What is a 🦄Happitalist🦄?
In short, a happitalist is someone who strives to align personal happiness, social well-being, and financial stability. They see happiness and health as valuable “capital” worth investing in on par with, or even more important than, traditional indicators of wealth.
Imagine measuring your success not just by profits and accolades, but by the genuine joy it brings to you, your readers, and your community. That’s the essence of the Happitalist mindset: treating your own happiness, and the well-being of others, as valuable “capital” worth investing in.
Why Authors Love the Happitalist Approach
Elevate Your Creative Energy: When happiness is at the heart of your work, it fuels imagination and innovation. A Happitalist perspective helps you write more authentically and connect more deeply with your audience.
Build a Meaningful Brand: Readers today crave more than a good story; they want to know the story behind the story. Show them that you prioritize mental health, creative fulfillment, and ethical practices, and watch your fanbase grow.
Redefine Success: Traditional metrics like book sales and bestseller lists matter, but the Happitalist approach expands your definition of “making it.” You’ll focus on personal satisfaction, healthy relationships, and positive community impact—all of which naturally boost your professional success.
Create Lasting Impact: By embracing joy and well-being, your work resonates on a deeper level. You’re not just selling books; you’re inspiring transformation in the lives of your readers and beyond.
Step into a future where your writing fuels both your personal fulfillment and your professional achievements. Experience how focusing on happiness as “capital” leads to more inspired storytelling, stronger reader connections, and a thriving author career. Become a Happitalist, and watch your passion, purpose, and prosperity flourish together.
Why use unicorns as a symbol?
In the startup world, a “unicorn” is a private company valued at over $1 billion, a nearly mythical level of success. But we’ve taken that idea and turned it on its head:
Here, a “unicorn” isn’t just about billion-dollar valuations. A unicorn is any author who strives to have it all; financial stability, creative freedom, personal happiness, and a meaningful impact on readers.
Some unicorns already sparkle with unstoppable momentum. Others are baby unicorns, just starting to grow their horn. Wherever you are on the journey, Happitalist is here to help you reach your next level without compromising your health or your passion.
Whether you’re a baby unicorn just starting your journey or a seasoned pro galloping toward bigger horizons, Happitalist is your portal to a more holistic, happiness-focused approach to authorship.
Crave financial success without sacrificing personal wellness? This is your place.
Want to master proven strategies while staying true to your creative spark? We’re here to help.
Happitalists get access to over $3,000, including courses, accelerators, and masterclasses tailored for authors ready to grow.
Join the herd and discover what it truly means to blend passion, profit, and joy. Step into the Happitalist membership today, and watch how your author career and your life transforms in remarkable ways.
Why Gather All These Resources?
We believe success is rarely found in a single tactic or strategy. Instead, it emerges from intersectional knowledge—the synthesis of ideas from diverse domains like tech startups, indie authorship, traditional publishing, marketing, content creation, and more.
An Integrative Approach: We bring together the best insights from each area and show you how they connect, rather than expecting you to follow a single “silver bullet.”
More Than a Toolbox: While we offer plenty of resources (courses, masterclasses, books, etc.), we focus on helping you see how these pieces fit together, so you can shape them into a personalized plan that aligns with your goals and well-being.
In short, we don’t promise 100% solutions from one source. We gather the 5% from everywhere, weaving them into a cohesive author stack that powers your unique journey.
Success in publishing rarely comes from one single tactic. It’s made of dozens of smaller insights discovered across different industries tech startups, content creators, traditional publishers, indie authors, and more. Whenever a so-called “expert” claims they have the entire answer, they usually only have about 5% of the puzzle.
Instead of one rigid system, we collect the best strategies from everywhere and help you tailor them to your unique needs:
Love crowdfunding? We’ll guide you to your best launch ever.
Curious about subscriptions? We’ll show you how to create a profitable model.
Dreaming of a thriving reader community? We have you covered.
Are you ready to become a happitalist?
When Russell Nohelty set up The Author Stack, his goal was simple: provide all the resources an author needs to build a successful career in one place. Over time, we realized that author success isn’t a one-size-fits-all journey. Instead, it comes in two distinct stages:
Breaking through and starting a career
Building and sustaining long-term success
Resources like How to Build Your Creative Career and How to Become a Successful Author are ideal for the first stage. They’re designed to help new authors establish themselves, gain traction, and set a strong foundation for their careers. These resources are included in our Paid Membership, an affordable tier packed with everything you need to get started.
However, as authors grow, they face new challenges. Advanced strategies like running profitable Facebook ads, viral giveaways, and successful crowdfunding campaigns go far beyond the needs of beginners. Courses like The Kickstarter Accelerator, which builds on our introductory Fund Your Book with Kickstarter course, are designed for authors ready to scale. These resources fall into a different category altogether: building and sustaining long-term success.
We knew we couldn’t offer these top-tier resources at the same price as our entry-level Paid Membership. Many of these advanced courses are worth hundreds of dollars. That’s why we created Happitalist, a premium membership tier for authors who are serious about growth.
Becoming a happialist isn’t just about access to resources; it’s about providing the additional support, community, and tools that authors need to thrive at the highest level. By creating this special tier, we made it possible for ambitious authors to accelerate their growth without breaking the bank to buy everything individually.
What you get as a Happitalist
When you join the herd, you unlock access to resources built for scale, impact, and sustainability.
The Kickstarter Accelerator ($999 value): Plan, market, and launch your most successful campaign yet.
Build a Superfandom ($497 value): Turn casual readers into lifelong superfans.
Create Profitable Facebook Ads ($497 value): Learn to craft high-performing ads that convert.
How to Run Viral Giveaways ($297 value): Add 1,000+ subscribers to your email list every week.
Direct Sales Mastery & Accelerator ($1,018 value): Sell directly through websites, subscriptions, crowdfunding, and live events.
Secrets of Substack Bestsellers ($100 value): The masterclass Russell ran with Substack expert Claire Venus to support our book How to Build a World-Class Substack.
An extensive library filled with everything a happitalist needs to grow. Whether it's Facebook Ads, Kickstarter, Substack, or anything else, our vault is filled with resources to help you plan your career,
That’s over $3,000 of value for $300/yr.
Of course, becoming a Happitalist only makes sense if you’re both ready to grow and think we’re the right teacher to guide your journey.
Not ready to join just yet? Start with our Paid Membership, which includes an incredible library of resources, including most of Russell’s non-fiction books and many of our courses. Plus, behind the scenes glimpses on Russell’s own journey, like our script library and many of his fiction books so you can track his own career trajectory.
The Author Stack books #1-3 (How to Build Your Creative Career, How to Become a Successful Author, and Advanced Growth Tactics for Authors)
How to Build a World Class Substack, The Author Ecosystems, and the Book Sales Supercharged books I co-wrote with Monica Leonelle (Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter, Get Your Book Selling on Facebook. Get Your Book Selling with Cross-Promotion, Get Your Book Selling at Events and Signings, and Get Your Book Selling in Print).
Courses (Fund Your Book with Kickstarter course, How to set up and run an awesome anthology course, Write a Great Novel course, How to Build an Audience from Scratch minicourse, 10x your productivity course)
Plus lessons and lectures, our interview archives, the Complete Creative data archive, our extensive script library, income reports dating back to 2018
These resources are everything Russell used to build his career, and it will give you a great base of knowledge. If you’re ready to go beyond that, or want to grow even faster, then maybe you’re ready to join the herd.
Becomig a happitalist isn’t for everyone. It’s for authors ready to scale their businesses and take control of their careers without losing their soul in the process. If that’s you, now might be a good time to act. With over $3,000 in resources, direct mentorship, and exclusive perks, this is the ultimate toolkit for ambitious authors.
Success doesn’t happen by chance. It happens by design. With Happitalist, you’re not just gaining resources; you’re joining a movement. A movement of authors who dare to dream big, work hard, and embrace their inner fire.
If you’ve always believed you shouldn’t have to choose between financial success and personal well-being, you’re in the right place. By joining Happitalist, you’ll tap into:
Intersectional Knowledge: Strategies distilled from multiple industries and molded into a cohesive approach.
A Supportive Herd of Unicorns: Authors who believe in thriving both personally and professionally.
The Freedom to Integrate: Rather than locking you into a single method, we show you how each piece can amplify your unique vision.
Join Happitalist and discover how an integrative, intersectional approach to knowledge can help you grow your business without burning out, hone your craft with advanced tools, and find genuine fulfillment in every stage of your author journey.Trade the high-pressure hustle for a balanced blend of ambition and joy.
Become a Happitalist today, and let’s build a writing life where everything you value can thrive!
🦄Happitalist🦄 RESOURCES
SECRETS OF SUBSTACK BESTSELLERS
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: Paid (🦄Happitalist)
Success on Substack is not one-size-fits-all. Whether you prioritize growth or focus on monetization, the key lies in aligning your goals with the right strategies. Define your touchpoint level, understand your audience’s needs, and plan for a sustainable path forward. Your Substack can become a thriving ecosystem—if you approach it with clarity and purpose.
Russell Nohelty and Claire Venus share insights on navigating Substack, focusing on the balance between growth and monetization. They discuss the importance of understanding your goals—whether to run a low or high touchpoint publication—and tailoring strategies for sustainable success.
BUILD YOUR SUPERFANDOM
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID (🦄Happitalist)
Are you a creative who's sick of agonizing to make enough money? Have you spent years banging your head against a brick wall, trying to make it work with little success to show for it? Are you struggling to connect with a fan base of excited customers?
Then Build a Superfandom is for you! This course was created with one question in mind:
What would we go back and tell our past self that would take years off our own struggle and make me a successful creative without wasting time, energy, effort, and money?
This course was the answer to that question. It's a practical guide to everything needed to know in order to build a six figure creative business.
Russell spent the last decade building his creative writing business from just a few thousand dollars a year into a successful six-figure business without using fan art, licensing products, or relying on public domain characters. In that time, he has become a USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, raised over $600,000 on Kickstarter, and grown his email list to tens of thousands of superfans.
THE KICKSTARTER ACCELERATOR
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID (🦄Happitalist)
Plan, Market, and Launch Your Next Kickstarter Using the Kickstarter Accelerator Methodology that Russell Nohelty developed from running 20+ Kickstarters and raising $300,000+ on novels, anthologies, comics, and audio dramas.
The Kickstarter Accelerator is the course that broke everything open for Writer MBA, and combined with the Fund Your Book with Kickstarter and Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter books available to paid members, will make your next (or first) campaign be your best launch ever.
DIRECT SALES MASTERY FOR AUTHORS
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID (🦄Happitalist)
Are you tired of fighting with algorithms and ad copy to make book sales? Do you see your book sales dwindling and know you need to make a change?Have you tried selling books direct through your website, crowdfunding, subscriptions, or in-person, but struggled to gain traction?
Then Direct Sales Mastery for Authors is perfect for you.
Direct sales refers to the practice of authors selling their books or other written works directly to consumers without the involvement of traditional publishing houses or third-party retailers. This approach allows authors to have more control over the distribution and pricing of their works. It often involves selling books through various channels.
We recognize five areas of direct sales for authors: Website landing pages, website storefronts, crowdfunding launches, subscriptions and memberships, and live events and signings.
In these books, we show you how to make money in all of these areas! Direct Sales Mastery for Authors Volume One and Two covers all five of these areas to give you the most robust understanding of the opportunities that all authors have right now.
DIRECT SALES ACCELERATOR
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID (🦄Happitalist)
In conjunction with our direct sales books, this accelerator is a self-study course filled with material on how to build a direct sales environment through your website, and at conventions. We have other courses for subscriptions (Substack specifically) and Kickstarter available to both happitalists and paid members, so this focuses on those three other paths.
CREATE PROFITABLE FACEBOOK ADS
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID (🦄Happitalist)
Understand your customer journey, craft ads that people want to see, and make a profit off your ads. We’ve taken lots of Facebook courses in our life and spent thousands of dollars on failed Facebook ad campaigns before finally figured out how to make them work for me, and now we’re bringing that knowledge to you. This course was created years ago, but it's in general still relevant (though the interface has changed)
HOW TO RUN A VIRAL GIVEAWAY TO BUILD YOUR EMAIL LIST
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID (🦄Happitalist)
Have you been stuck growing your email list with very little results? Do you want massive growth in your list in a very short amount of time? Your email list is the most important thing necessary to grow your business, and being able to run a group builder with 10-20 other creators means that you can add 1,000 new prospective customers to your list, every week, as often as you would like. If you can master this single concept, you can revolutionize your creative business and go from struggling to successful in no time at all.
$8333 12 CONCEPTS TO SIX FIGURES
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID (🦄Happitalist)
$8333 is our attempt to take everything we’ve ever thought or written and combining it into one book filled with the most powerful and impactful things we’ve ever written. If you want to read one book that fully captures the best nuggets from our catalog, this is the book.
PAID MEMBER BONUSES
As a paid subscriber to the Author Stack, you receive several additional resources only otherwise available to our members.
HOW TO BUILD A WORLD CLASS SUBSTACK
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
Are you ready to start a world-class Substack? Are you interested in building your mailing list or paid subscriptions on a platform that gets great organic reach?Are you struggling to get noticed in a sea of other publications?
Then How to Build a World Class Substack is perfect for you.
Written by USA Today bestselling author Russell Nohelty and Substack expert Claire Venus, this comprehensive guide dives deep into the strategies and techniques for creating a standout Substack publication. Whether you're a seasoned writer or just starting, this book offers valuable insights into maximizing your impact on Substack.
Learn how to create compelling content, grow your subscriber base, and navigate the unique features of the Substack platform. Russell and Claire share their personal experiences, practical tips, and proven methods to help you build a successful and sustainable publication.
If you're ready to elevate your Substack, engage with your audience, and build a publication that truly shines, turn the page and start your journey to becoming a Substack rockstar. Your path to a world-class Substack begins here and it's full of joy!
HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL AUTHOR
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
How to Become a Successful Author is the best book you'll ever read on building a successful author career from the ground up, packed with everything you need to know to become a successful author, starting today. It is broken up into three sections: Mindset, all about how to build focus, grit, and resilience, Writing, where Russell breaks down how to build a successful book from the ground up, and Marketing, where you'll learn how to take your book and share it with the world.
HOW TO BUILD YOUR CREATIVE CAREER
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
How to Build Your Creative Career is set up in five sections: How to Make Great Content, The Basics of Sales, Building an Audience from Scratch, Making Money at Live Shows, and Launching your Product Successfully. Every creative Russell has ever met is stuck at one of those stages of their career, and this book gives you the tools to open those floodgates, overcome those blocks in your own career, and supercharge your career. This book can’t guarantee you a successful career, but it can give you all the fundamental knowledge you need to set you up for success because it was written by a creative for a creative.
ADVANCED GROWTH TACTICS FOR AUTHORS
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
Let's grow your author business...
Are you ready to unlock your full potential as an author? In Advanced Growth Tactics for Authors, Russell Nohelty offers a masterclass in building a thriving creative career. This isn’t just another “how-to” guide. It’s a strategic roadmap packed with real-world advice, hard-won lessons, and powerful insights that will help you navigate the challenges of publishing with confidence.
Whether you’re an indie author striving for breakout success or an experienced writer looking to level up, this book covers every aspect of the journey:
Master the art of book launches and create a signature series that keeps readers coming back.
Design a sustainable career with practical strategies for productivity, audience growth, and income diversification.
Navigate rejection with resilience and find the readers who truly resonate with your work.
Embrace creative freedom while maintaining focus on the business side of writing.
Drawing from years of experience in publishing, direct sales, and crowdfunding, Nohelty shows you how to build a career that’s not just successful but also deeply fulfilling. With clear strategies, actionable steps, and a touch of humor, this book is your ultimate guide to thriving in the ever-changing world of publishing.
If you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels and start building momentum, Advanced Growth Tactics for Authors will show you how to turn your passion into a powerhouse career.
BOOK SALES SUPERCHARGED
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
Learn how to get your book selling on platforms from USA Today bestselling authors Russell Nohelty and Monica Leonelle. Five books are available behind the paywall: Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter, Get Your Book Selling on Facebook, Get Your Book Selling with Cross-Promotion, Get Your Book Selling at Events and Signings, and Get Your Book Selling in Print.
THE AUTHOR ECOSYSTEMS
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
Are you struggling to turn your writing into a career? Are you overwhemed trying to decide what advice you should take (and what you can filter out)? Are you desperate to prevent or recover from burnout?
Then you'll love The Author Ecosystems.
After working with thousands of authors to help turn their love of writing and publishing into a sustainable career, USA Today bestselling authors Russell Nohelty and Monica Leonelle have observed five clear and unique publishing ecosystems (or archetypes) that closely align with author success.
We’ve mapped these archetypes onto the five ecosystem biomes on Earth (Desert, Grassland, Tundra, Forest, and Aquatic) to provide a clear, easily visualized metaphor for each type and linked them to successful publishing strategies that work best for each one. We’ve also identified healthy and unhealthy habits for each type and have developed guidance to create a healthy ecosystem and foster a sustainable author career using strategies that align with your natural strengths.
Depending on your archetype, there will be certain things that resonate with you more than others, and different strategies will help you to thrive. The Author Ecosystem helps you identify those things that will help you most and abandon things those that don’t serve you.
FUND YOUR BOOK WITH KICKSTARTER
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
Are you struggling to fund your project? Have you had failed Kickstarter projects before? Are you scared of spending a month of your life on a campaign that doesn't make its goal?
Then this course is for you, filled with everything you need to get started on Kickstarter and crush your goals without a massive time commitment.
HOW TO SET UP AND RUN AN ANTHOLOGY
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
Build an amazing team of creators, hire a crazy good cover artist, and take over the world. Russell recorded this course in June of 2018 and used his upcoming anthology, Cthulhu is Hard to Spell, as a case study to test every secret he talked about in this course. He didn't know what would happen, but hoped it would do a little better than his first anthology, but when he launched the campaign it blew Monsters and Other Scary Shit out of the water!
WRITE A GREAT NOVEL
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
Master character creation, structure, plot, prose, editing, and more in order to write a great book more quickly than ever before. Are you struggling to finish your novel? Does it take you years to write a book? Do you lack confidence in your writing? Then Write a Great Novel is for you. It's everything Russell learned from writing his first 20+ novels. Not only does Russell give you all his secrets to creating characters and building structure, but he gives you the tips, tricks, and hacks he’s found to write better books faster. Most authors aren't teachers, and most teachers aren't prolific authors. Russell is both.
HOW TO BUILD AN AUDIENCE FROM SCRATCH
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
Are you a creative who's sick of agonizing to make enough money? Have you spent years banging your head against a brick wall, trying to make it work with little success to show for it? Are you struggling to connect with a fan base of excited customers? Then the How to Build an Audience from Scratch mini-course is for you. It will show you the five-step process he implemented to grow his email list above 20,000 and become a six-figure creative human.
10X YOUR PRODUCTIVITY
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
Are you struggling to be productive? Do you wish you could get more done in a day, week, month, or year? Then join USA Today bestselling author and six-figure creative entrepreneur Russell Nohelty as he shows you how to 10x your productivity starting today. Learn how to effectively make a goal that you can measure and achieve, how to tell if you have a good idea, how to stop being caught up in idea-switching, how to say no to projects, and much, much more.
LESSONS AND LECTURES
Complete or Ongoing? ONGOING
Free or Paid: PAID
Over the years Russell has given dozens of lectures and recorded countless lessons for creative humans and you have access to a huge selection of them.
INTERVIEW ARCHIVE
Complete or Ongoing? ONGOING
Free or Paid: PAID
Over the years Russell has interviewed over 100 successful creators about how they built and sustained their business. He used this knowledge to build his own career. Now, he’s opening the complete archive up to you.
INCOME REPORTS
Complete or Ongoing? ONGOING
Free or Paid: PAID
The only section on The Author Stack that is completely paid, Russell reveals all the numbers from previous years for most of his business (except WriterMBA) and he even gives the numbers he received in compensation from that company. We have income reports going back to 2018, with data as far back as 2017.
SCRIPT LIBRARY
Complete or Ongoing? ONGOING
Free or Paid: PAID
A collection of scripts Russell has written for TV, movies, comics, and audio dramas, along with story bibles and pitch packets. While a lot of these have been produced, especially the comic and audio dramas, Russell decided to upload a whole collection so you could see evolution over time. A lot of these stories that weren’t products, like The Facilitator, ended up becoming key components of other books, like Magic where Ollie is basically a facilitator just like in the original script.
THE COMPLETE CREATIVE ARCHIVE
Complete or Ongoing? COMPLETE
Free or Paid: PAID
When Russell was running his previous blog, The Complete Creative, he ran a lot of experiments and wrote a bunch about running a creative business that didn't fit anywhere else on The Author Stack. There’s even some new material in there that we archived exclusively for paid members.
We also have a large selection of fiction books and comics available behind our paywall. You can check them out here.
Fiction available on The Author Stack
I offer several fiction titles to paid members, including both comics and novels. We do serialize one of my series, but most are only available to paid members. We also have an extensive collection of nonfiction books, courses, and podcasts only available to members.