From Researcher to Publisher: How I Built a Creative Side Hustle That Actually Broke Even

The stats on creative side hustles are brutal. According to a 2023 study by LendingTree, nearly half of all side hustles fail to turn a profit in their first year. For publishing ventures, the numbers are even more sobering—most literary presses operate at a loss, subsidized by grants, academic appointments, or sheer passion.

But what if you could flip that narrative?

Tse Hao Guang, a 38-year-old strategic foresight researcher based in Singapore, set out to prove that a creative side project doesn’t have to hemorrhage cash. His experiment: launch a literary pamphlet publishing business called Paper Jam that spotlights emerging Singaporean writers, with the explicit goal of simply breaking even.

No unicorn valuations. No VC funding. No burning through savings chasing a dream. Just a disciplined, data-informed approach to making art sustainable.

Here’s how he did it—and what any B2B founder or revenue leader can learn from his playbook.

The Problem: Why Most Creative Ventures Bleed Money

Before diving into the solution, let’s understand the structural challenges Hao Guang identified. The traditional path for emerging writers is riddled with friction points that make financial viability nearly impossible:

• High barriers to entry: To publish a full manuscript, writers typically need to amass enough material for a 200+ page book. That takes years.
• Economically punishing print runs: First-time authors are often advised to print 1,000 copies or more. That means upfront costs in the thousands of dollars, plus warehousing and inventory risk.
• Limited showcase options: Writers can either publish individual pieces in literary journals (where their work is one among many) or chase the elusive full-length book deal. There’s no middle ground.

These aren’t just creative problems—they’re business problems. High fixed costs, low unit economics, and zero product-market fit validation.

“Very, very rare that you can survive just by writing books,” Hao Guang told Business Insider. As a freelance writer early in his career, he experienced this firsthand. He taught workshops, did copywriting gigs, and wrote his own poetry and prose. The result? Burnout.

Client writing and creative writing “used similar parts of my brain,” he said. The cognitive overlap drained him.

The Pivot: How a Day Job Unlocked Creative Freedom

Hao Guang’s turning point came when he transitioned from freelance writing to a full-time role as a strategic foresight researcher.

This might sound counterintuitive. Conventional wisdom says you should quit your day job to pursue your passion. But Hao Guang found the opposite to be true.

“Earning a stable salary has removed the pressure to make money from my writing,” he explained.

With a predictable income stream covering his living expenses, his creative projects no longer had to generate revenue. They just had to cover their own costs.

For revenue leaders reading this: This is a masterclass in unit economics. By decoupling his personal survival from his side hustle’s profitability, Hao Guang created the space to experiment with a lean model that most VC-backed startups can’t replicate.

The Solution: Paper Jam’s Lean Publishing Model

In 2024, Hao Guang launched Paper Jam with seed funding from Sing Lit Station, a Singapore-based nonprofit that supports local writers. But the real innovation isn’t the funding source—it’s the operational structure he designed.

1. Hyper-limited print runs

Most publishers think “bigger is better.” Hao Guang went in the opposite direction.

Paper Jam produces only 100 copies of each pamphlet. Not 500. Not 1,000. 100.

This decision eliminates the two biggest killers of small publishing ventures:

• Inventory risk: Unsold copies don’t pile up in your garage.
• Cash flow strain: You’re not fronting thousands of dollars for a print run that might take years to sell through.

Plus, limited supply creates artificial scarcity—a tactic that luxury brands have perfected. When only 100 copies exist, collectors and fans feel urgency to buy.

2. Tightly constrained scope

Each pamphlet is exactly 28 pages long. That’s a deliberate choice.

A 28-page pamphlet is quick to produce, easy to edit, and cheap to print. It also sets clear expectations for readers and writers alike.

Compare this to the typical manuscript process: 200-300 pages, multiple rounds of editing, cover design, layout, ISBN registration, distribution logistics. One project can consume months of free time.

Hao Guang’s approach is MVP (Minimum Viable Product) thinking applied to publishing. Ship fast, validate demand, iterate.

3. Curated open calls

Rather than chasing submissions, Hao Guang runs an annual open call on Instagram to select three writers for the year.

This serves two business functions:

• Demand generation: The open call is itself a marketing event. Writers share it with their networks, expanding reach.
• Quality control: By selecting only three writers from the applicant pool, Paper Jam maintains a high bar for content—which protects the brand’s reputation.

4. Exclusivity as a feature

Hao Guang doesn’t try to maximize distribution. He actively limits it.

“We only produce 100 copies of each pamphlet to maintain exclusivity,” he explained.

For B2B leaders, this is a counterintuitive but powerful lesson. Sometimes, serving fewer customers better creates more value than trying to capture a mass market. Think of it as niche mastery over horizontal scaling.

The Business Model: Breaking Even Without Breaking Yourself

So how does Paper Jam actually make money?

The math is straightforward. Each 28-page pamphlet costs a fixed amount to design, print, and distribute. By limiting print runs to 100 copies, Hao Guang keeps production costs predictable and manageable.

Revenue comes from:

• Direct sales of pamphlets (priced to cover costs)
• Grant funding from Sing Lit Station (covers initial capital outlay)
• Minimal overhead (no office, no employees, no expensive marketing)

The goal isn’t high margins. It’s zero loss.

“This means we can keep doing what we do,” Hao Guang said, “instead of having to constantly fundraise or stress about the bottom line.”

For growth-stage companies, there’s a lesson here about capital efficiency. Not every venture needs to be a hyper-growth rocket ship. Some of the best businesses are those that consistently generate positive unit economics, even if the absolute numbers are modest.

Key Takeaways for B2B Founders and Revenue Teams

Hao Guang’s journey from struggling freelance writer to lean publisher offers several actionable insights for anyone building a business:

1. Solve a real friction point

The gap Hao Guang identified wasn’t “writers need more exposure.” It was specific: emerging writers have no middle ground between journal submissions and full-length manuscripts. Paper Jam fills that gap.

Actionable question: What’s the underserved middle ground in your market? The customer who has outgrown your starter product but isn’t ready for your enterprise tier?

2. Use constraints as a competitive advantage

Most publishers try to maximize print runs. Hao Guang intentionally minimizes them. The constraint of 100 copies becomes a selling point: exclusivity, collectibility, scarcity.

Actionable question: What constraint could you turn into a feature? Faster delivery? Smaller batch sizes? More personalized service?

3. Protect your creative energy

Hao Guang learned that freelancing drained him because client work and creative work used “similar parts of my brain.” His full-time research role is sufficiently different that it preserves his creative bandwidth for writing and publishing.

Actionable question: Are you running your business in a way that depletes your best thinking? Could outsourcing certain functions or changing your work structure protect your high-value cognitive energy?

4. Validate before scaling

Paper Jam launched with a single year’s budget, three writers, and 100 copies per title. No massive inventory, no expensive PR campaigns, no complicated distribution deals.

Hao Guang validated the model first—and only then can he consider scaling.

Actionable question: What’s the smallest possible version of your next product or service that you could launch to test demand? How can you reduce your risk before committing significant resources?

5. Grant funding > venture capital

For certain types of businesses, non-dilutive funding (grants, awards, government programs) is far superior to equity financing. Hao Guang’s partnership with Sing Lit Station gave him capital without giving up control.

Actionable question: Are there grant programs, industry awards, or partnership opportunities available to you? Non-dilutive capital preserves your upside and your autonomy.

The Bigger Picture: Sustainability Over Scale

Hao Guang’s story challenges the VC-funded growth-at-all-costs narrative that dominates so much of B2B thinking. He’s not trying to build a publishing empire. He’s trying to build a sustainable creative practice that serves writers and readers.

His metric for success isn’t ARR or user growth. It’s whether Paper Jam can continue to exist next year, and the year after, without burning out its founder or its finances.

For revenue leaders and founders, this is a bracing reminder: Not everything needs to be a unicorn. Some of the most valuable businesses are those that generate consistent, modest returns while serving a passionate community.

As Hao Guang put it: “I wanted to show that a creative venture does not have to bleed money.”

He’s proving that every month Paper Jam operates in the black.

Final Thoughts: What’s Your ‘Paper Jam’?

Every B2B founder has that side project—the one that doesn’t fit neatly into your core business model but keeps calling to you. The product that solves a real problem for a specific audience but doesn’t seem scalable enough for investor attention.

Maybe it’s time to launch it anyway.

Not everything needs to be a billion-dollar business. Some ventures are valuable precisely because they’re contained, intentional, and profitable on their own terms.

Hao Guang’s Paper Jam is proof that with the right constraints, the right audience, and the right definition of success, even a creative side hustle can break even.

And breaking even beats burning out every time.