The Infinite If:
The chess of writing & publishing

Welcome to my new subscribers who have come by way of Rowland Cottage retreats! I hope you love reading The Infinite If, and exploring the publishing world through my strange and ever-changing mind.

Let's get right to it.

Want to be a YouTuber with me?

Kay guys, dead serious! I've faffed about long enough, telling my writers that YouTube is one of the smartest places to establish a content well online. Yes, Substack. Yes, being interviewed on podcasts. Yes, a newsletter.

But YouTube? Awesome. Talk about reach.

I tell my writers they should consider establishing a YouTube channel because it offers something social media doesn't: a place to build genuine, lasting connection with potential readers. Video lets you share your ideas, personality, expertise and passion in a way that creates trust before someone ever reads your book. The best part is that YouTube content is searchable and evergreen: a thoughtful video can continue attracting the right readers—and building your audience—long after you publish it. It doesn't disappear in the constantly scrolling feed like social posts do.

It's one way of building that "well of content" that I'm always on about.

Knowing this—and also knowing that I struggle to find the energy to create written content with such a cognitively demanding day job—I've decided it's time to take the plunge. You know I'm a hippie, so I'll just tell you there's a TON of astral support for us right now with this kind of thing: Jupiter is transiting Leo for the next several months, meaning it's a good time to speak up, be visible, and share our light.

(This also means it's a good time to write your book! just sayin just sayin)

I'm planning for my channel to mostly center on book coaching, but I'll probably weave in some videos on esoteric stuff here and there—musings on gratitude, grounding, breathwork, nervous system recalibration, mindset, maybe even some Human Design. But really, what I want to do is give people a way to see what book coaching looks like. Those of you who have worked with me know how it looks and feels, but to people on the outside who have never worked with a book coach, it's a black box with a bunch of dollar signs attached. I want to open the lid of that box and show the incalculable value of working hand in hand with a professional writer and editor.

Which leads me to my invitation to all of you: If you're keen to work with me and if you're game to have our recorded conversations be available to the entire world on YouTube (!!!! RIGHT???), I will discount your coaching package by 50%. This feels a little crazy, but it also feels wildly fun.

You'll get six deadlines with me for just over a grand. (Regular price for my Completion six-pack is $2295.) That's 25 years of expertise in publishing and massive professional guidance on your book for $191 per deadline. Ridiculous. You can't get an hour of life coaching for that price, but you can get HOURS of my brain on your book.

Of course, if you're serious about landing a traditional deal and you want to up your investment in your work with the Competition six-pack ($4995), you'll still get the discount ($2497.50).

I'd like one or two people to do this with. Ideally I'd love to work through a blueprint with someone, but if you're already into drafting, that's cool too. Fiction, memoir, nonfiction—all the genres you guys are writing in are fair game. Let's go!🤘

Who's in? Hit reply to express your interest. This will be fun, exploratory and hiiiiiiiighly experimental! But that's the kind of realism that makes for fun, natural, grabby content. 📺

What I'm paying attention to in the industry

Did you read Highlights as a child? If you're a Gen X like me, you may have fond memories of leafing through that magazine's wonderful thick pages, looking at the stories and puzzles and jokes and hidden pictures. Highlights helped me fall in love with reading, along with Owl and Chickadee. Props to my mum for always subscribing.

Imagine my delight when I read yesterday that Highlights Press is clocking a 29% increase in year-to-date sales. Not just because of its eponymous magazine for 6–12 year-olds—the press also publishes activity books, craft kits, fiction, nonfiction and puzzle and humour books.

“I think that we are in, I wouldn’t say a moment, but a cultural reset or recalibration,” says Chris Bauerle, VP of books and retail. “There’s a shift in how families are thinking about screen time. Consumers are saying they see children’s books as an incredible cure to this need they’re feeling to have their kids spend less time on screens and be more engaged with nondigital content.”

The message we can take away from this is one I'm beginning to see cropping up all over: that we're taking back our attention spans, leaving the phone at home on our walks, leaving it in a different room for a couple hours, turning it off at night and using a digital alarm clock instead, opening a book for entertainment and learning instead of an app.

Feels like a good news story to me.

Upcoming: Writing retreats...and weekend writing with a book coach!

Trillium & Fern Retreats in Ontario🏡

I want you to come write with me! Come to Muskoka in September and join me and Jen Wilson for a beautiful five-day writing retreat on the shores of Pen Lake. I'll be in Huntsville for a solid 2.5 weeks, and I'm mad excited!

Jen booked our flights yesterday. We'll be taking the red-eye from Victoria to Toronto on September 19🥱, then tooling up to Huntsville on the luxury bus.

These retreats are absolutely wonderful. The lake laps against the shore in the quiet early mornings, offering a peaceful backdrop for your first coffee of the day (or your first asana). We gather and learn in the mornings, then disperse into quiet reflection and writing in the afternoons. You might read in a hammock, go for a swim, or stretch out in the sauna. You might sit with me or Jen for an hour and work through a problem you’re facing in your pages, or have us do a Kolbe reading or a Human Design reading.

We’re kept well fed throughout by a longstanding local business that prepares our food by hand and delivers it fresh, with a smile. The call of the loons closes the day as dusk falls over the water, and as we gather again to share conversation and ideas.🛶

We've nearly filled our October 3 / 4 weekend retreat, but there are still a few spots for our week-long retreats. Jen and I are sitting down this coming week to plan out the morning workshops, customizing our programming for what our participants need. Workshops include:

1. the different paths to publishing and what each one requires;
2. finding the time to write and strategies for keeping your momentum;
3. getting the hard stuff on the page without reactivating your trauma response;
4. having the confidence and authority to tell stories of other people, “accuracy” in nonfiction, writing about family; and
5. a somatic workshop involving strategies for unwinding and resetting our habitually overtaxed nervous systems.

We're also bringing in a yoga instructor for one or two evenings.

Five sumptuous days where you get to focus exclusively on your book, with the support of two experts in writing and publishing. You just can’t make faster, deeper headway on your book project.

We’ve also got two-day weekend retreats if the full-length immersions just aren’t gonna be happening in your calendar this fall. Check all the details at www.rowlandcottage.com! And I'm tryna build our Instagram to be fun and a bit saucy, so if you're on IG, we're at @RowlandCottageRetreats.

Saturday morning writing group🖊️

I hold space for all of you wonderful people on Saturdays from 10:00-11:30 PT, so come and write! I'm working on my novel (I've finally decided it's a romance), and my two faithful attendees are both working on their memoirs. Come and join us! It's free, and you don't have to come every week—although there's something to be said for having a dedicated time to focus on your writing. The link to register is here.

If Saturdays aren't good in your world, reply and let me know when would be better. I've been toying with opening up a weekday writing slot, so I'm open to your suggestions.

This month's hippie flip

I don't think I've introduced you to Lee Harris before, have I? Lee came my way many years back from a colleague at Roy Group, where I used to work. He does a monthly energy update, and this month he's bang on: a powerful sense of a fresh start in the air, bringing structure, motivation and momentum following a prolonged period of clearing and heavy shifts; more honest communication in relationships, even if it's a bit spicy at times; the importance of gratitude to get your magnetism working for you.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading The Infinite If. ♾️