How 1 Story Makes Him $3 Million a Year

Beyond the Book

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How 1 Story Makes Him $3 Million a Year

I spent 24 hours with the King of Story Letters. Here's what went down...

Michael Evans

and

David Viergutz

Apr 12, 2025

Transcript

About 2 months ago, I released an episode of Beyond the Book with David Viergutz, all about how he’s grown his story letter business to seven figures.

We only chatted about ScareMail for 15 minutes and spent the rest of the episode helping other authors who were live on the call.

This time, I decided to travel to David’s warehouse and dive deep with him into the operations, strategy, and mindset behind his story letter empire.

David makes $3 million a year from one story. It’s absurd, incredibly awesome, and super inspiring 🤯.

In this episode, we learn:

What makes story letters (or epistolary stories) unique from other forms of writing
How David came up with the idea for ScareMail and scaled it to $3 million in revenue per year in under 6 months
How David works with manufacturers, hires team members, and builds the operations to send out 100,000 letters each month
The biggest mistakes David made scaling story letters, and what he would do if he were just getting started
And SO MUCH more!

David was incredibly generous in sharing with us his insights. If you haven’t already, you should check out the ScareMail website and see how awesome the product is.

AND, of course, you won’t want to miss the latest episode of the Beyond Book Podcast on How David Makes $3 Million a Year from One Story here 👇

Watch on YouTube

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this podcast episode! You can always email me or add a comment here on Substack 😊.

I’ll be back Monday morning with another essay. It’s all about agents… but not in the way you think.

In the meantime, don’t forget…

Together we are boundless,

Michael Evans

The Author Sidekick

Discussion about this episode

Beyond the Book

I help authors make money beyond selling books and turn their stories into empires.

I have a big dream. The first billionaire indie author will rise this decade. And there will be 100+ making 8-figures a year and more. But it won't come from selling books alone... it's going to come from building a "mini-Disney" for your readers.

Now, I have to be honest with you. Not every author who listens is going to build a media empire Beyond the Book. BUT my promise to every one of you listening is that you will grow your readership & income as an author by learning the power of Readers First Publishing.

This means...

1. Readers First Growth: Treating your marketing as a "product" and approaching all reader discovery from a creator-first mindset so that you can leverage social platforms to grow faster than ever

2. Readers First Storytelling: Immersing fans into your stories across media formats (including but not limited to story letters, interactive stories, ebooks, audiobooks, serial podcasts, web movies, and more)

3. Readers First Products: Creating physical and digital products connected to your stories that serve your readers (merch, games, drinks, food, candles, community, and more)

Each episode, I'll be sharing with you how you can grow, create stories, and make products that rewrite the rules of publishing using the principles of Readers First. I'll feature guests that range from academic experts on specific topics to multi-seven-figure authors who have innovated and gone beyond the book in unique ways.

This podcast is perfect for both fiction and nonfiction authors, but it has a bent toward fiction authors.

After writing and publishing 12 science fiction novels, helping thousands of authors make millions beyond the books by creating a community of their superfans, and then working for the largest creator in the world, I'm ready to help YOU go beyond the book and build the storytelling empire of your dreams.

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