What Happens When You Believe in Yourself.
In the fall of 2020, I met Rae McDaniel.
They are a licensed therapist, certified sex therapist, a transgender diversity and inclusion specialist, coach, educator, and entrepreneur.
When I met them, Rae was unsure what publishing path they should take.
Colleagues had written books for small publishers, but Rae wanted to go bigger.
In our first conversation, they told me they were unsure their audience was big enough for a traditional book publisher. They also wondered if their book — on navigating gender transition with ease — would be pigeonholed into the LGBTQIA+ shelf and not reach the broad audience Rae knew it could reach.
Fast forward two and a half years later to today — May 29, 2023.
Rae’s fantastic book GENDER MAGIC comes out tomorrow, and I would really appreciate it if you bought a copy for yourself, and read it.
Now — you could do this just as a favor to me for all the wonderful free advice I’ve given you about your book and publishing in general but I have a few more important reasons too.
First — it’s a terrific book that shows what you can do with a framework or model that’s replicable. Rae had developed their Gender Freedom Model in private practice, first with individual therapy clients and then with a group coaching program. Having loads of case studies (which we made anonymous for the book) and a proven model gave us tons of material for the proposal and the book, and became the backbone of the editorial structure.
Second — GENDER MAGIC has so much awesome information to help you on your journey as an author yourself. I will share one small example.
In the process of writing this book, Rae introduced me to ZPD — the zone of proximal development. Learning about this will help you understand why it’s impossible for you (or anyone else) to go from unknown to bestselling author quickly. Spoiler alert: It’s because your brain is not okay with that — literally. The chapter Rae wrote about how our brains work, based on tons of scientific evidence, is worth $29 all by itself.
Third, books like this matter. The war against LGBTQIA+ people is far from over, with
USA Today reporting that over 650 anti-LGBTQIA+ laws have been passed in 46 states — in 2023 alone. This is not something that we can ignore.
I have many friends, family members, colleagues, and clients who identify within that acronym — and so do you. In fact, you’re reading an email and receiving advice from a queer-identifying woman right now.
No matter how you identify, I promise you that this book will benefit you — and/but — since transgender and non-binary folk earn 32% less than cisgender folks at work, buying a few copies and donating them either to your local library and/or to a Little Free Library will help this book find the readers who can benefit from it.
And — because you’ve read all the way to the end — if you purchase 3 or more copies, email your receipt to hello@meghanstevensonbooks.com and we will hook you up with my Become a Bestseller workshop — for free.
Thanks in advance for supporting authors like yourself.
