Today, we chat with Russell Nohelty, one of the brightest minds in indie publishing. He's been early to so many platforms and succeeded on them, whether it be Kickstarter or Substack, and has built an amazing community of 25,000+ writers who follow Russell for his insights at the intersection of craft and commerce. We'll learn something crucial from him: how to focus your book marketing, prioritize amdist chaos, and actually build an author life you love.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Check out Russell's website: https://www.russellnohelty.com

Join the Author Stack Newsletter (you can join Hapitalist there): https://www.theauthorstack.com/

Join Author Sidekick, the newsletter to help you grow your readership and revenue as an author: https://authorsidekick.com/subscribe

Read Creatorwood, the free book helping writers turn their stories into movies using AI: https://www.blog.creatorwood.tv/subscribe

EPISODES CHAPTERS:

Understanding the Power Law in Publishing 00:04:42

Setting Goals as a Writer 00:07:26

The Concept of Leverage in Author Careers 00:08:59

Investing in Your Author Career 00:12:06

Finding Exponential Growth Opportunities 00:14:53

The Importance of Marketing in Authorship00:18:39

Building Relationships with Readers 00:20:34

The Value of Varied Product Offerings 00:23:26

The Power of Empathy in Building a Fanbase 00:35:00

The Unscalable Things that Lead to Growth 00:37:48

Navigating Retailers vs Direct Sales 00:39:49

The Happy Compass: Guiding Your Creative Journey 00:43:47

The Birth of Hapitalist: A Response to Author Needs 00:46:33

Lessons for Young Creatives: Building a Signature Series 00:52:23

The Importance of Trust and Relationship Building 00:57:12

Introducing Hapitalist: A Comprehensive Author Resource 01:02:35

Thank you so much for listening! You can always reach out to [email protected] if you have any guest/episode recommendations or questions about going Beyond the Book!

I’d also super appreciate it if you rated Beyond the Book wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps us grow and get bigger & better guests to share their insights with you in going Beyond the Book 💙.

I’m on a mission to bring Power to Storytellers. Here’s my story 👇

ABOUT THE HOST:

MICHAEL EVANS I’m the co-founder of Creatorwood (helping writers turn their stories into movies with AI) and Author Sidekick (media and software company helping authors succeed in the future of publishing).

In high school, I wrote and self-published 12 sci-fi novels (aka I didn’t have many friends).

I then attended college at Harvard, where I road-tripped the country filming YouTube videos during COVID (school was online🫣), live-streamed myself playing scavenger hunt with my roommate for ~1,000 hours, and eventually co-founded a software company that was named Publishing’s Start-up of the Year in 2023 by Jane Friedman.

After graduation, I worked on the data & analytics team at MrBeast and am now back in publishing, dedicating my life to bringing power to authors. I’m really grateful to be living my dream, and am hopeful I can help you get one (or a few!) steps closer to doing the same for yourself 😊.

ABOUT BEYOND THE BOOK:

Beyond the Book exists to help authors expand their revenue and readership beyond books. We are rewriting the rules of publishing by helping authors build “mini-Disneys” from their stories through physical products, community experiences, games, other media formats, and more.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dispatch.authorsidekick.com/subscribe