This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Hey there and welcome back. I'm Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. Now I know you like listening to podcasts, or at least this one. Do you also like to read? I was always
a big reader. As a kid, books, along with video games, were some of my closest friends. And to this day, I still try to read at least one book a week. I mostly read literary fiction myself. I just finished reading The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. I'm in the middle
of The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker. Sometimes I also read genre fiction, which is known as popular fiction, tends to be divided into categories, mystery, fantasy, romance, science fiction. I just try to read widely. So I'm not really a huge genre fiction reader, but some people are very passionate about their field of interest when it comes to these genres. So if you're a romance novelist reader, you don't just read one romance novel. You probably
read a lot. You probably have several favorite authors. Those authors probably write series or at least multiple books with different stories. Same for the other genres. And wherever people are avid consumers or fans of something, there's an opportunity to create product and services for them. So today's story is about a Colorado scientist who starts a bi-monthly
science fiction magazine and builds it to a sustainable income source of about $1,800 a month funded largely by his readers. I'll tell you all about it right after this. In beautiful Boulder, Colorado, there are 300 days of sun every year. But Joe Steck sees many of them from his desk. He works as a scientist for a software company, and his experience has led him to an appreciation for the kind of science fiction that is almost believable. In the industry, this is called hard science fiction, and it features an attempt
by the writer to be credible and rigorous in the use of scientific knowledge. More about current technology, less about alien visitation. One day, Joe had the idea to create an online magazine devoted to supporting the kind of writing he enjoyed. He decided he'd do it for three issues and then evaluate. If it was working for him, great. If not, well,
that had been an experiment. The number three was important because Joe knew that he couldn't judge success by the first issue alone. Inevitably, he'd make mistakes that he could correct for the second one. But if it still wasn't working after issue number three, he knew it would be a long road ahead, so he'd be better off trying something else. To get started, he created a landing page inviting people to participate, either as readers or writers.
He then posted that link to Hacker News, a popular online publication. In a number of prospective authors signed up, as well as a list of people who just wanted to subscribe. As he was preparing for his first issue, Joe thought about how he'd distribute the stories. He settled on a model of recruiting readers as supporters. Every story can be read for free on his website, compellingsciencefiction.com, or they can be purchased at a low price for reading on Kindle. He also started a Patreon account at patreon.com. Now, this is a service
that allows artists and creators of all kinds to receive regular financial support from the people who appreciate their work. It's kind of like a Kickstarter, but not for one-off contributions or regular, usually monthly, contributions. So people make pledges and their accounts are debited, then the funds are transferred to the creator. Joe was setting all that up at the same time he was reviewing submissions from writers. After listing his new project on a writer's directory, he received more than 200 stories. And he read every single
one of them, in search of the five stories that would be chosen for the first issue. Over time, he learned that he could quickly tell if a story was worthy of publication in his new magazine. But for his first issue, he wanted to be especially diligent. He discovered it did indeed take a lot of time to read all those stories. Still, quality came first.
He wanted to make something he was really proud of. Joe published his first issue to his first batch of subscribers, and he found that he actually hadn't made a lot of mistakes. His biggest one was trying to carefully read each submission, but even that gave him some good information for moving forward. The launch was featured in Hacker News again, which gave him a strong enough base to move forward beyond that go or no go zone of issue number three. He's now published six issues, one every other month, and he's earning just under $2,000 each time. This is a passion project, not something he needs to make money from, but
the regular extra income is both helpful and motivating. Now, this site earns money three different ways. First of all, from that Patreon funding, which is the most important source, the way he set up his campaign, you can pledge as little as $3.60 per issue. And he has about 200 subscribers who've made that commitment. Some are paying more than $3.60. That's just
the minimum. And he also offers a larger underwriting option of $360, where you can fully support one of the stories in a particular issue. Second, each issue is also available as a one-off purchase on Amazon's Kindle platform. That brings in around $300 or so a month from people who aren't subscribers. And last, he began offering sponsorships for companies and small businesses to support each issue. And that's brought in another steady source
of income. Nothing huge, but steady and consistent. Other marketing efforts have not been as successful. He's tried Google AdWords and podcast interviews without seeing a ton of response, but he's still experimenting. So as Joe moves forward, he's planning to regroup and see where else to focus his efforts as he continues reading and curating his favorite science fiction stories for the magazine and its readers.
Well, just like yesterday, this story is another example of someone making money doing something they love. And they're not dependent on it, but they're having fun and getting paid. I don't think I've mentioned Patreon before. It's spelled P-A-T-R-E-O-N, patreon.com. And as I said, it's like Kickstarter, but for recurring regular contributions. The platform
is focused on artists, but they define artists quite broadly. So if you're considering a crowdfunding campaign or you're just an artist who wants more sustainable income, consider taking a look. And if you're in that situation and trying to decide, well, what's better, Kickstarter or Patreon, ask yourself, are you making something once and then it's done like a product or are you making something that will be published over and over or recreated over and over like Joe's science fiction magazine? If you're making a product and then it's done, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, something like that might be better. But if you're making regular work like the magazine, then Patreon might be worth a look. This was episode number 103.
We are rolling along. To find the show notes for today, check out Joe's site, read more about Patreon, just come to sidehustleschool.com/103. Thank you for listening. More stories are on the way. I'm Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.
