We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maggie Bowyer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maggie below.

Maggie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission is to create, inspire and teach people from all walks of life so that they can make art that tells their story, and get paid for it.

In 2020, my myriad of chronic illnesses finally took my ability to work. Between my Endometriosis, Fibromyalgia, and Gastroparesis, I realized I needed to work from home and on my own schedule. I already wrote poetry and decided to dive deeper into my art. I created both for financial reasons and as a way to cope with the overwhelming emotions I was experiencing. My art was a way to take my pain and force it to give me something for all my grief.

People create art for a variety of reasons, all of them valid. But how do we get paid for our art? How do we share diverse stories with a wide audience? As I pondered these questions, I realized I had a platform that could help people! I was a social media manager long before I stopped traditional working. My business degree uniquely equipped me to help authors create on a budget, market their work broadly, and create a sustainable business model. I knew I needed to use my skills and background to help indie artists get paid accordingly.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Maggie Bowyer. I wear many hats; I am a poet, author, artist, cat parent, creator, and self-publishing coach, among other things. I am the author of four poetry collections including “Allergies: Poems on Grieving and Loving” and “When I Bleed: Poems on Endometriosis.”

I started writing as early as I can remember. I loved short stories and was drawn to journalism. I was the Editor-in-Chief of The Lariat Newspaper. In 2013 I traveled to New York City for a writing retreat. I fell in love with poetry on that trip and never looked back. I am a Marilyn Miller Poet Laureate and was a quarter-finalist at Brave New Voices.

I have been writing poetry for over a decade and in 2020 I became too disabled to work. I decided to self-publish my first poetry book, The “Whole Story.” I saw my Instagram (@maggie.writes) grow during this time and chose to continue in this direction. I wrote more and more and have now published four books, including my best sellers “Allergies” and “When I Bleed.” I have been published over 80 times in the last three years, including Chapter House Journal, The Elevation Review, and Brian Miller Press.

I tend to write on chronic illness, Endometriosis, childhood trauma, and interpersonal relationships. While I primarily write poetry, I also dabble in essays, long-form creative nonfiction, blogs, digital art, painting, photography, and many other kinds of self-expression. My poetry recently has grappled with grief – how it changes and challenges us, how to cope, and what it has taught me about love and moving forward in life.

In 2022, I decided I wanted to help other people self-publish their stories, make money off their art, and help them share their experiences. I started consulting, teaching people how self-publish, do all the nitty gritty on the back end, secure multiple streams of income, design covers, and most of all, how to share their stories and art in an impactful way. I have helped three authors publish their books in the last 5 months and have several other authors closing in on their publication dates! I have helped them get on podcasts, reach a broader social media audience, and sell their books beyond their close inner circle. I offer discounted services to chronically ill authors and artists in an effort to make my services more accessible and most of all to get our stories told! Too often disabled voices are left out of the conversation and I am here to make sure our stories get told as much as possible.

I share my raw and real journey through grief, chronic illness, love, relationships, and most of all art on Instagram and Tiktok @maggie.writes. I want other people to see authenticity. I think being honest about where we are at in life is the only way to inspire people and to get where we want to be. I never want to be disingenuous – I want to cry on my stories to show you that real people cry, I want to tell you about my publishing fails so that you don’t make my mistakes, and I want to inspire you and teach you how to share your story, because it matters.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Being honest and authentic is the most important part of building trust with my potential clients. I am raw and real – I talk about my chronic illnesses, cry when I need to, share each step of my journey, and talk about my business failures and what they taught me. I don’t hide my mistakes, my messy sink, the fact I am usually working from my couch or my bed, and most of all, I still create on the days that I don’t feel like it.

I post regularly on my social media, in line with both my business strategy and that platform’s preferred content type. I post personal stories on my Instagram story feature. I chat with people in my DMs – whether I think they are potential clients or not. I provide free resources – both in my content and on my website. In fact, I have a whole Crash Course in Self-Publishing for free! Sharing free resources, my own stats as an author, my client’s success, and even our failures all prove my worth as a coach and my authority on the topic. Prove yourself to your followers, talk with them about their stories, provide some sort of free help, and be authentic, and you will begin to pull in the clients you’re looking for.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record: be authentic! Be you!

Social media – and any field – is over-saturated. Poetry is over-saturated. Coaching is over-saturated. So what will make you stand out?

Being yourself.

So many people are showing up unauthentically. They are not being true to who they are. They are trying to be aesthetically pleasing, and flawless, and don’t want to be vulnerable, ugly, or messy. But that is exactly what people want. They want your mistakes, your life story, and your knowledge gained. That is how you build a loyal community, no matter the size. That’s how you create art that is raw and real and publishable. Art that connects with people’s souls. That is how you are memorable in your market. That is how you find clients

My community wants to hear about my chronic illness journey. They want to hear about how my cover art wasn’t sent to Amazon and I had to hassle my printer to resend the images. They want to hear about how tired I am from putting together all of my poems for my next book, but how excited I am. They want to hear about how many rejections I got and read my published poems. My community wants to hear about me.

Find community that wants to hear about you – being being yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: maggiebowyer.com
• Instagram: maggie.writes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Maggie-Bowyer/100064377716677/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-bowyer/
• Twitter: maggiebow98
• Other: Tiktok: @maggie.writes