In just seven years, David Bach has sold four million copies of his six personal finance books. His million-copy breakout, The Automatic Millionaire, also got Oprah Winfrey's nod and he's currently appearing on her show in a seven-part series with two other money advisers. Though the former Morgan Stanley v-p isn't a household name yet, at age 39 he's at least 15 years younger than category top dogs Robert Kiyosaki and Suze Orman, and he isn't content to simply nip at their heels.

To fulfill his ambition to inspire wealth-building among as many Americans as possible, Bach has put as much emphasis on strategic relationships as he has on his media bona fides. As part of Bach's new three-year partnership with the country's No. 1 retail lender, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage will give away a staggering 750,000 trade paperback copies of Bach's newest book, The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner, to prospective mortgage buyers. And according to Borders and B&N, that giveaway is likely to fire up buzz for the 350,000-copy first printing of the $19.95 hardcover, on sale March 7.

For Bach, the upside of the partnership goes well beyond any money he's making on the premium paperbacks to give him a platform that's almost unimaginable for most authors. In exchange for Bach's help in appealing to the 32% of Americans who aren't currently planning to get off the rental track, the bank is underwriting a 15-city tour that's expected to draw a total of 30,000 to convention centers where Bach will make one-hour inspirational speeches. (Those events, along with more than 100 workshops introduced by a short motivational video featuring Bach, will also include real estate fairs with Wells Fargo reps and local realtors.) Wells Fargo is also putting up the $250,000 prize for Bach's trademarked Great American Homeowner Challenge, aimed at turning 10 million renters into homeowners, as well as sponsoring a massive Web banner, radio and print ad campaign for the contest.

Bach says he sought out the relationship with Wells Fargo partly out of frustration with publisher Doubleday/Broadway. "Relying on publishers is not the way," he said, to achieve his mission to increase the financial literacy of Americans. "And publishers need to understand that relying on Oprah is not the way" to publicize books, he added. "Why is it the only industry left that spends 4% of its budget on ads, versus 20% or more everywhere else?"

Doubleday/Broadway publisher Steve Rubin acknowledged that Bach is a "demanding" author and said that he "welcomes the challenge" Bach presents to publishing as usual. However, aside from printing the premium paperbacks for Bach to resell to Wells Fargo, the house isn't doing much out of the ordinary.

Is there a downside for a financial advice author in pursuing a partnership with a profit-making institution? The issue comes down to whether the relationship creates a perception that Bach's advice is in any way dictated by corporate interests, and how he discloses his association with Wells Fargo, said Ronald Duska, director of the American College Center for Ethics in Financial Services.

Though Bach negotiated the partnership with the bank while he was writing the book, he maintains that it did not influence how he delivers his advice on how to research, prepare for and negotiate a mortgage deal. "I don't promote their mortgages, or any investment product," he said. In the book, Bach refers to Wells Fargo in a list of 16 reputable mortgage providers and briefly in the acknowledgments as one of the contest sponsors; the bank's logo is also on a blow-in card advertising the American Homeowner Challenge. But he doesn't go out of his way in the video he taped for the bank to say that he isn't endorsing Well Fargo, according to Well Fargo Home Mortgage senior v-p Nancy Brennan.

Ultimately, it will be up to consumers—or perhaps Oprah—to decide if that's going far enough. Judging by Suze Orman's book sales—which have remained strong even though Orman was censured in the media for allowing mortgage consulting service Lending Tree to sponsor her 2003 book tour and for endorsing a General Motors car-financing plan in 2004—Bach may not have too much to lose.