the New York Times bestseller list following its March 2017 release and won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Nonfiction in 2017; the book’s visibility supported a worldwide tour (the #BawseBook Tour, March–May 2017) and multiple international bookstore appearances, including a 2,000‑person crowd in Sharjah in November 2018 reported by regional press. A follow‑up book, Be a Triangle: How I Went from Being Lost to Getting My Life into Shape, was published on April 5, 2022 — a tight‑format, 112‑page primer that reintroduced her writing with a mental‑health and systems‑approach framing. Beyond print, Singh used the book platform to seed Lilly’s Library, a virtual book club launched ahead of the 2022 title to spotlight South Asian authors and funnel readers back into the brand’s cause and commerce ecosystem. On the corporate side, Unicorn Island Productions (founded 2018) struck development and first‑look deals — for example a Blink49/Bell Media pact announced July 20, 2022 — positioning book IP for adaptation. ([penguinrandomhouse.com](^[1]), [goodreads.com](^[9]), [thenationalnews.com](^[10]), [randomhousebooks.com](^[11]), [newsroom.spotify.com](^[12]), [broadwayworld.com](^[13]))

What differentiated Lilly Singh’s Books in a crowded celebrity‑author market was an attention to platform mechanics. Practically every element — the book’s short, shareable chapters; a bright visual design; preorders amplified through YouTube; ticketed live events built on the book’s themes; and tactical brand tie‑ins (cosmetics, merchandise, and social commerce links that routed revenue back to causes and production) — was optimized for virality and funnel conversion. The Lilly’s Library book club is an explicit example of audience recycling: selections amplify underrepresented writers and, when fans buy through Lilly’s channels, a portion funnels to Unicorn Island Fund or to publishers’ promotions, creating both cultural capital and measurable book demand. ([penguinrandomhouse.com](^[1]), [prnewswire.com](^[3]), [linktr.ee](^[14]))

Today the books arm is part of a larger entrepreneurial portfolio: as of 2022 the publishing timeline shows two trade titles (2017 and 2022), a book club launched in 2021, and a production pipeline via Unicorn Island that treats written IP as source material for TV and kids’ content. There is no public evidence that Lilly Singh’s Books exists as an independent legal company with a valuation disclosed in financial filings; instead it operates as an intellectual‑property cluster within Lilly Singh’s creator enterprise — a hybrid of author brand, touring business, product collaborations and production development. That positioning has short‑term upside (built‑in audiences, cross‑sell) and long‑term risk (publisher dependence, attention‑driven demand cycles). ([penguinrandomhouse.com](^[1]), [bellmedia.ca](^[6]))

If the brand offers a mini curriculum for other celebrity entrepreneurs it would read like this: (1) convert audience trust into a clear product proposition (Singh’s tone and “Bawse” ethos matched a digestible self‑help book); (2) design for cross‑platform monetization from day one (touring, merchandise, product tie‑ins); (3) avoid treating publisher advance or bestseller status as the only KPIs — invest instead in repeatable community programming (book clubs, local events) that sustains long‑term demand; and (4) plan for attention risk — when TV or other high‑opportunity projects divert the founder, backfill operational capability or risk brand stagnation. Lilly Singh’s Books is instructive because it shows how creator brands can make a credible move into trade publishing — but also how that success requires continuous product and community work, not just a viral launch. ([teenvogue.com](^[2]), [newsroom.spotify.com](^[12]))

• May 13, 2016: Smashbox collaboration — Smashbox launched a limited‑edition Always On Matte Liquid Lipstick shade “Bawse” in partnership with Lilly Singh, an early example of turning book‑era IP into product.
• March 28, 2017: Publication of How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life (Ballantine Books / Penguin Random House).
• May 2017 (reported May 16, 2017): How to Be a Bawse achieved New York Times bestseller status in the weeks following its release, establishing the title as a mainstream hit.
• December 5, 2017: How to Be a Bawse won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Nonfiction (2017), a reader‑driven recognition that amplified social proof.
• 2018 (company founding): Founding of Unicorn Island Productions — Singh formalized a production company (Unicorn Island) to develop adaptations and original content tied to her IP and brand.
• September 16, 2019: Lilly Singh premiered NBC’s late‑night show A Little Late with Lilly Singh (the profile boost changed how her books and publishing deals were marketed in subsequent years).
• April 5, 2022: Publication of Be a Triangle: How I Went from Being Lost to Getting My Life into Shape, a 112‑page follow‑up that reframed Singh’s authorial voice toward mental‑health and systems thinking.
• July 20, 2022: Unicorn Island Productions entered a development/pact with Blink49 Studios and Bell Media (first‑look/scripted & second‑look/unscripted deals), signaling the intention to adapt written IP into TV and other formats.