We recently connected with Taylor Ellwood and have shared our conversation below.

Taylor, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.

In 2017 I had to shutdown my coaching business. I had made some mistakes by stepping away from networking and investing a lot in online marketing without understanding how much bigger of an investment it would be, in terms of advertising cost and also putting together a program that was sellable. Once I realized that I couldn’t sustain my business I shut it down and got a job at a customer support center. It was hard to do, but it gave me time to reflect on what was really important to me, and after a few months I came to the realization that I needed to focus on self-publishing. I already had books published by a publisher, but I started learning how self-publishing worked and tried publishing several books on my own and quickly discovered I could make more money that way. I then took back the rights to my books and started self-publishing.

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

I am a self-published author who writes both fiction and non-fiction. My fiction books are post-apocalyptic zombie fiction as well as superhero fiction. My non-fiction is books about esoterics and magick. I also offer tarot readings, online classes, and spiritual consulting for people who want to explore how magick can be applied to their lives.

With my fiction, I write to entertain my readers. Both the Zombie Apocalypse Call Center and Learning How to be a Hero series are comedic writings about the zombie and super hero fiction genres.

With my non-fiction I writing cutting edge occult books that explore how to blend non-occult disciplines with magic.

With both what I seek to do is produce thought provoking material that engages the mind and liberates the spirit.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’ve been self-publishing books since 2018. There was a period of time in 2020 where I was able to leave my day job. Shortly after I left it, I got divorced and I needed to go back to work. I got another job, but I have kept writing books and learning how to market as a self-publisher. I didn’t let the setback of getting divorced and having to go back to work stop me from pursuing my writing career. I am continuing to write books and learn how to be a better marketer as well as improve my online ads. The key thing is to figure out what is important to you and pursue it.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I known that you could make a living from writing by self-publishing a lot earlier than I learned it. There are tons of resources out there on how to self-publish and succeed. I recommend reading some books first like Write, Publish Repeat, so you can get an idea of what is involved in becoming a successful self-published writer. then look into writing conventions and classes, but most of all write!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.magicalexperiments.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/taylorellwood
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorellwood/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPTxWbgUb9z8QYv5mAMyCxg

Image Credits
Dax McMillan (Photo of me) Mark Reid (Book covers)