Ep. 3204 - TBT: The Secret Author Behind Your Favorite Romance Novel
Side Hustle School
Chris Guillebeau / Onward Project
4.8 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s Throwback Thursday segment, hear how one fanfiction writer went pro—now earning five figures per project ghostwriting for bestselling romance authors who don’t want their names published.
Side Hustle School features a new episode EVERY DAY, featuring detailed case studies of people who earn extra money without quitting their job. This year, the show includes free guided lessons and listener Q&A several days each week.
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Transcript
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| 0:46.0 | Lemonada. |
| 0:50.7 | The secret author behind your favorite romance novel. |
| 0:58.0 | Hey, what's your favorite romance novel? |
| 1:00.5 | Maybe you don't have one, or maybe you have a bunch of them. |
| 1:02.8 | It doesn't really matter for the purposes of today's story, because this is |
| 1:06.2 | sidestle school. |
| 1:07.2 | We look at all kinds of ways people make money without quitting their job, doing something |
| 1:11.5 | on the side that often goes on to earn a good amount of money. So today's story specifically |
| 1:16.1 | comes from the blurred lines between passion and profit and between public credit and quiet |
| 1:21.6 | success because we're going to hear from a ghost writer. This is a woman who wrote fanfiction in her spare time. She didn't |
| 1:29.9 | actually make money. She wasn't using her real name. But as she kind of built a reputation in the |
| 1:34.6 | romance fanfic community for compelling plots, spicy scenes, and serialized stories, |
| 1:41.2 | she had people coming to her and asking for help. |
... |
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