Thoughts on My First Book Release!
The day has finally come: my very first book is on sale on Amazon as of this morning. If I am being honest with myself, this feels rather anticlimactic. The journey of writing a book has been such a rollercoaster with emotional highs and lows–but also incredibly tedious. I have a new-found respect for those who take on the challenge of self-publishing because there is so much that goes on behind the scenes.
But here she is. Clear as day. Out in the world for all to see (stomach starts turning). While I have no idea what exactly will come next I have this great big audacious goal of helping 5,000 people reclaim the joy of movement that pain once stole, through this book.
So if you know someone who is hurting and open for a new adventure of self-discovery and hope, please consider grabbing them a copy to see what is possible. I really believe that chronic pain is both the most pressing–and solvable–epidemic of our time. So many are suffering in silence and staying invisible in their workplaces, among their loved ones, in their communities. It’s time to make movement the health-promoting behavior we choose to prioritize above all others. Ozempic be damned. But that’s a rant for another day.
In honor of this milestone, I thought it might be helpful to share my answers to some of the questions I get most often about You’re Meant to Move and the book-writing process:
Writing a book seems like so much work. How long did it take?
From a blank page to launching the book, it took me six-and-a-half months. I got the idea at the end of May just after having delivered my first stress resilience workshop for the Bizzy Women Social retreat. It took all of June to write my outline. It took July and some of August to write my first draft. After that, I edited the book from end-to-end twice before handing it off to a professional in September. From mid-September to now has been editing, formatting, cover design, and the launch process.
How did you come up with the name “You’re Meant to Move”?
Real talk: Giving the book a title might have been the hardest part. I struggled for weeks trying to figure out what it should be. I am so grateful to the members of my community who participated in surveys and polls and tried to help me narrow down the options, but for as many people as there were in the process, there were just as many suggestions. It just goes to show you how incredibly personal the pain experience is. The phrase “you’re meant to move” came up in a brainstorming session with members of my self-publishing book program and we were riffing on the word “movement”. I struggled with it at first because it’s grammatically awkward, but when I started to think about the colloquial meanings of the phrase: being destined for love, being on the path toward greatness–I started to fall in love with it.
Are you hoping to make a bunch of passive income?
That would be cool! But realistically, no. In general, royalties are not a road to wealth for people who aren’t famous. Writing You’re Meant to Move was more about getting hope and a way forward into the hands of people in pain who could benefit from it. Ideally, it will also extend the reach of my studio, Movement Remedies, in the process. I hope to find more venues to share my workshop on stress resilience, as well as another workshop I do locally with an EFT Tapping partner called Release & Restore. I hope to collaborate with local companies to incorporate movement and mental well-being into the day-to-day of doing business rather than as an afterthought. I have big plans to get on stages, tell my story, and shake things up in the world of health and wellness. And no matter how much I am planning for I am sure there are other possibilities I haven’t even thought of yet. So, the book is a leap. And I am excited to see the landing!
