Layoff Leads Journalist to Build Kindle eBook Empire

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

When people think about starting some kind of business, one of the first concerns they often have is about risk. Now, a lot of my work, whether it's in my books or through Side Hustle School, is about helping you reframe and reduce that concern. Very often, what we imagine to be risky is actually quite safe. And what we think might be safe could actually be risky, such as, you know, depending on a company, depending on a corporation or a government or an organization for your economic wellbeing. That is risky.

You need more than one source of income, which is what Side Hustle School is all about. So today I wanna introduce you to a concept called the power of reversible decisions. I'll dissect it a bit more at the end of the episode. The short version is that if you choose a project that allows you to change course as you go along, so you're not locked in, then you can reduce your risk even further. Now, in the story you'll hear, a layoff and lifestyle change leads a journalist to build a Kindle ebook empire.

Cracking the code of self-publishing, she now earns up to $7,000 a month publishing niche e-books. I have been an author myself for a decade, but since I don't publish books this way, I even learned a couple of things about Kindle Direct Publishing that I didn't know previously. There are always new things you can learn. I learn new stuff almost every day as I work on these episodes for you. So I'm glad you're here.

My name is Chris Guillebeau. This episode is coming up in just 30 seconds. Layoff leads journalists to build Kindle ebook empire. [Music]

We don't all get into side hustling for the same reason. Some of us want to leave our day jobs, others just want extra income.

For Kyla Gardner, it was all about having the freedom and flexibility to go where she wanted, when she wanted. Kyla earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northern Illinois University and then snagged a job as a reporter at an online news startup in Chicago. She covered breaking news, local crime and human interest features. She liked the work, but something was missing. So she made a big change, signing on to a customer service role that involved three months of training in Vietnam before working as a remote employee.

She got the freedom she wanted from that job and worked there until she was let go. Good thing she'd already been side hustling for nine months. It all started with a coworker. When Kyla found out he was making $1,500 a month publishing Kindle eBooks, her interest was peaked. He lent her $100 Kindle course he had learned from and she took the plunge.

She admits that most of what the course covered could probably be found on the internet for free, but having it all organized in one package made things easier. She learned about finding a profitable niche and optimizing your Amazon listing for keyword rankings. Then she began to experiment, writing short how-to guides in the form of eBooks that she listed for sale on the platform. It took six months and her first two eBooks before she made a total of $60 in royalty payments. Small as the amount was, that was the moment Kyla realized that Kindle publishing could actually be a viable income.

Back home for the holidays and still working that full-time customer service gig, she told the first person she could, her mom. Her mom's response was, "Well, that's a start." What Kyla learned in the online course was helpful, but an online course can't teach grit and determination. That's the kind of thing you can only learn on the ground. And Kyla admits that in those first six months, she had a hard time persisting. She almost gave up multiple times and only kept going after friends encouraged her to stick with it.

Her background in journalism taught her about keeping the deadlines and writing quickly. She also found an accountability partner who was also experimenting with Kindle eBooks and they had a friendly competition to see who would publish first. One of the keys Kyla discovered to publishing on Kindle is the importance of topical research. That's because the market is huge. To make sure her title stand out, she looks for an underserved niche and then pays attention to the negative reviews for books already written in that field.

And that's how she discovers what people are missing and what they want so that she can write something that fills that gap. It's not just about writing for the general market. This strategy finds people who are already hungry for what she's going to write. After that comes the writing itself. Those first two eBooks took her six months.

Now, because she's writing quickly and because she's writing short guides, more on that in a moment, she can get one out the door and onto Kindle in a week. This quick turnaround gives her the ability to conduct more experiments, seeing what works with which topic and then adjusting to the market. She often experiments by writing a guide that's only about 7,000 words or 35 pages. Then if it starts to sell, she can go back and double the size, charging a higher price. This business model is extremely low risk.

You might not be profitable from the beginning, but as long as you've done the right research, it's hard to lose money writing for Kindle. Kyla's first book costs were $100 on custom illustrations and then $10 for a cover design. That was it. So what are the results? Well, Kyla now has even more freedom to travel and live where she likes, all while writing about topics that she enjoys.

She's published more than 50 of these short eBooks since her side hustle became her full-time job in 2017. When she first made the transition, nine months after she started, she was making $350 a month. And now she makes between $3,500 to $7,000 a month in net income. For a while, she considered growing more of a team to outsource the writing and production, but now she says she generally prefers to do whatever she can on her own. Since she learned she doesn't love being a manager.

She's now transitioning from the world of writing how to and self-help under pseudonyms to writing fiction under her own name. She's already published "Great Hound at the Grave Site," a cozy murder mystery, and is working on "Guru," a suspense novel about digital nomads trying to survive a nightmare in Thailand. If all goes well, it will be a bestseller on Kindle. [Music]

So I use this phrase at the top of the episode, "The power of reversible decisions." This is something that Kyla talked about in our interview with her. She says, "With Kindle publishing, "you can often change directions or subjects "until you find something that works.

"So it's a business with many of these reversible decisions. "You don't need to be locked into something "that's not working." And in her case, she says that she's published eBooks that failed terribly, at least at first, but then she unpublished them, chose some new titles, keywords, and covers, then republished them, and then they started selling. So in other words, it's easy to keep trying different things with trial and error. If you can find a business model, whether it's this one or something else, that offers many of these reversible decisions, then you're gonna reduce your risk even further. Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, there's a couple of others from the recent archives you should check out.

Number 906, "Software Engineer" sells 64,000 copies of "Anne of Green Gables." That's all about selling public domain works. And then 942, "Paternal Twins" produce passive publishing profits, which is pretty similar to what Kyla is doing, just with different titles and a slightly different approach. There's always something you can learn. There's always something you can try. There's always one more step to get closer to that thing that you believe in.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to everything mentioned here, are at sidehustleschool.com/1006, episode 1006. Thanks so much for listening. Be sure you're subscribed. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]