Writing a Romance Novel: A Unique and Profitable Side Hustle

Update: This post was originally written as an interview with Yuwanda Black. We at Proofread Anywhere were deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Yuwanda. She was a truly notable writer, mentor, and friend. The links to her courses have been removed from this article, as they are no longer available. If you would like to support Yuwanda’s family, you can find more information here.

If you’ve been looking for a profitable side hustle that costs $0 to start and can be done from anywhere — if you love reading, writing, and telling stories — if you want to escape into other worlds where you control everything — writing romance novels is the side hustle for you! 

It’s an evergreen home-based business that’s really taken off in the last few years — allowing creatives who never dreamed that they could make a full-time living doing it, to quit jobs, save for retirement, and travel like never before.

What is it?

Writing & Self-Publishing Short Romance Novels

If you’ve never published, or even written, a romance novel before, that’s ok! There are so many writing courses and freelancer resources out there to help you on your journey. 

With the ease of self-publishing on Amazon, small writers have a much lower barrier to entry AND movements like BookTok have allowed unknown writers to become famous, or infamous, overnight (think Colleen Hoover)!

How Amazon’s Book Pricing Works

On Amazon, if you price your book between $2.99 and $9.99, you receive 70 percent of the sales price. Cassandra priced her romance novel at $2.99, which means she earned roughly $2.09 for each book sold.

For a first attempt, Cassandra was extremely successful and her book sold more than she could have hoped! 

The best part is, that you, as the author, have full control over how your book is marketed, sold, and discontinued (if you choose). Because the books can be purchased as PDFs, you don’t even have to worry about keeping inventory or shipping! 

How to Start Self-Publishing With No Experience

The best way to start self-publishing is by creating short novellas, around 10,000–30,000 words, and publish at least once a month. This will help readers to start recognizing your work and craving more!

If you don’t feel confident writing out a plot or using dialogue, services like Reedsy can get you in touch with freelance professionals that can help you elevate your work.

Here’s Yuwanda’s experience:

“The first thing I want to say is, before 2013, I’d never written a romance novel in my life. I’d read plenty of them, but it never occurred to me to write one.

You see, I’d written tons of how-to, non-fiction books, but writing fiction (romance genre) just seemed so far out of the realm of possibility that it had never really occurred to me.

So what happened? How did I start writing romance books? How did I earn almost $3,500 one month despite starting with no formal training, no fancy book covers, and no fan base — AT ALL?

Here’s my story.

I’ve been a freelance writer since 1993; and I started self-publishing non-fiction, how-to books in 2004. It wasn’t until almost a decade later (2013) that I wrote my first romance novel, and that happened very serendipitously.

What happened was, one of my sisters, who’s a writer also, wrote one. She uploaded it to Amazon and sold over 500 copies in like three weeks. She earned over $1,100 — from that one book!”

FYI, the book is Loving a Texan from New Orleans (by Cassandra Black) if you’re curious.

Why Yuwanda’s First Romance Novel Bombed (Badly!), and What She Did About It

Here’s more from Yuwanda’s story:

“I wrote my first romance novel in the spring of 2013. It promptly bombed. So I happily went back to self-publishing non-fiction, thinking, ‘Well, I gave it a shot.’

Fast forward one year. One day my sister said something to the effect of, ‘Why don’t you try writing an interracial romance?’ You see, my sister had written an interracial romance. My first one was a purely African American love story.

So I tried it. And boy am I glad I did!

What I came to learn was that niche matters — a lot — in romance. It’s not that African American romance novels don’t sell, mind you. They do, as author Brenda Jackson proves.

It’s just that some niches are easier to break into as a new author. Interracial romance proved to be easier — at least it was for me. So in the spring of 2014, I gave romance writing another shot. To my surprise and delight, my little novel sold.

I sold over 400 copies of that second novella in the first three months, earning almost $900. So I averaged about $300 per month — from that one book — the first few months it was out.

It also encouraged me to start venturing into historical romances and other romantic relationships that my readers craved. 

Before we go any further, one thing I can’t stress enough is how important niche is to becoming successful in writing and self-publishing romance. Proof?

Look at the difference between sales of my first romance novel (an African American love story) and my second one (a multicultural romance).”

“As the image shows, I sold 241 copies of my second romance the first month it came out. But what really surprised me was, that sales of the one I’d published almost a year before picked up too. I sold 9 copies of it!

In the second month, the book was still selling. I moved 159 copies. And lo and behold, copies of the first one I’d published a year earlier ticked up — I sold 11 copies of it that month.

I call this kind of sales “drag sales” because when you publish a new book, it will drag sales of your previously published titles along with it.

I’ve been hooked ever since (getting a sale really is like an addictive drug).” 

Why You Should Write Short Romance Novels

Most romance writers create novellas of 10,000 to 30,000 words because they are easier to write, easier to consume, and fit the price point of less than $5. 

Especially for inexperienced writers, a shorter romance novel is much more achievable and, if the first book does well, the confidence that you gain will help you to write longer pieces in the future. 

Writing contemporary romances can seem intimidating, especially if you feel more “vanilla” in your real life, but the beauty of romance fiction is that you can create whatever stories you feel comfortable with. 

From enemies to lovers storylines, fantasy romances, and other romance tropes, you don’t have to just follow Nicholas Sparks or Bridgerton cliches to be successful. 

If you are comfortable, you can tackle adult romance topics like erotic romance, or you can build more emotional depth by diving into Christian romance or stories with more character developments. 

Romance novels don’t have to only include intimate scenes. 

The Hardest Part of Writing & Self-Publishing Romance

The most difficult thing about writing short romance novels is that money is made by volume. Because you aren’t able to price the books very high, you need to sell more in order to make more money. You have to constantly pump out titles — especially when you first start.

While you could luck out and have a hit on your hands right away, for most indie authors (and traditionally published romance writers too), it just doesn’t happen that way.

The great thing is, that romance readers are prolific readers, with 64 percent reading romance more than once a month and over a third (35 percent) buying romance more than once a month, according to a 2014 Romance Writers of America survey.

What this means for you, as an author, is the more you write and self-publish, the more you can earn.

The more well-known you become, the more you can relax and the longer you can wait in between publishing new titles. 

If you want to build a larger following, you can also write novels that follow the same romantic leads with character arcs that create a more compelling romance. 

How Much Can a New Romance Writer Expect to Earn?

As we stated above, romance readers are prolific readers. So if you publish regularly (e.g., a book every month), you can earn $1,000 to $2,000 per month within six months.

There are a lot of factors that go into how much you can earn as a self-published romance author like:

• Genre
• How often you publish
• Competition
• Pricing
• Writing ability
• Which outlets you publish on

If you publish one to two novels per month and do that — consistently — for six to twelve months, you should easily be earning $3,000 to $5,000 per month.

Tips for Beginners in the Romance Industry

The best tip we have is to publish regularly until you make a name for yourself or build up loyal readers. As sales come with volume, the more pieces you have out, the more you can earn. 

Also, set a time frame. Do you want to be a full-time successful romance writer in six months, a year, two years, etc.? Whatever it is, set it and get on a publishing schedule to make it happen.

Conclusion

Making money writing romance is not hard, but it does take dedication and persistence.

Some authors complain that their favorite novels don’t sell well and the ones that they liked the least sell like hotcakes. It’s important to always be learning about your audience so you can write and publish novels that they will want. 

Not everyone knows what’s going to resonate with romance readers, so the more you publish, the greater your chance of having that breakout hit.

And, if you have a catalog of other titles, your income can leap from a few hundred bucks one month to a few thousand the next. 

So, if you want a tried-and-true side hustle that can earn you money for years, give writing a romance novel a shot.

The best thing about writing romance novels is that, once a novel is written and published, you never have to touch it again. And it can earn you money for years!

Fiction books have no “shelf life,” like, say, some non-fiction books. Hence, someone could discover your little romance novel 10, 15, or 20 years from now and buy it. That’s the beauty of publishing.

Hey, you just never know — writing and self-publishing romance could move from being your side hustle to your full-time career. How awesome would that be?

Happy writing!