This Email Is For Introverts and Writers.

There’s a stereotype of a “writer” that I have hated since college. 

I bet you know it. 

A quiet, introspective person who spends most of their time in a room with a desk, perhaps a typewriter, perhaps a computer, perhaps a stack of legal pads. Picture a Colin Firth in Love Actually vibe, but usually less handsome and romantic. Maybe with some cigarettes, or a trench coat that’s worn on long, contemplative walks in the rain.*

And while that can work to write a book, that sit-alone-and-ponder approach does not work for publishing your book. 

Much less getting anyone to read it.

The reason I detest that stereotype of a writer — as inherently shy, introverted, even a little reclusive — is because it is both incredibly limiting and simply not true. I am a writer, of books and emails and content and all sorts of things, and I am an extrovert. I know plenty of introverted entrepreneurs who have learned to become comfortable — albeit for short amounts of time — in front of an audience, on social media, and yes, promoting and selling their books and offers. 

The truth is, you can be whoever you want and whatever you want regardless of whether you are introverted, extroverted, or ambiverted. You don’t have to fit the typical definition of what a “writer” is, an “entrepreneur” is, or a “leader” is. You are a grown-up, I’m guessing, and that means you get to do what you want.

You are reading this email because you want to become a published author. 

Which requires you to change and grow. So — I encourage you to reconsider your definition of yourself. I want you to ask — who is the author inside of you? 

Because I really want to meet them.

*I blame Ernest Hemingway for this stereotype, as well as the dudes on every college campus who take a creative writing course every semester, wear long coats in every season, and smoke clove cigarettes. The guy on my campus was named Kevin.*