3 Years of Self Care with Leigh Stein

This week Michelle is joined by author, cultural critic, career coach, and the queen of BookTok and TikTok, Leigh Stein. While originally wanting to be an actress, Leigh moved to NYC to go to acting school where she was writing and publishing stories at the same time. After her first short story was published in a literary journal, she started to think that perhaps writing was her true path, maybe that was what she was supposed to be doing. Five books later she is here with us to talk to Michelle about her amazing career and gives us an interesting look into the world of publishing, TikTok, and sickness in the name of health.

In This Episode, Michelle Talks About

What is a career coach for writers?
Book proposals and ‘why should this be a book?’
The research involved in Leigh’s book, Self Care

What is a career coach for writers?

You may have heard about a career coach for the corporate world, but what about writing? Leigh explains what being a career couch for writing entails. She helps writers understand more about the marketing involved with writing a book, because they aren’t taught any of that during their writing programs. She also guides them in areas such as finding an agent, sending pitches, publishing strategy, and understanding their platform.

Book proposals and ‘why should this be a book?’

Writing a book can seem like a daunting task all by itself, but did you know that that’s not all you have to do? Leigh shares some surprising information about proposals and how they differentiate depending on whether you are writing a fiction or non-fiction book. A book proposal can take anywhere from 6 months to a year to complete and it could be up to 75 pages long, and if you’re writing a fiction novel you are most likely going to have to write the whole entire book before you can even begin to pitch it to a publisher. Leigh explains that when you are putting together your proposal, you are essentially answering the question ‘why should this be a book?’.

The research involved in Leigh’s book, Self Care

Leigh tells us all about her incredible and hilarious book, Self Care, which is a satirical look at the wonderful world of health and wellness, and all the research that she had to do in preparation for it. She tells us a little about the social listening she had to do on social media by following people on Instagram and how she dug into some of the most extreme wellness and exercise programs you could imagine. She shares her thoughts on TikTok and how great it can be for your publicity if you can get over your fear of feeling stupid and embracing it for the fun and creative hub that it is.