We recently connected with Troy Nelson and have shared our conversation below.

Troy, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I’ve worked directly or indirectly in the music print publishing world for 30 years. After graduation from high school (Viroqua, WI), I moved to Milwaukee, where I earned a two-year associate’s degree in music. While I was in college, I met a friend who eventually got a job at Hal Leonard, the world leader in music print publishing. A short time later, he reached out and asked if I wanted to do some freelance work for Hal Leonard, mostly editing and proofreading guitar songbooks and instructional books, as well as transcribing entire songs by ear, everything from Rage Against the Machine and Alice in Chains to Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Queen.

By the mid-’90s, Hal Leonard had teamed up with another publishing company, Cherry Lane Music, and launched a guitar magazine, Guitar One. Since I grew up reading (and playing) guitar magazine, this got my attention and, eventually, I asked to be a part of it. I spent about four years transcribing the guitar tabs that accompanied each issue, eventually being hired as the full-time Music Editor and, later, Senior Editor. In 1999, I was given the opportunity to move to New York City and take over all the editorial responsibilities as Guitar One’s Editor-in-Chief, a position I held for five years.

In 2005, I started to feel the need for a new challenge. In addition to my love of music, I grew up a huge sports fan, particularly college and NFL football. So, in the summer of 2005, I resigned as Editor-in-Chief of Guitar One and accepted an internship in the Internet & Publications department of the New York Jets. After spending the 2005 season with the Jets, I moved with my wife and twin daughters to Athens, Georgia, where I studied Sports Management and, in 2009, graduated Summa Cum Laude. Later that year, I accepted a position with Gardner-Webb University, where I coordinated all of the football program’s video needs, eventually moving into the role of Director of Football Operations. After two years at GWU, I spent the summer of 2011 as an operations intern with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and, later, seven months interning with BLESTO, a scouting service owned and operated by a group of NFL teams.

During my seven-year stint in sports, I dabbled in music as much as I could, including authoring a few instructional guitar books for Hal Leonard. One of those titles, Guitar Aerobics, turned into a huge best-seller. And it was the success of that book that ultimately convinced me to leave the sports world and go back to music on a full-time basis. In 2013, my family and I moved from North Carolina to Nashville, where I spent the next five years authoring more instructional books, as well as editing and proofreading songbooks and instructional books for Hal Leonard on a freelance basis.

During that time, I had an idea for a book that I had planned on pitching to Hal Leonard but just didn’t think it was worthy of a pitch. I had even gone so far as to compose all the music for the book, which sat on a shelf in my closet for a good year or so. One day, I decide to go ahead and finish the book without really knowing what I was going to do with it. After some discussions with and encouragement from my wife, we decided to go ahead a self-publish the book, which would become Modern Lead Guitar, on Amazon’s publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). At first, we only offered the title as a downloadable ebook, thinking ebooks where the medium of the future. After 6-8 months of tepid sales, we decided to offer the book as a paperback, as well, hoping it would spark more sales. Although we didn’t quite get the results we were hoping for, we did notice an uptick in overall sales, which was enough to motivate me to write and self-publish a second title, Play Blues Guitar in 14 Days. This time, we published both an ebook and a paperback version right away and the results were better—quite a bit better. So much better, in fact, that I decided to give up my freelance work completely and devote all of my time to self-publishing, eventually launching my own company, Troy Nelson Music LLC.

After writing and releasing a half dozen titles, I encourage a few of my musician friends to write books and let me publish them under the TNM brand. A business that started with a single ebook, now is the home to over 50 titles and more than 20 authors. And, by the end of 2022, TNM should surpass half a million dollars in total royalties.

Troy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I launched Troy Nelson Music, the initial plan was for it to be the “store front” for the books that I was self-publishing, but after I started signing authors and publishing their titles, I had to rethink my business model. The first thing I did was think back to my own experiences as an author and figure out what I liked and disliked about those experiences. And, over the last few years, I’ve tried really hard to instill in the company the good experiences I had and to exclude the experiences that I disliked.

The best example is book royalty splits between the author and publisher. Most authors who’ve signed book deals with traditional publishers will tell you that the author’s portion is too small—and I totally agree. So, I decided that, instead of the traditional author/publisher arrangement, whereby the author typically receives 8–12% of the cover price, I wanted to create a true partnership with my authors, whereby they would receive 50% of the net royalties received from Amazon—a true 50-50 split. TNM also allows our authors to retain 50% ownership of their books—their intellectual property—a philosophy not shared by all publishers.

As someone’s who’s been a freelance musician for much of the past 35 years, I know firsthand how difficult it can be at times for musicians to make ends meet. With Troy Nelson Music, my goal is to find talented educators/musicians and help them open up an additional (passive) income stream. I believe that most people have an area of expertise—whether it’s music, sports, or business—and it’s my job to find those individuals and help them put into book form so they can share that information with others. I’m currently doing that in the music field, and I hope to branch out into other areas in the near future.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I can be a perfectionist at times (just ask my wife!) but I’ve had to teach myself not to sweat the small things, especially if they don’t negatively affect the product or the service we provide. Since we’re such a small company, which includes me and on part-time employee, micromanaging a project or focusing too much on details that nobody outside the company will notice, start to add up and cut into productivity. Therefore, I have two mottos that I often refer to: 1) “Don’t overthink shit,” and 2) “Just let shit go.”

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

During my transition from music to sports, I took a job as the video coordinator for Gardner-Webb University’s football program. GWU is a small private school in Boiling Springs, NC, a one-stoplight town with fewer than 5,000 people. I was happy with the job and thankful for the opportunity, but after working in the music industry in New York City for seven years, I had those moments when I’d be driving into Boiling Springs at six o’clock in the morning, when the sun’s just coming up, thinking, “How did I get here? What am I doing?” In other words, “Did I make the right choice?”

Although those self-doubts crept in, I always kept my eye on the prize, which, for me, was working my way up to the NFL and becoming a full-time college scout. It was a seven-year process but I eventually got that opportunity. Without that focus, drive, and determination, I don’t think Troy Nelson Music would be the success that it is today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://troynelsonmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/troynelsonguitar
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-nelson-67735312/

Image Credits
Andrea Farmer Photography