We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christina Kaye. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christina below.
Christina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
Aside from the fact that I have more experience (and unique experience) than the handful of other author coaches out there (I worked behind the scenes in publishing for years), I teach authors how to become successful in two different ways. One…I approach everything I teach from OUTSIDE publishing, meaning, all my marketing tips, etc. are things I learned in general in the business world about marketing any product/service, whereas most “publishing experts” only glean and give advice from within the publishing world “bubble.” Two…I teach authors to treat self-publishing the same way they would any other small business they wanted to start. This leads to exponentially higher odds of success and sustained careers in publishing. I know of no other author coach with my level of expertise and years of experience both as an author and industry insider AND who teaches from a corporate/business/entrepreneurial mindset!
Christina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
After my first few books did relatively well and won a couple of national book awards, author friends started asking me to help them with certain aspects of writing their books and publishing them based on my experience. I quickly came to realize I had a knack for helping my fellow authors, and eventually, the advice and mentorship morphed into coaching, though I didn’t know it at the time. I would up, over the next several years, working as a writing instructor at Carnegie Center, and working for publishers and agents behind the scenes. This gave me a leg up on my few competitors, and it’s allowed me to help my author coaching clients in ways others can’t touch. What sets me apart is my 15 years of experience as a published author and my 12 years of experience working in the publishing industry. I’m most proud of the fact that, every day, I get to be a part of helping authors realize their dreams, and watching my clients reach their goals and more is exactly why I walked away from a secure, 22-year legal career – so that I can be a part of changing the landscape of publishing and, hopefully, interrupting the ongoing, historical narrative that says authors need billionaire corporate backers (i.e., publishing houses) to back them and make their publishing dreams true. The truth is anything but. Authors can now be in charge of their own books and their dreams and I get to be part of this every day.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Sure thing. After three failed attempts at writing my first book, each of which landed on deaf ears when trying to find an agent and publisher, I decided it was too late in life (in my early thirties!) to go through that amount of heartbreak and stress, and maybe I wasn’t cut out to be an author, after all. But I was too ashamed to tell my parents that I’d backed out of my dream of being a published author. That Christmas, my father eagerly gifted me with a thrift store copy of Stephen King’s ON WRITING (his must-read autobiographical teaching book for authors). I feel like a complete jerk. I knew I’d given up but hadn’t told him. Mostly out of shame and embarrassment, I sat and read this book in one evening. And at the risk of sounding super cheesy, it changed the course of my life entirely. Suddenly, I knew I was giving up too easily and too soon, and I knew exactly where I’d gone wrong. So, when I got home, rather than diving in head-first this time with my manuscript, I spent about 3 – 4 months devouring every bit of learning materials I could get my hands on to teach myself the craft of writing and art of storytelling. Then, I developed what I now teach my coaching clients (The Book Boss Novel Planning Method), and I spent a week or so planning and developing my novel first. Only after I did this did I attempt to write again. And that book is the one that changed everything (LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER). It landed me my first agent, first publishing deal, and first national book award. Often, I think about where my life would be now had I given up and not read that Stephen King memoir.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Amazingly…TikTok! I believe my semi-success on that platform has a lot to do with timing and luck,. I joined the platform right when COVID was at its peak and when GenX was sort of taking over from the youngsters. And at that moment, there wasn’t anyone giving writing or publishing advice on TikTok. Once I figured out the way to work the system and I posted my first real, honest “story” type content (set to Beyonce’s “Survivor” and listing everything I’ve survived in my life), I went viral for the first time, and suddenly, I wasn’t just some little-known author coach from Kentucky. Now, of course, there are others on the platform doing the same thing, but not the same way and not with the same experience and style that I use in my content. While my following has sort of plateaued in the past year, and I’ve been at 83.6k followers and 1.6 million video likes for a while now, 90% of my new client leads come from TikTok! I love this platform (despite its frustrating algorithm shifts) because, for the most part, the community on there is super supportive and encouraging. I have “regular” followers who attend my live events almost every time, and there’s something amazing about having a bad day, and knowing that if I just hop on a live event for half an hour, my friends and followers on there will lift my spirits and remind me why I do what I do. Sure, there are some “Karens” here and there, and the occasional troll, but I’ve not seen support and community like this on any other social media platform.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bookbossacademy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookbossofficial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/selfpublishingsuccesstipsforauthors
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpt95IJyRXZvq_43yUKtTLg
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bookbossacademy?lang=en
Image Credits
NA all self-taken