The James Altucher Show

Ep. 92 - Andy Weir: The Martian - How to go from Self Published to Six Figures

Episode Summary

Andy Weir followed his dream. Ever since he was a small boy he wanted to be a writer, but it took him a long time to find success. His first short story, The Egg brought him a bit of notoriety. This thousand-word story got passed around on blog sites...

Episode Notes

Andy Weir followed his dream. Ever since he was a small boy he wanted to be a writer, but it took him a long time to find success.

His first short story, The Egg brought him a bit of notoriety. This thousand-word story got passed around on blog sites and people began to follow him.

The Martian, Andy’s new hit book was first published as a serial, one chapter at a time on his website. He had just a only few thousand readers. 

He eventually self published this as a book and it sold about 35,000 copies on Amazon. Suddenly Random House came calling with a big pile of money.

They talk about his daily writing habits and the books and authors Andy is a fan of and James digs in a bit to find out what’s next.

He tells James that he’s still afraid of being a one hit wonder. James asks him what advice he would give to aspiring writers

  1. 1.Write.  It’s easy to daydream about your story but you have to sit down and write.
  1. 2.Resist the urge to tell your story to your friends and family
  1. 3.This is the best time in history to be a writer. Today, you can bypass the gatekeepers

 

Listen here its great story