Karla Marie looks like your buddy’s wife. She’s cute. Whenever you go out for a couples’ dinner and the drinks are flowing, you definitely flirt but never cross the line.
Bros before hoes, right?
You could see her working as a vet tech, volunteering at her daughter’s school once a week, helping those adorable little lumps of snot and sass learn how to read.
But no. Karla sells a make-money-online program called Fiction Profits Academy, which she started in 2015 after years of earning six figures from publishing fiction novels.
A guy named Roy Lewis took the course in 2016.
Roy killed it, shocked it back to life, and then killed it again with an evil grin on his face.
Using what Karla taught him, he published 200+ books, 50 of which became top 100 Amazon Bestsellers.
He apparently made $2.3 million in the process.
Today he’s listed as a co-founder of Fiction Profits Academy. Interesting.
With nearly 9,000 members in their private Facebook Group, I doubt Roy and Karla have much need to type out 233 pages about some horny housewife staring longingly into a beefcake’s eyes as the sun sets, aching for his calloused hands to explore her eager body.
Or whatever kinda shit is in these novels, right?
Because the cost for FBA is $1,995.
So if my math is right, that’s about $18 million in course sales – not counting any upsells they have waiting for you.
Either way, I guess I have no problem with them being full-time gurus now, as long as their process still works.
Karla says you can bet your bottom dollar it does.
They just reshot the training so it’s fresher than the lettuce in a vegan’s fridge.
Plus, as a bonus, you’re getting their Story Creation AI Software. This way, you don’t have to write these fiction books yourself or pay a ghostwriter the equivalent of a semester’s tuition at community college to do it for you.
But let’s talk Fiction Profits Academy reviews.
They’ve got an Excellent 4.8-star rating on Trustpilot after 2,157 supposed students have weighed in.
Seems impressive until you skim through them.
When you do, you discover the 5-star reviews are about as useful as a floppy hammer.
It feels like they have you do one-on-one calls with a coach just so they can tell you to leave a review. Because they pretty much all say the same thing.
“Just had my Zoom call with Tara [or Daniel or Abby or Kandis or Shauna or whoever] and it went great!” they all report. “Super helpful and I left with a ton of notes! Yay FPA!” they add.
Why do they all sound so similar? You have to wonder.
And why leave feedback so early in the process? I wouldn’t recommend a movie after the opening credits, would you?
It’s only when you read their 1-star reviews that you get anywhere.
Take Peggy.
She completed the entire FPA coursework and published eight books, one boxset, and one lead magnet, following their guidelines to the T.
She invested over $8,000 on ghostwriters, editors, software, and ads, not counting the $2,000 program cost, but made less than $500 back.
Per Peggy, while they do teach self-publishing, it’s time-consuming and difficult, with very few members actually succeeding.
In their nonstop YouTube and Facebook ads, Karla and Roy say it’s easy, anyone can do it. Wrong, says Peggy.
She warns you not to fall for their marketing.
Between the lack of support, constant upselling, and deceptive advertising, she believes the program is unprofessional and predatory.
The real fiction, Peggy quips, is the profits they promise.
I tend to agree.
They oversell this, milk you for everything you’ve got on the back-end, and AI brings with it infinite competition.
Good luck escaping their retargeting ads, though – they’ll follow you around like that plus-sized stalker from Baby Reindeer.