224: $5k a Month as a Self-Published Author - in Fiction
The Side Hustle Show
Nick Loper
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2017
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Derek Murphy's book portfolio is bringing in $5k a month. He's is a world traveler, book cover design extraordinaire, and the author of a dozen different books, mainly in the young adult fantasy genre.
A lot of the self-publishing content and interviews on the Side Hustle Show has been related to non-fiction books, and to me, it's a more straightforward process: help someone solve a problem.
Fiction is a bit of a different animal, and something Derek covers in detail over on his site at CreativIndie.com.
Derek started out editing books and designing book covers while completing his Masters and PhD in literature. Having an interest in reading fiction and wanting to get away from client work, Derek started writing fiction books.
He explained there's a lot more demand for fiction than non-fiction, and because of that it can be easier to make more money.
It’s not as competitive as you may think either. Although there are literally millions of fiction books available, when you cut through to the books that are being marketed and targeted to the right audience, Derek says it’s not that difficult.
Tune in to hear how Derek starts by finding keywords and researching what the readers want based on what's already selling, then testing the market for demand before committing to a series of books.
He also shares the methods he used to grow an email list of more than 32,000 as well as advice on how to launch a book with an email list of zero.
Full Show Notes and PDF Highlight Reel: $5k a Month as a Self-Published Author - in Fiction
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Side Hustle Show 224, 5 grand a month as a self-published author. |
| 0:05.0 | Welcome to the Side Hustle Show, where aspiring part-time entrepreneurs learn how to turn their |
| 0:11.0 | side hustle dreams into reality. |
| 0:13.0 | Because your 9 to 5 may make you a living, |
| 0:16.0 | but your 5 to 9 makes you alive. |
| 0:18.0 | And now your host, Nick Loper. Loper. What's up? |
| 0:24.0 | What's up? |
| 0:27.0 | What's up? |
| 0:28.0 | Nick Loper here. Welcome to the Side Hustle Show where it's all about ideas, action, and results toward building those |
| 0:31.9 | job-free income streams. |
| 0:33.0 | Today's episode is one for the authors. |
| 0:35.0 | If you've ever thought about writing a book and statistically that's like 80% of us, |
| 0:39.0 | this one is for you. |
| 0:41.0 | And in contrast to the self-publishing episodes we've done in the past, my |
| 0:44.0 | guest today is primarily a fiction writer, and he says where most authors fail is not understanding |
| 0:49.5 | the business and marketing side of writing. They write the book, they want to write, not necessarily the book |
| 0:53.8 | readers want or need to read. There's definitely a balance to strike there, especially on the fiction |
| 0:58.8 | side. So I'm joined by Derek Murphy, he's the author of a dozen different books, mainly in the young adult fantasy genre, |
| 1:05.8 | and is up to five grand a month in author royalties. |
| 1:08.6 | Stay tuned to hear how he knows a book will sell before he ever outlines the first chapter, how he quickly and relatively |
| 1:14.1 | inexpensively built up an email list of thousands of readers in some unique ways he uses Amazon to |
| 1:18.8 | field test ideas for new stories. You can find Derek at creative indieie.com as Creative without the E at the end and |
... |
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