Keep Talking About What You Do

A reminder to share your work again and again and again.

I received a note here on Substack the other day from someone asking if I am the same Jennie Nash who wrote Blueprint for a Book.

My first thought was — Um, YES and how could you possibly MISS this fact? I’ve sold more than 10,000 copies of these books, which I published myself, and given away countless other copies in various promotions and partnerships; I am currently running a Blueprint challenge over at the #amwriting website that more than 200 people are doing; many of the book coaches I train are teaching Blueprint workshops at places like Muse & The Marketplace and The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators; I just did a summit presentation on the Blueprint; I just did a Blueprint coaching session for someone who won it at an auction I donated to; people are always thanking me online for the Blueprint and sharing photos about it, which I gleefully re-share. I am OBVIOUSLY the same person who wrote Blueprint for a Book!

And then I realized that (obviously) it was not at all obvious! It feels like I talk about the Blueprint all day long, but I looked and I have written about the Blueprint on Substack exactly ONCE in the last year.

Part of the reason for not talking about it is that the Blueprint is a tool designed for writers and this newsletter is directed towards book coaches, who may or may not use my Blueprint in their coaching.

But the bigger reason is that I just assumed that everyone who encounters me anywhere already knows everything about me.

I don’t have to repeat myself.

I don’t have to point them in the right direction for the help they may need.

I don’t need to toot my own horn.

What I am offering writers and book coaches is all right in front of them, so clearly laid out and defined.

HA!

How very wrong those assumptions are. We all must talk about what we do again and again and again, probably far more often than we are comfortable doing. If you’ve made a lead magnet and posted it a few times, plan to do it 100 more times. If you’ve sent an email about an upcoming workshop for your followers, plan to let them know about it a dozen more times. If you’ve written a book, get ready to talk about it everywhere for the rest of time. (This, by the way, is a great test for writers who are wondering if they want to put in the time/effort/energy to write, revise, and publish a book. Ask them, “Are you excited to talk about this story or topic for the rest of time?” It’s a different version of the first question in each Blueprint book, which is, “Why do you want to write this book?”)

You have to let people know what you do over and over again because your readers/listeners/followers are busy and distracted (we all are) and no one is counting how often you talk about what you do.

So for the kind person who asked and any others who might wonder:

• I am Jennie Nash, founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, a company on a mission to lead the emerging book coaching industry. You can learn about what we do at www.bookcoaches.com and watch a free video training about book coaching at www.bookcoaches.com/coaches. 👈 This is a brand new training and it’s pretty great!

• If you are a writer who is starting a new book idea, feeling stuck with a book project, or ready to revise, check out my Blueprint books wherever books are sold. There is a Blueprint book for fiction, for nonfiction, and for memoir. The Blueprint method is a process of inquiry designed to help writers lay a solid foundation for what they are writing before they start to write. It’s a series of questions to ask yourself to make sure you have the core elements of your book locked down. And if you don’t have them locked down? The Blueprint shows you the holes so you can shore them up. It’s a powerful process. Another kind reader recently pointed out that the first Blueprint book — the fiction one — is about half the length of the memoir one, which was published three years later. That’s because with each passing year, I have more and more to say about the process! I may revise the fiction Blueprint one day, but for now, it remains a short, concise, awesome little book about writing a novel. You can find free tools and resources about my Blueprint method at jennienash.com/blueprint.

• If you wish to get Blueprint coaching from one of the 300+ certified book coaches I’ve trained, you can go to authoraccelerator.com/match-me to search for a coach who would be a great fit. All of our coaches have put in more than 100 hours of training and all have been certified to teach my Blueprint method.

What assumptions are you making in your business? What do people need to hear about what you do?

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