Welcome to Commercial Fiction Club!
Hey there,
My name is Nicolas Cole.
By day, I am one of the most-read writers on the Internet & co-founder of a portfolio of writing businesses, including:
I am also the author of the best-selling book, The Art & Business of Online Writing.
But by night, I am an avid fiction reader/writer.
In 2013, I graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in fiction writing. Since then, I have monetized the craft of writing in just about every way imaginable. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, I am the only writer on the planet who has successfully generated over $1,000,000 in revenue across not one, not two, but 8 different “writing vehicles.”
Self-Publishing Non-Fiction: I have generated over a million dollars in revenue writing & publishing non-fiction books.
Services: I built & scaled the first ghostwriting agency for founders & executives to $2M+ in annual revenue (and generated $5M+ in total revenue from ghostwriting).
Software: Our SaaS platform for digital writers, Typeshare, has generated over a million dollars in revenue.
Low-Ticket Digital Products: I have created a dozen different digital products that have generated millions of dollars in revenue, including Full-Stack Writer, Category Newsletter Creator, and Low-Ticket Launchpad.
Cohort-Based Courses: I co-founded the fastest-growing beginner writing program on the Internet, Ship 30 for 30, and scaled it to millions of dollars in revenue.
High-Ticket Group Coaching: I co-founded the largest ghostwriting training program on the Internet, called Premium Ghostwriting Academy, and scaled it to $10,000,000+ in total revenue.
Paid Newsletters: I built 2 of Substack’s fastest-growing and most successful paid newsletters, Write With AI and Category Pirates, and scaled both to multiple 6-figures in annual recurring revenue and over 7 figures in total revenue.
Category Copywriting: And I have generated millions of dollars (in cash and stock options) as a consultant & category copywriter for $100M - $1B+ companies.
In fact, the only meaningful career path as a writer left—that I haven’t monetized—is fiction writing.
Which is what Commercial Fiction Club is all about!
Documenting The Path From $0 to $1,000,000+ In Revenue
This is a picture of me when I was 26 years old—a broke writer.
I had just quit my 9-5 job where I worked as an entry-level copywriter fresh out of college. It was a great first job (my “only” job), but eventually I decided I wanted to try to build something of my own. More specifically, I wanted to “make it” as a writer.
Back then, I had a lot of faulty beliefs around how writers made money.
First, I thought… “Nobody makes a living as a writer.”
Then, I thought… “Only famous writers make money.”
Then, I thought… “You can only make money writing sales copy.”
Then, I thought… “You can make money as a ghostwriter.”
Then, I thought… “You can make money with services & digital products.”
Then, I thought… “You can actually make money in all sorts of different ways—including SaaS, low-ticket products, high-ticket programs, masterminds, consulting. Endless opportunity!”
Until eventually, I realized… “You can make great money with services, and digital products, and building companies. But all the writers who make the most money are fiction writers.”
Isn’t that interesting?
The only writers in the world worth north of $100 million are all fiction writers.
And so I have effectively spent the past 10+ years monetizing writing in every way imaginable, only to end up right back where I started. Of all the different career paths, I now believe fiction writing to be the one with the highest earning potential.
So I’m going to document the entire journey here for you.
How Does Commercial Fiction Club Work?
I am going to take you from $0 all the way to $1,000,000 and beyond in fiction revenue.
And I am going to show you exactly what it looks like to make money from your fiction writing, by open-sourcing everything I do:
How I generate “commercially viable” ideas
How I outline, write, and assemble each project
How I hire people to help with design, editing, formatting, etc.
How I research reader categories & identify underserved markets
How I use (and train AI) to help me assemble outlines, brainstorm ideas, and write faster.
How much I invest in each book (as well as the logic behind these capital-heavy decisions).
And anything else that would be helpful to you!
That said, while I love sharing everything I learn, I also want to be transparent that this newsletter also is born out of my own selfish interests. This is a way to hold myself accountable; to crystallize things I’m learning but would otherwise be overlooked or forgotten; and most of all, to stick with the path long enough to unlock the long-term rewards I know are possible (but won’t happen overnight).
So, if you would like to go on that journey with me, I’d love to have you inside Commercial Fiction Club.
