Amy B. Scher's newsletter shout out this morning was such an awesome surprise during what has been such an f'ing hard week for all of us struggling with the overturning of Roe V. Wade. It's felt downright hopeless at times over the last seven days, especially as mom to an amazing 23-year-old transgender daughter (whose rights are likely to be next on the chopping block) and an equally amazing 19-year-old daughter who is setting off to explore life in Tucson in August. I just never thought they'd be worse off than I was growing up.  We're supposed to be moving forward, not backward. Of course, I'm not stopping my lifelong fight for equality now that we've been handed this very shitty deck of cards, but I also won't say this week hasn't been incredibly hard on my heart and soul. 

With that said, this newsletter shout out by my dear friend Amy B. Scher made my day! I just adore her. If you don't know her, you need to. She's an international bestselling author of multiple books about healing (because she healed HERSELF!). She also teaches countless people around the world how to incorporate healing techniques into daily life. She's just, well, one of the best damn humans on the planet. And, as she says in her newsletter, an instant BFF of mine! I  can't wait to share more about our connection and what transpired after we met, but I'll leave that for another time. 

Today, check out what Amy said about my recent podcast interview with Dr. Amy Robbins, Clinical Psychologist. (Amy was also on Dr. Robbin's show a few years back!)

​Podcast: Little Voices From Beyond

When I met Kiersten Hathcock on Instagram, I just knew she was something special. You know those people you are just kind of instant BFFs with?! Well that was us! But beyond her kind and wonderful soul, Kiersten's story captivated me. Out of nowhere, and without any previous psychic experience, Kiersten started hearing voices .... and it turned out they were the voices of children who had passed away.

She has a book coming out in September (on my birthday) called LITTLE VOICES: How Kids in Spirit Helped a Reluctant Medium Escape and Heal from Abuse. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy to read, and to say I binge read it would be an understatement. I devoured it.
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This week she was on one of my favorite podcasts (with Dr. Amy Robbins) sharing part of her story, and lots of wisdom, with all of you.

Some episode highlights:

• How Kiersten’s psychic gifts showed up – as little voices coming to her. She didn’t ask for it; it just happened.
• What Kiersten experiences when she hears from these children. How she manages what she finds out.
• How the Universe connected Kiersten with law enforcement. She now works with law enforcement and with parents of lost kids.
• So much more!

Please note: There is discussion of abuse in Kiersten's story and on this podcast. It may be a trigger for some of you.

Click here to watch this episode on YouTube

And by the way, if you missed when I was on the podcast with Dr. Amy, you can listen to my episode here. 
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I’m a huge fan of movie trailers. My ADD brain loves them. I mean, what’s not to love, really? They’re quick, to-the-point, and share just enough to make you want to spend $20 at the movies.

Bravo to whomever came up with the fairly-new-to-the-market book trailer. I had no idea there was such a thing until after I inked a traditional book deal.

If you’re like most authors (me, included), we’re not shelling out thousands of dollars for a publicist or creative marketing agency. We’re doing most of the marketing and PR outreach ourselves. Starting six months prior to the scheduled book launch.

Before I crafted my trailer, I watched hundreds of book trailers to get a feel for length and content. Most have a running time of 30 seconds to one minute and 30 seconds. Next, I researched the formula.

Based on what I saw online, the formula goes like this:

1. Pose a “what if” question. A central question that your book helps answer. Mine is “What if there really is life after death?”
2. Include details regarding the question you just asked that you know make your book stand out in your genre. For example, I let everyone know that I wasn’t looking for the answer to the question—that it simply found me when I turned 36-years-old.
3. From (glowing description) (author name), comes… This is the section where you share your credentials/success. “Bestselling author,” etc.
4. Book title
5. Your elevator pitch for your book. The answer to “what’s this book about?” Keep it to a sentence or two.
6. Endorsements and testimonials
7. Call to Action: Where readers can pre-order or buy your book.
   
   

Once I completed my script, I turned to iMovie to create the trailer. It’s not a difficult program to learn, thank goodness. For music, I searched online for something instrumental that supported my script. When it came time to add my voice to my trailer, I used Garage Band and a microphone that connects to my laptop via USB. That was key to getting the clear sound I wanted; however, you can also record a voice memo on your phone and drag that file into iMovie. Similarly, Garage Band recordings can also be imported into iMovie, too. 

So, there you have it. It was relatively painless once I got into the process. Learning the programs is the easy part (there are tons of tutorials out on YouTube). Crafting a script that moved the trailer along at a good pace for 1 minute and 30 seconds was the hard part.

I hope this article helps you become the next Scorsese of book trailers. If you do take my advice, I’d love to see your finished product. Reach out and let me know where to find it!

Against all odds—and without millions of followers—I sold a memoir. You can, too!

I landed a book deal for my memoir, and I’m not the least bit famous. Nor am I a professional writer by trade.
So, how did I do it?

It only took 44 rejections over two years. And a unique story.

This was the key--the unique story. If you’re hoping to land a traditional publishing deal for your memoir but you don’t have a Kardashian-like following, think long and hard about how your story differs from others in the marketplace.

In my other life—as mentor to start-up founders—the first question I ask entrepreneurs is how does their product/idea/service differ from what’s in the marketplace already. It’s also what was asked of me when I swam with the Sharks on Shark Tank in 2011. In the literary world, it doesn’t seem to be top of mind for many of the amazing writers I’ve met. Their writing skills far exceed mine and they have incredible true stories to tell, but figuring out what makes their book a must-have for publishers is not the first thing they’re thinking about.

I get why it’s this way—the process of writing a book is a massive, gnarly animal in itself. Who wants to think about marketing when you’re just trying to get your damn book written?! And most people don’t look at things from a marketing perspective. As a lifelong marketer, I do. Annoyingly so, at times.

So, here’s my advice…

Research the Marketplace
Before you dive into writing your memoir, start researching what’s out there that looks similar to yours. And then come up with reasons it’s not similar. I’ll use my memoir, Little Voices, as an example. There are a million memoirs written by psychic mediums and folks who’ve endured near death experiences. And then there’s mine…
Little Voices stands out from other books on the market in the following ways:

• Unlike most books on the market about channeling, Kiersten is not a professional medium who grew up knowing she had mediumship abilities, nor did she endure a near death experience. She’s a normal person thrown into a supernatural experience for personal and global reasons that weren’t clear at the time and has earned the respect of decorated law enforcement officers.
• NYPD Homicide Detective, Mark Pucci has provided both a foreword and a recommendation based on his experience with her. This is not common for detectives to be so open about their involvement with psychic mediums. Mark and Kiersten have also recently teamed up to start a nonprofit called The National Institute for Law and Justice, an organization whose mission is to help crime victims, missing persons, and their families at no cost to the families.
• Little Voices takes the reader through the journey of uncovering childhood sexual abuse and grooming by a predator in a narcissistically abusive relationship. Despite the fact that Kiersten was incredibly tapped into her own intuition, she still fell down the rabbit hole with an abusive sexual predator because she didn’t understand the concept of wounded attachment. Many childhood sexual abuse survivors repress memories of abuse; therefore, they have no idea that their subconscious programming is leading them down a path of further destruction. 158 million people are affected by narcissistic abuse in the US alone. The theme of domestic abuse — as it relates to childhood sexual abuse, murder, and narcissistic abuse — is throughout this book.
  
  

Okay, now that you’ve done that…

Think about what type of memoir you’d like to write and sell.
My agent was very clear when we met that memoir (spiritual memoir, at that) is a VERY hard sell unless you’re famous. If you check out Publisher’s Marketplace (they have a monthly subscription), you can see what publishing house acquiring editors are buying. In my case, I knew (intuitively) that I had to push forward with the traditional memoir style, i.e., braided essay; however, I wasn’t necessarily opposed to transforming my book into more of a “narrative nonfiction with how-to” format. It’s an easier sell. If all doors had been closed to me to sell my book as a memoir, I wouldn’t have changed it up and tried to sell it as self-help. I ultimately didn’t change the structure of mine because I got a book deal.

Here’s what I mean by narrative nonfiction with how-to…

If you organize your book by topics/lessons—telling your story to match the topics/lessons per chapter and then including tips the reader can use to make their own lives better—you’ve got a winning combo. And it doesn’t put you squarely in the memoir category competing against the Demi Moore’s of the world. Your book will be categorized as self-help, but you’ll still be telling your story.

So, there you have it. I hope what I’ve shared helps make the book-selling process easier for you. Reading about your life will help me in my life. I want to read your book, and I want to see you succeed! It might take more than 44 rejections and more than two years of pitching, but you can do this.

If you tell agents and editors of the publishing world WHY your story stands out—and why it’s worth the risk for them— you’ll be well on your way to landing the book deal of your dreams.
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