This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
How can an author succeed in this day and age? Welcome, friends, welcome listeners. So glad you're out there. My name's Chris Guillebeau. We've got a caller today who has been working on their first novel, and she doesn't want it to be confined to a drawer or a file on her computer forever.
In fact, she wants to sell this novel. She wants other people to be able to read it, which seems like a good goal to me, right? You spend a long time writing a book. You want people to read it. But she's also feeling a little discouraged because so many books are commercially unsuccessful.
So what should she consider? How, as I said, can an author succeed in this day and age? This is a question that is near and dear to my heart. As an author myself, I love the world of books. It's not necessarily the most profitable medium.
And in fact, in some ways you could say that many other mediums have more profit potential, but I think that doesn't mean that every book is destined to be stuck in that drawer or published and not read by anyone, and books are very special. I still believe very much in the value of reading books. So in this episode, let's look briefly at the current landscape. I'll try to kind of stay focused because I could talk about books for a long time, and I want to get you something that is action-packed and quick. Focused around that question, how is it possible for an author to succeed today?
And not just today, but hopefully in the near future as well. Thanks for tuning in. Detailed question and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hi, Chris, this is Summer from Phoenix. How is it possible for an author to succeed in this day and age?
There are too many books and no one cares. I've been working on my first novel for a long time, and I want to be able to sell it as a series. But for that to happen, I know the first one has to sell well. Then there will be a built-in market for the next ones. Still, I feel discouraged.
I don't have a ton of Facebook fans, and I slept through marketing class if there ever was such a class. When it comes to world building and developing characters, I'm good at that. But with so many books coming out all the time, I worry that no one will find mine, and I'll have done all of this writing for nothing. How is it possible for an author to succeed given all the constraints and competition that now exists? Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.
[Music]
Here's the good news about this scenario. It's not like saying how can you be successful in the NBA? I don't know if we have any NBA players who are listening to the podcast. Shout out if you are. But there's a very limited number of pool, limited pool of players in the NBA.
And so most people are not going to make it. The pool of talent is quite small. But there are a lot more authors. The competition is a lot less, at least than the NBA, right? And furthermore, there are also a lot of pathways to publishing these days.
You can publish a variety of ways across a variety of mediums. Audio is a huge category these days. It continues to grow. Audio is still the fastest growing category of books. More people are consuming audio books than any other medium.
So definitely do that. Obviously you can make an ebook very easily and sell that directly through Amazon and other platforms. You can also do print books. You can pursue traditional publishing or self-publishing. And regardless of what you do, you've got book clubs, online communities like Goodreads, Bookbub is a service that sells discounted mailings.
Basically, whenever there's a discount on an ebook, you can pay Bookbub. They'll promote it for you. The Instabooks community on Instagram, Booktalk on TikTok. All of these outlets can offer amplification if readers connect with your books. And I also like what you're thinking about the series.
And you're correct, like you need the first one to work, but often the first book of a series, it's a good use for Kindle Unlimited, where you put it in the Kindle library where people can check it out for free. And you do still earn royalties based on how much they read. But basically the idea there is you get people hooked and then they keep reading. Then they want to read the next one and so on. It helps you grow your audience.
No matter what you do, you want to be focused on that. You want to grow your audience, grow and nurture your audience, take care of them. And they'll be around for a while. They'll be around for your future books. At least I hope so.
That's what I do, I write books and I have served many of the same people since I started. Of course, I always welcome new folks as well. But I just try to keep writing and sharing things that are helpful. And that's my whole goal in life, basically. So thank you, Summer, for the question and best of luck to you and everybody else out there trying to write a book or start a YouTube channel or a podcast or anything else.
Whatever you're up to, I'm going to be here all year with daily episodes. And it's all free, by the way. It's all completely free. Nothing is for sale. You can download or stream the entire archives of the podcast for free at www.sidehustleschool.com.
And of course, tune in tomorrow for a new episode. My name's Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
