A Fiction Side Hustle That Actually Drives Sales
by Ann Kimbrough
Writing the book is only half the job. The other half is getting strangers to care.
It’s kind of a Field of Dreams moment where “if you write it, they will come.”
I’m all for the Hollywood hoopla, but the facts aren’t as cinematic. It’s math. It’s visibility. For me, it was also trial and error. The first time I self-published, I heard that it’s better to sell a series than one book. The thinking is that if you write a series, all the hard work you do to promote one book will sell all the books in your series. So, sell smarter.
I heeded the advice, wrote a series, self-published it, and sat back waiting for readers to come. And waited. They didn’t come. No one cared. Actually, to be fair, no one knew I wanted them to care.
I tried all the common things they say to try, like Facebook and Amazon ads. My budgets were pretty small, so my sales were small too. The best service I found was Freebooksy. At the time, it cost $169 to blast the first book in my cozy mystery series to their email list. It worked! Best sales I’ve ever had, even with the promo book being given away for free.
Of course, Amazon also pays by read-through rate, so the free ebooks earned money, as well. I also sold all the other three books in the series at full price. It was enough money to earn back what I’d spent and take my husband out to dinner. If you’re like me, that’s not enough.
The Goal
Let me be honest. I don’t publish books to sit on my office shelf or give as gifts to friends and family. I love writing, even when it gets hard. Writing is oxygen. I want to sell my writing to strangers. One day, I want to be sitting on a plane and notice that the passenger next to me is reading my book.
For that future to happen, I must sell books. A lot of them. Not just for the money—though let’s not pretend that doesn’t matter. I want sales because sales mean success. They mean impact. They mean this thing I spend hours, days, years building actually connects. And yes, sales silence the naysayers. We all have them. Sometimes they’re other people. Sometimes they’re the voice in our own head, but we didn’t choose the easy money. We chose fiction.
Believe me, I’ll read anything about selling fiction. Not that there’s a lot out there, it’s usually: “Make $5K/month with 5 Easy Tips!” The problem is… they aren’t talking about fiction writing. They aren’t really talking about non-fiction writing. The tips cover all the side hustles writers can do to earn money. Spoilers: The number one piece of advice is to teach other writers how to write. Hmm… that doesn’t work for me, but I believe in a good side hustle.
Changing the Approach
Never thought I had anything in common with Simon & Schuster, but I do. We all do. We have to convince strangers to care.
How does that look? It means finding a new way to show off your fictional world—for free—so readers become invested in your writing journey. One way to do that is through a side hustle. The goal is to show readers what you write and invite them into your world, where all the information is available for them to pick and choose, and hopefully become super fans and read all your books.
The best tool for this is YouTube, because users actually go to it for entertainment.
Best Side-Hustle I’ve Found for Fiction Writers
YouTube
When it comes to fiction books, you might not think it’s a big part of YouTube. I usually call it YouTube University, and it is widely considered the second biggest search engine. However, it’s so much more than that, and with success comes expansion. YouTube has definitely embraced entertainment in all its forms, becoming a hub for all creatives. And it’s not just my observation. In January 2026, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said, “YouTube is the epicenter of culture. Our creators are reinventing entertainment and building the media companies of the future, and we continue to be the best place for them to grow a business.”
Genre matters, so test out YouTube by searching for your book genre and seeing which channels cover what you write. At some point, all genres will be represented, but currently, children’s, romance, and mystery have followings. Fiction channels use a couple of standard formats. One is the author reading their book, or some variation. It can be with the author on camera or just reading over a static shot.
The future, however, is something more dynamic. Right now, you can find channels with AI images and AI narrators. I’ve seen romance sites that do this, and they are very simple, which means there’s a huge opportunity to create better content—especially in the writing, which is our Superpower. I find most of these videos are clickbait. They tell a story, but it’s clearly AI-generated with no human help when it comes to grammar, pacing or storytelling.
Check Out the Competition
These videos run about an hour, so there are plenty of opportunities for ad breaks. The ones in the romance genre can get over 250,000 views, but they vary. As a channel grows, the views grow, too, and that means the creator is making money, and possibly affiliate marketing money.
Pros & Cons
The Pros: These kinds of videos are ripe for an upgrade. Create ones with better images and stories, and they could find a loyal audience.
The Cons: Creating high-quality AI images comes with a learning curve and a cost.
Another Con: You must monetize your YouTube channel before you can make any money, and there are several hoops you’ll jump through. You have to join the YouTube Partner Program, have a thousand subscribers and either 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days. Yes, you’ll work for it, but you already know how to build something from nothing. You wrote a book.
The BEST PRO is that YouTube is exploding in this space—and creating this kind of channel doubles down on your writing skills. What better way to sell your books than with something you’ve written? It exposes your work to an audience immediately, subtly inviting viewers to follow links and discover everything you create. That turns a stranger into someone who cares.
A YouTube channel also maximizes your storytelling. You can adapt your existing self-published books, present them visually, and expand your fictional world beyond the page. Instead of waiting for readers to find your work, you invite them in.
Writing the book is only half the job. Showing up where readers already spend their free time is the other half.
Have you tried turning your stories into video? Does this spark any ideas for you?
* * * * * *
About Ann
Ann Kimbrough is an optioned/produced screenwriter, SAG/AFTRA member, and Tell Me a Mystery on Substack weekly releasing installments, including historical mystery The Harvey Girl, FBI/dark magic thriller Darkly, and The Time Witch time travel adventure, as well as Conversations w/Coffee.
Find Ann at:
- www.annkimbrough.com
- On Substack: https://tellmeamystery.substack.com/
- Harvey Girl books Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/HGbooks
- Fit Girls books Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/FitGirlsAmazon
- Ann's books on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/AnnOnAmazon
- On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EverythingAnnKimbrough
Featured image from Pixabay.
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Very informative and helpful. I've been working on creating my own book trailers using AI and I thought of expanding this into content that would contain short videos featuring my characters with bonus stories. This is the encouragement I needed.
Very good, Don! That's a perfect path and it's very doable. With all the videos I create, I don't try to get it perfect, but as good as I can. I aim for professional. Overtime, I'm getting better and the AI keeps improving. I'm glad to hear that you are making the most of the tech. I wish you well.
Hi Ann: Good post. Your point 'genre matters' is certainly key. I write Gothic, ghost stories, and supernatural mysteries. I have done YouTube videos for my books, short stories, author platform, my research, other authors' book reviews, readings, and tours of my writing space and literary library. I initially posted weekly, then went monthly. Total over the past year, 34 videos with only 19 subscribers. As far as views are concerned, 40 to 70 on some but mostly around 10 to 20 views average. So that's not terrible but it doesn't really drive sales. "Maybe" I got one sale here or there. The only thing I can say about YouTube videos for fiction authors is that it does create more visibility to add to your author platform. Maybe over time, posting videos weekly or daily might bring higher returns. I also post my videos on my Instagram and my Facebook pages, as well as my blog, which reaches another audience. I think if you are going to do videos on YouTube, go full throttle with posting them on other social media to draw more audience. The market is flooded with book videos so competition is high. For me, the goal was more to get myself and my author platform visible and build author reputation.
Good insight, Paula, thanks for sharing. All of the things you are doing will certainly add to your GEO which is the new way the AI search engines are finding things, so all your hardwork will feed that. And I hear you that YouTube alone isn't the answer. It's been something I've had going for awhile without really focusing on it. So, for me, the focus is changing. And your history on YouTube reminds me that I need to focus my efforts on one kind of "product" and that's going to be these storytelling videos. We'll see how that goes. 🙂
YouTube is a great idea, something I hadn't thought of. I'd rather be writing but since that "well" at the moment is dry I will definitely check out the different genre channels and see what's out there.
Thanks, Merissa, I hope your search is fun and helpful, and at the very least, inspires your creativity.
Hello Ann. Thank you for this post. I so relate to your comment, "I heeded the advice, wrote a series, self-published it, and sat back waiting for readers to come. And waited. They didn’t come. No one cared. Actually, to be fair, no one knew I wanted them to care." I think many of us can feel that. I have a YouTube channel I started then let sit and gather dust. Your advice may have me dusting that off soon.
Thank you, Lynette! We've definitely been traveling the same writing path. 🙂 And I hope you do "dust off" your YouTube channel. It's another tool, and you've already started it. I had a lot of bits and pieces on my channel, and really couldn't see how any of them connected, so they all seemed like a waste. But then I realized I was the connection. So, I renamed my YouTube channel to EverythingAnnKimbrough and counted all the various, kind of unrelated vides, as different parts of my creative journey. So, I didn't lose anything I'd done over the years. I held onto the views I'd gotten. Not sure if it will make a difference, but it made me feel better. All best, as you delve into YouTube again!
Hi Ann,
I have a YouTube channel and have some Sock Puppet Tim videos related to Child Growth and Development as well as videos that are promos for The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon series. Like Lynette's, it needs to be dusted off and looked over.
Thank you for the reminder!
Hi Ellen, thanks for reading my article. It's great to hear that it inspired you to "dust off" your YouTube channel! Please, do it! Since you already have it, why not? I wish you the best. Your child growth and development videos sound wonderful and something that is always needed, so there's a market out there for them!
I'm glad I saw that title....it caught my eye and I came here [whispers: instead of the sprint.....sorry].
You know what, Ann? I did not think of reading on youtube.
I could DO that.
Question though is, does the viewing time have to be on YouTube, or does it count if you embed it, say, on my substack?
Hi Jaime!!! Good to see you here! I do not know exactly how the algorithm works, but since Substack connects to YouTube it should work well. I've noticed that the last interview we did on Substack got broken down into a dozen YouTube reels. And those get a lot of views, even though they cut off at the wrong points, IMO. I think Substack is helping, so go for it! You'll be able to go to your YouTube channel and see the number of views each video gets. Those numbers do work to your YouTube advantage.
Hi, thanks for an informative essay. Which is better for a beginner? Substack or YouTube? It looks pretty steep to get started on YouTube.
Hi, M. Thanks for reading. I have to agree that starting on YouTube takes time. Starting on Substack might make more sense. It's a friendly community for fiction writers, and you aren't pressured to post. In fact, if you just started on Substack, you could take your time, regularly jump into Notes to meet people and figure out how it all works. No stress that way. If you head over to Substack, be sure to follow me at Tell Me a Mystery, and let me know it's you, if you don't use this same name, and I'll follow back.
Hi Ann. Nice essay, thanks. "...monetize your YouTube channel..." That's a lot of subscriptions, views, etc. In the time taken to achieve all that (if ever) I could write another book... Or two 😭
Astute point, Matthew! And very true. I guess I never said that you shouldn't let any of this stop your writing. I sure don't let it stop me. It's just a factor on the "selling" side of the business. You have to do both, IMO, the writing and the selling. That's why I like YouTube, because it's a soft sell and I get to do it in a creative way. But 100%, it's not easy. I've yet to find the easy button. I think the easy button costs a lot of money. 🙂
intriguing post.
Thanks for reading, Denise!
I'm confused, are people reading their entire book? Excerpts? Are they creating elaborate trailers? Thanks in advance. I've already created trailers and vibe videos and have had just a little bit of success, but not anything to be super excited about.
Hi, Tam, and congrats on already getting your work out there with trailers and videos! All forms that you mentioned are out there. I haven't been a big fan of readings like that, so I haven't done a big search. (I like Audible.) For me, the better format might be reading a chapter, and serializing it that way. Of course, you can also do that on Substack with the text and add either or both, video & audio, all from the author. I've seen both done and like having all those options. And since Substack is easy to connect to YouTube, it will upload the video. I've seen excerpts, too, so I guess there's no wrong way to go. Whatever makes sense to you. I've seen a wide range of book trailers, but I'm not sure how many readers are searching for those. There are also a lot of channels that review genre books and talk about their favorites. They tend to focus on the most popular in the genre, which makes sense. I hope you keep building on your success. That's a great place to start, as you already have an idea of what attracts views. I've always told myself if any of my stories or outlets spark a big interest, I'd drop everything else and just focus on that. Honestly, not sure I could do that, but I'd sure try. 🙂