How I Quit My Job After Just 18 Months Of Kindle Publishing!
I’m a huge advocate of starting a side hustle no matter what your situation. Even if you have a high-paying job that you love, you should still find ways to leverage the power of the internet to build an additional income stream for yourself. Because you never know what might happen.
The economy could take a nosedive and you could be laid off. Or if your family dynamics change somehow and you’re no longer able to work outside of the home, it’ll be lovely to have an extra income source already in place to keep you and those you love afloat.
Yes. Side hustles are beautiful things, indeed. Especially online side hustles.
In this post, I’ll expand upon how my side hustle became my only hustle for one main reason:
To show you how a regular, average chick was able to do it — so you know you can do it too!
*This post contains affiliate links
Kindle Self-Publishing: How It All Began…
My husband and I were at dinner with a friend visiting from Canada one night. She casually mentioned a new passive income venture. Self-publishing on Amazon Kindle. We asked her to explain.
She said she would pay ghostwriters to write 20-page books, have cheap covers designed, upload them to Amazon Kindle, and collect passive income.
It sounded absolutely bizarre, and I thought she was completely off her rocker!
Kindle Publishing Resurfaces
Already exhausted with the rat race, when I fell pregnant with my son I thought “what if I have this baby and decide I just can’t bear the thought of returning to work”?
Around then I was browsing an international travel Facebook group. Someone asked how to make money online so they could travel full-time. I read that ENTIRE thread and one idea stuck out like a sore thumb. Kindle Publishing.
Everybody in the thread was as incredulous as I upon first hearing of it. But since this was my second time, I was all ears.
This guy explained how he lives in Thailand and all his expenses are covered by Kindle Publishing. He said it really wasn’t difficult at all to get started. He gave a basic rundown of the process and said exactly what our dear friend told us at dinner that one night.
At the time, I wasn’t really looking for full-time income. I didn’t even believe that was possible for me. All I wanted was $500/month to at least help a tiny bit if I chose to be home with baby boy.
The guy recommended purchasing an online course from Stefan Pylarinos, K Money Mastery. I was all in.
I purchased K Money Mastery while on maternity leave, told my husband what I’d done and why, and dug right in.
Getting Started With K Money Mastery
The process was exciting and fun to start!
What I liked most was that each lesson was short and easy-to-digest, but super actionable. Like step 1 would finish and there would be an assignment before step 2… all the way down the line. I probably could have had my first book within a day or two, except some parts like getting the cover designed and doing market research took a bit of extra time.
Overall, it took me about 2 weeks to go through the course and release my first book.
I was surprised to wake up the very next morning after my first book went live to find a thirty-five cent deposit! I just knew my husband had purchased the book to show his support for my new business venture, but nope! It was all me!
After flipping my shit with excitement, a lightbulb went off…
If I could make one penny, I could make a million
I Was Right
Two years later, that tiny seed of desire to earn $500/month to stay home with my son has blossomed into a 6-figure passive income stream!
I earn many times my corporate salary in my sleep, working no more than 3 hours per week.
Sometimes I go months without touching it at all.
Traveling when/where I want and having the freedom to explore other hobbies and interests just for fun/personal fulfillment (hence this blog) is really cool.
It’s a dream I didn’t even feel free enough to have.
I recall feeling so trapped in the rat race, knowing I’d have to work 40 years and wait until I was in my late 60’s to even begin to live.
Now, I spend tons of time at the gym, in the sauna, out by the pool, taking naps, visiting with friends and family, playing with my son, and preparing quality food.
Totally Not Bragging, Here
Don’t take this as bragging. I’m going to keep it 100 with you all the way around.
I’m just a regular chick who started something and never gave up. I’ve been dirt poor, lights out, no heat in my home.
I’ve slept in my car a time or two, lived out of hotel rooms, slept on air mattresses.
In 2012 — not even that long ago — I was working full-time for $12/hr in expensive ass Los Angeles (WITH an undergraduate degree and a Masters on the way).
I had two roommates and qualified for food stamps, without which, I wouldn’t have been able to eat.
I know for a fact that sometimes even if you do everything “right”, you can still struggle.
No, I’m not bragging at all. Just showing you what is possible.
That where you have been has nothing to do with where you can go. Your only limitation is you.
Kindle Publishing Is The Easiest Hard Work
Self-publishing is one of the fastest, easiest ways to make money online. But there is a learning curve. It takes grit, tech-savvy and resourcefulness.
Before I figured out my exact system, I would be up ALL NIGHT trying to make magic happen.
It’s also not cost-free to get started, and it takes time to get it running fully on auto-pilot. I jokingly call it the “Easiest Hard Work I’ve Ever Done“.
Blogging vs. Self-Publishing for Passive Income
Blogging is also a great way for college students, stay-at-home moms and those who just want to exit corporate life to quit their jobs.
But yes, while top bloggers easily clear 6-figures monthly, it can take a really long time to see returns.
Like several months to several years.
Sometimes you just can’t wait that long to win!
Blogging has a low cost of entry, but you pay with your time.
Between creating content, networking, taking courses, trying new things (and failing), managing social media, designing graphics and learning SEO, I spend 30+ hours weekly blogging. Usually many more.
I spend 2 hours a week publishing (if that) and I’d be appalled to earn less than 5-figures any month.
Self-publishing has a higher financial investment but the trade-off is less time invested.
This is why it is the best side-hustle if you currently have at least some seed money, but not a metric ton of time.
Okay, So How Much Money Are We Talkin’?
Glad you asked! I had $5,000 to get my self-publishing business off the ground.
After achieving a reasonable level of success in my career, I began investing in the stock market. Upon learning of the Kindle opportunity I figured “why invest all this money in someone else’s business, but be too chicken to invest in myself“? So I pulled out $5,000 and told myself I could play with that until it ran out.
Lucky for me, it never did.
I made tons of mistakes and bought way too many crappy courses.
It took me a while to catch my groove, and lots of time was wasted.
Now I know for certain an initial investment of no more than $3,000 could earn you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Keep in mind with any business, you generally have to part with either money or time in the beginning. Usually both.
For fast returns on your investment with minimal time, you can’t beat self-publishing.
One Kindle Publishing Income Report
I’m not the type to blast my earnings all over the internet. BUT… I will provide one public income report as proof that I’m not lying.
Each book published generates at least 3 revenue streams. The below report is just one revenue stream for the month of January 2019. My total earnings exceed this. Keep that in mind!
I will say that my income fell a bit from 2018 to 2019, but I stopped working on this pretty much completely, as blogging took over as my main job. There is still money to be made in this side hustle, I just kind of outgrew it a little bit. Boredom is real.
8 Hours Of Work Jan 2019
As you can see, it’s real. Regular chick, real results.
It works if you work it!
Do yourself a favor and get your copy of K-Money Mastery, today!
RELATED KINDLE SELF PUBLISHING INFO:
- 10 Kindle Publishing Tips & Tricks To SKYROCKET Your Earning Potential
- 9 Reasons Why Kindle Publishing Is The BEST Way To Make Money Online
- 7 Reasons Why Kindle Publishing Gets Harder Over Time
How I Quit My Job After Just 18 Months Of Kindle Publishing
