One of the most common questions I hear from women who are feeling the call to write a book is, ‘Should I wait until I have a bigger audience?’
Many of the would-be authors I speak to have dismissed the idea of writing a book, because they don’t believe they have enough people who will want to read it.
So, what comes first, the book or the audience?
Well, it’s true that most traditional publishers will expect you to have a large audience before they offer you a book deal.
But, when it comes to self-publishing, you have the freedom to play your own game. (And because freedom has always been my biggest value, THIS is the space I personally choose to play in).
To be honest, I’m far too impatient to spend years building a large enough platform to get a traditional publishing deal and then wait MANY more months until my book gets to be shared with the world.
I’m a vessel for an abundance of creative ideas and I always want my magic to be shared as quickly as possible. (And as a fellow unbound woman, I’m guessing you’re probably the same?)
This is why I’m a big believer in growing your audience whilst you’re writing your book, rather than waiting until it’s finished.
So my answer to anyone who’s feeling called to write a book is, DO IT!
Start now.
Allow the magic to flow through you.
And grow your merry band of soulmate readers as you go.
But Nicola (you might be asking), how do you ACTUALLY do this?
Well, there are many different ways to start sharing the ides that are coming through in your writing LONG before your book is actually published: blogging, social media posts, starting a YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram lives, podcasts, speaking, to name a few.
But I want to give you a specific, real-life example to show you what’s possible.
How I more than doubled my email list (almost by accident!) from writing one article
This is based on my own experience when writing my second book, UNBOUND. Before I dive into the details, I want to let you know that, yes, I did already have an audience, both on social media and around 700 people on my email list. But, as you will see, what I’m sharing here could easily be replicated if you’re starting from scratch.
In the summer of 2017, I was a few months into writing UNBOUND, but in reality I’d written very little! I had no clear idea what form the final book would take, so I was trusting the process and allowing different ideas to flow through.
Through this process of exploration, I’d tuned into some themes that encapsulated what it means to be an unbound woman (and how challenging that can be) and I distilled these into a blog post: The 7 Signs You’re An Unbound Woman
At the time, I was taking a writing class with Carolyn Elliott, founder of WITCH magazine, so as well as sharing this article on my own website, I decided to submit it to WITCH.
Once I sent the article through to WITCH, I didn’t think much more about it. In all honesty, I doubted whether it would be accepted for publication. (So, if you have these kind of fears and doubts, know that they are COMPLETELY normal and part of the process).
It was only one evening a few weeks later that I realised my article had been published. I started to get lots of new requests to join my Facebook group, which was unusual. When I checked, I saw that ‘The 7 Signs You’re An Unbound Woman’ had been shared on WITCH and it was getting thousands of views and hundreds of shares (much more than it would have done on my own website).
When I submitted the article, I knew that I should include a link to a freebie so people could join my email list. I didn’t have anything specific, so I kept it super-simple and offered a free Meeting Your Unbound Self visualisation which had been part of the bonuses for my first book, Heal Your Inner Good Girl.
Over a couple of weeks my email list more than doubled to around 1750. And the magical thing is that this was a completely new audience for me. Some of these women went on to become high level, 1:1 mentoring clients after reading that one post and having a quick exploratory conversation.
A piece of writing like this is a gift that keeps on giving. I still get people coming to me via this article and others I’ve since written for WITCH. And after the initial rush of new unbound community members, because I knew that the ‘7 Signs…’ article resonated so deeply, I was able to share it more widely using Facebook ads, attracting new people to my work (and potential readers for my books) for very little outlay.
So, what are the key lessons you can take from this when it comes to growing an audience for your work
- Start sharing your magic NOW. Wherever you are in your writing journey (even if you haven’t even started yet or aren’t clear exactly what form your book will take), allow yourself to share the ideas that are coming through for you with your potential readers.
- Trust that what whatever is coming through in your writing is exactly what is needed at this time. I wasn’t sure where my ideas for UNBOUND were going when I wrote the ‘7 Signs…’ article, but something within me knew that other women would resonate. (Another part of me was thinking ‘NO-ONE is going to get this Nic!’, but I chose not to listen to this!)
- Share your work in places where your potential soul-mate readers will see/hear it. A good indicator of this is usually reflecting on the things you like to read and listen to, and then asking whether you can share your work/message there.
- Have a way that people can stay connected with you after they’ve read/listened to what you’ve shared. This does NOT have to be fancy. It could be as simple as inviting someone to sign-up to your email list for updates or to join your Facebook group. You can absolutely provide some kind of freebie (maybe the first chapter of your book if you’re that far along?), but know that when you’re writing from an unbound place and connecting with your TRUE magic, people will be attracted to you without any bells or whistles.
- Get excited about the kind of community you want to create via your writing. If you were going to start a movement, what would it be around? What turns you on? When you allow yourself to connect with all of this, your vibration will attract the people who need and want to hear your unique message.
Your next step…
Want to discover how to write the book that changes your life in THE most powerful and magical way? Get immediate access to my free Unbound Writing Masterclass here.
