Hugh Howey's Publishing Empire

A story about Hugh Howey, who went from being unemployed to becoming a successful self-published author by writing the sci-fi book "Wool" and building a dedicated fan base through unconventional marketing.

"Hugh Howey was living in North Carolina, broke and doing odd jobs. His wife was supporting the household when he decided to write a book. His first attempt failed, selling less than $1,000.

Instead of giving up, he found a job that paid $10/hour for 30 hours a week, specifically choosing it because it had lots of downtime to write. He changed his schedule to wake up at 2 AM every day, writing before work, during lunch breaks, and after dinner. In just 3 weeks, he wrote Wool.

He put it on Amazon for 99 cents and sold 1,000 copies. His small but dedicated reader base wanted more, so he wrote a sequel the next month. The sequel sold 3,000 copies. He wrote two more books, and when he released the collection of all five books, he sold 23,000 copies in the first month at $6 each.

Before long, he'd sold 500,000 books. Publishers approached him offering $250,000, but he declined because he was already making that much. When they offered to help with distribution, he pointed out he'd already sold 500,000 copies himself.

His guerrilla marketing tactics included sending copies to Goodreads reviewers, doing a 12-hour Reddit AMA, encouraging fan fiction and fan art, and making his super fans beta readers for new books. He kept his book rights but sold the film rights.

There's a funny story where he met George R.R. Martin at a book signing. Martin signed his book writing 'To Number 6, keep trying' because Howey was #6 on the sci-fi list behind Martin's five books. A few months later, Howey hit #1."