I have never really considered myself a non-fiction author, which is strange because in terms of publishing this is what my career has always gravitated towards. After my MA in Publishing way back in 2010, I worked in academic and educational publishing right up to 2017 when I started my own business. And now this too is very much centred around helping clients to write and publish non-fiction works.
I firmly believe that everyone has a story, life lesson, or experience that can be turned into a book – either to help other people or simply as a therapeutic exercise in terms of 'getting it out there'. And yet I had never sat back and thought about what my own story might be.
Recently, however, I've been looking back at what I've achieved since my son was born and celebrating one whole year as a 'mumpreneur' – and I've realised that starting a business is something so many new mums want to do but feel intimidated by.
I was lucky – I'm from a family of entrepreneurs, I have people who believe in me, and I've always had the confidence to chase my dreams. But starting a business is hard at the best of times, let alone when you're trying to do it at the same time as welcoming a new life into the world. Then, it can feel almost impossible.
The thing is, it's not impossible. It can be done and it can an incredible thing to achieve for your family and your work-life balance. But it's a very unique challenge and the hurdles are totally unlike anything a 'regular' entrepreneur will face when starting up.
So, I decided to throw together all of the lessons I learned, the mistakes I made, and some advice from expert women in business to write You Can Start a Business on Your Maternity Leave.
It's going to be out in the world in March 2019, and I'm so excited to see it starting to take shape.
I've also set up a Facebook group aimed at supporting new and emerging writers and will be sharing the steps I follow to publish my first non-fiction book as well as work I do with clients. You can join the group here, or head over to Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. etc. to stay in touch.
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