My date fails sparked huge side hustle – £40 fee almost put me off but now I’ve traded in ex-council house for new home
A WOMAN who started a huge side hustle off the back of her dating fails told how she was initially put off by a £40 fee.
Sophie Grant, 31, started her own hilarious blog Sex in the Glasgow City before turning it into her debut novel.
The mum, who uses the pen name Sophie Gravia, followed it up with another chart-topper What Happens in Dubai while her latest Meet Me in Milan will be released this month - and has already topped the Amazon chart for erotic fiction.
Her first two books have already sold almost 250,000 copies and Sophie has had interest from major production companies to adapt her books into a TV series.
But she was initially put off writing books because it would cost her a fee to have a graphic designer make the front cover.
She told the Daily Mail: "When I wrote the first book in 2020 it was coming up to Christmas and I almost put off doing it then because it was costing me £40 to have a graphic designer make my front cover and I didn't have a lot of money.
"I had to remind myself that I might make some money back if I published it at that time of year.
"I thought I'd maybe make a few hundred pounds. I never dreamed that it would do so well, it's totally life-changing."
Sophie told the Scottish Sun the success of her books allowed her to trade her ex-council house for a new home.
Sophie added: “When I became a qualified professional nurse, I was still struggling to pay the bills as a single parent.
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“I was working really hard but kept thinking ‘Is this it? Will I always be in debt?’ I paid everything on tick. My kitchen, my couch and even my telly was all on tick.
“As soon as A Glasgow Kiss took off I was able to pay off all my debt and I bought a new car - a nice Merc - and I bought a new house, as I stayed in an ex-council house before.
“It has given me and my daughters such a better life, it’s almost unrecognisable from before.”
We told how the mortified mum was chucked out of a footballer's hotel room over her outfit.
Sophie was dress-coded by rude staff who mistook her for a prostitute because she was in a naughty nurse costume.
Recalling the mortifying incident during a girls' holiday to Tenerife, Sophie told the Daily Mail she found herself back at an unnamed footballer's hotel room after a night out.
Dressed in a low-cut white mini dress and high heels, the sports star was making her a drink when they heard banging at the door.
Hotel security guards then yelled "No prostitutes allowed! No prostitutes allowed!" as they gained entry into the room.
The author and nurse was then escorted out of the hotel and into the street - despite insisting she wasn't a sex worker.