I met Anne in 2015 when I hosted my writing retreat in Mallorca. Anne joined the retreat with the intention to write more blogs. At home - being an entrepreneur and mother of two kids, one of whom is epileptic - she found very little time to focus. She was looking to find some space to write. Her poignant blogs about her family had become quite popular and appealed to a wide audience, not just to mothers like her. Anne's positive outlook on life and honest stories about her son’s illness inspired many. My workshops on book writing during the retreat inspired Anne so much that instead of writing more blogs, she actually turned them into a book...

The cover of your book should look attractive... And attract attention... And be distinctive from other books in that genre... And appeal to your target group... And fit your story. How do you make sure that your cover does all that and also sells well?

“The tragedy of life is that you live it start to end, but you can only understand it in reverse. One way to at least overcome this when writing a book is using the reverse writing method that Esther explained during her workshop..."

Have you ever heard of ‘The Hero’s Journey’? It is the storytelling principle that guides most fairy tales, Hollywood movies, and good books. It is the key to delivering better stories for your book, speech, presentation, training, movie, ecourse, social media, or other copywriting. In the departure part of the narrative, the hero or protagonist lives in the ordinary world and receives a call to go on an adventure.

Storytelling is a valuable tool for both fiction and non-fiction writers. Whether you are writing a thriller or a management book, you can learn from other authors. Also, speakers, trainers, coaches, and entrepreneurs can greatly benefit from these techniques. In this blog, I share Barbara’s success story.

Many writers struggle to bring their story to life. Either they splurge too much, too fast, or the build-up of their narrative is too slow, and their readers lose interest. Their characters and dialogues are not lively or realistic enough. As I wrote and published more books, I learned to manage the pace of the story and to make my characters into real people, with both positive and negative traits. I also learned to liven up my story with direct dialogue and quotes.

Most authors, coaches, and entrepreneurs are troubled when it comes to selling. They know their book, product, or service is awesome, yet they feel ‘cheesy’ or too aggressive when trying to market it. They don’t realize that by holding back, they are depriving the world of their gift, their message, their way to help or entertain others.

My first book was published by the (then) largest publisher in the Netherlands: A.W. Bruna. At first, I felt so lucky. Here I was, a first-time writer getting a contract with a large publishing house. They promised to take care of everything. I should have known this was too good to be true. Working with a big company has its advantages and disadvantages.