This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This podcast is called Side Hustle School. I've been making it every single day since January 1, 2017.
And our whole purpose, our whole mission, our intention is to shine a spotlight on all the different creative ways that you can make extra money. And not just make extra money, but also do something creative, do something different. Create some kind of new future for yourself. Perhaps even. Sometimes people just wanna make $500 or $1,000 a month.
Sometimes people are trying to make a lot of money and quit their job. Sometimes people just like the idea of doing something that's different from their day job. And if you can do something that you enjoy that makes the world better in some way and also get paid for it, well, I think that's a wonderful thing. Okay, so that's what we're all about here. In today's story, when the global pandemic began, you know which one I'm talking about?
Oh, that's right, I'm pretty sure you do. Okay, when the global pandemic began, a healthcare agency owner set out to explain it to kids through the form of an entertaining story. This is effectively a case study in a self-published children's book, going to market within 60 days on a relevant topic. 60 days of having the idea and actually having the book out in the world, pretty cool. There's several lessons learned along the way, so we'll look at them all.
The book is called "The Amazing Zoe Defeats the Jeremy Gremlins." And the story is called "Healthcare Worker Publishers Children's Book on Epidemiology." Isn't that a word that we are all so familiar with now? All right, that story's coming up in just 30 seconds after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]
When the first lockdown for COVID-19 hit, Beline Campbell knew she needed a new plan to make money. As the founder of a home healthcare agency in Toronto, Canada, you'd think she would be well positioned for this time. But home healthcare wasn't what people wanted and client referrals were going down.
Beline couldn't afford gaps in her income, especially as a single parent. So the first part was simple. She needed a new gig. The second part was harder. What would it be?
She had to think quickly and come up with something that wouldn't require her to purchase equipment. Right around then, Beline went on a walk that would change her life. She was taking her daughter out for a stroll when they noticed a young boy sitting on a porch facing a window and talking to someone. When she took a closer look, she saw there was another little boy on the other side of the glass. They were playing cards, separated by the glass for the sake of social distancing, but still able to play.
Beline was impressed by how they were making the best of a bad situation. It also made her wonder about how children were handling the pandemic. Her daughter was just a few months old. So she thought, thank goodness, I don't have to explain this right now, but other kids may need some help understanding. That's when she had her first big idea, to write a children's book to explain epidemiology.
And she wondered who her main character would be. At first, she thought she'd choose an animal, a common technique of children's books. Would it be a squirrel, a dog, maybe an insect? Then she looked down at her daughter and realized that there were no books on her shelf with a main character that looked like her. I should mention here that Beline is black.
As part of her research, she discovered that according to one study, only 23% of children's books featured non-white characters. With that insight, she opened the Notes app on her phone on April 1st, 2020, and started writing "The Amazing Zoe" to feets the germy gremlins. Once she was finished writing, she broke down the story scene by scene. And then she began to search for an illustrator. She asked herself, if someone was unable to read, how could we use images to tell this story?
She looked for her illustrator on Facebook groups and several freelance sites. And the range of costs she found was tremendous, from $400 on up to $10,000 or more. She now suggests if you have a tight budget, set that budget before you start looking, and then look for samples of illustrations you like at that price point. She also says there isn't a good or bad price to spend, but if you don't have $10,000, for example, don't look at the portfolios of people who charge $10,000. Next in line was sourcing an editor, and she decided to get quotes from three.
This is a practice she follows in several areas of life, whether she needs work done in her car, her home renovations. Beline thought it was particularly important to hear from three editors because writing is so subjective. She wanted to make sure she had the right tone for a children's book. The price range she encountered for editing was $60 to $400, and she opted for a mid-range option. Finally, she needed a designer to correctly size the pages and make sure the text was laid out well.
She approached this the same way she did hiring an illustrator, by joining Facebook groups and asking questions. She found a lot of people willing to help with a price range from $100 to once again, $400. Now at that point, the amazing Zoe defeats the Jeremy Grimlins could officially come to life, but how would she print it? The printer she looked into required a few thousand dollars up front. That wasn't in her budget, so Beline decided to learn about various print on demand services to get more bang for her book.
With that option, she would only have to pay for each copy that was sold. Ultimately, her total startup costs were more than she anticipated, at around $2,200. Beline says that she stuck with one editor too long, who was a little too inflexible for her. So if she could do it again, she'd move on sooner. Still, the amazing Zoe was published in May 2020, less than two months after she first had the idea.
She was able to reach her audience through social media, connecting with librarians and elementary school teachers, word of mouth and a newsletter. The best part, none of those options cost money. And that's not all. Once she had some experience, Beline realized that she had a lot more stories she wanted to tell. She began working on her second book, "The Amazing Zoe, A Queen Like Me," which addresses the topic of unconscious bias around race.
This book was ready a few months later in September. Now at this point, Beline is basking in the story of her success, two stories actually. The project is bringing in $700 a month so far. She's experimenting with Amazon ads to increase sales further. She's got two more children's books in the works and is planning to launch a media house to help other self-published authors.
It's a series of moves in the right direction. [Music]
Thank you for listening to today's story. There really is something everyone can do, whether it's writing a children's book or something entirely different, whatever your idea is. If you're still figuring out your idea, that's okay too, 'cause I'm trying to present lots of different ideas through the whole process of the show and not just the idea, but the process behind it and what are the practical steps and how do you go from, well, idea to income. Let's say idea to income in a pretty short period of time.
Two months, less than two months for a self-published children's book. That's pretty cool. Check out Beline's work@belinecampbell.com. We're gonna link it up on the show notes page, of course. That page is at sidehustleschool.com/1555, 1555.
And don't forget, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Think about what you heard and ask how it might apply to your life. If you've got a comment or question for the show, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. All right, that's it for me today, but I hope you'll join me tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School.
[Music]
From the Onward Project.
