'It's a Fun Job, and I Enjoy It'

Last week, we hosted an intimate conversation for Founding Members of Author Insider with Gretchen Rubin, the renowned author and host of the chart-topping Happier podcast, about how writers can build durable platforms — and real income — in 2025.

Over the course of our chat, Gretchen shared how she has expanded her business as an author into a diversified media platform that now engages millions of people each month. We discussed:

• How she grew her email list from zero to 1.5 million subscribers

• The quiz strategy that continues to drive the growth of her email list

• The decision to add advertising to her newsletter

• Why she believes a 20-to-40-minute co-hosted podcast is the sweet spot

• Her strategy for building the Gretchen Rubin Media team

• Choosing between Big Five publishers, hybrid deals, and self-publishing

• Why she’s adding a Substack newsletter — in addition to her existing Klaviyo list — and how she’ll differentiate the two

• What moves the needle of audience growth in 2025 (hint: it’s not SEO)

If you want to learn how to grow your audience and turn attention into revenue from one of the best in the business, you’ll find this Q&A to be an indispensable complement to our original interview with Gretchen.

We host live conversations with leading authors and industry experts every two weeks. Upcoming guests include Charles Duhigg, Kim Scott, Seth Godin, and super-agent Christy Fletcher. To access these sessions and advance copies of forthcoming books by members of the Author Insider community, become a Founding Member today.

Chapters

• 2:57 | Email first: building an email list you own, and the “dumbest mistake” authors make.

• 3:54 | The quiz engine: how a well-crafted quiz becomes a 24/7 lead magnet—and the work it really takes to build one.

• 6:50 | Funnels that convert: free PDFs, reader resources, and the opt-in flow Gretchen uses to grow 1.5 M subscribers.

• 15:09 | Launching a podcast in 2025: co-hosts, ideal length, networks vs. indie, and the downsides of YouTube.

• 33:13 | Building the team: remote hiring, titles, and what her staff actually does day to day.

• 39:45 | Publishing strategy: Big Five deals vs. self-publishing, and the value of selling low-price “side” books for higher margins.

• 45:48 | Metrics that matter: how Gretchen measures success beyond book sales (and why many authors look at the wrong numbers).

• 53:06 | Audience Q&A: handling shiny-object syndrome, protecting writing time, and thinking like a media executive.

• 55:22 | Substack + Klaviyo “dual list” experiment; leveraging referral growth while retaining segmentation power.

• 68:19 | Gretchen’s motto

Extra Credit