I’m often asked where I get my inspiration for book writing. Inspirations come from different sources, from blogs, work experience, and life.
Inspiration for Book Writing – Blogs
Blogs are short-form writing, quickly written and read, but the content of your blogs can be turned into books in different genres that make a lasting impression on your readers. This is not a new idea and started in the early days of publishing when weekly magazine and newspaper stories were added together into digests and supplements like Charles Dickens’ books, which were published serially before they were sold as books in their entirety.
In the digital era, compiling a book from a series of blogs is within reach of every individual and business, and I’m happy to share how I wrote and published my recent books Digital Marketing for Musicians, Transformation Journal, and The Light Walker, based on a series of blogs, the content of my life experiences and core purpose to spread the positive energy of universal creativity, the secret behind all growth and development.
I. Digital Marketing for Musicians: Empowering Artists in the Digital Age
My background is in journalism, marketing, media, and music, so my first book, Digital Marketing for Musicians (2022), was aimed at helping musicians and artists with tips and strategies for marketing their services and selling out their shows.
Recently, I was invited to give guest lectures about Digital Marketing for Musicians at the University of Limassol, and enjoyed sharing the concepts of campaigning, community building, and customer relationship building in the music industry with young marketing students.
Social media brings us all much closer together and musicians are in direct contact with their audiences, often performing in live-streamed shows or advertising their concerts on Facebook and other channels. The point of my book is to encourage musicians to see their audiences as individuals with preferences and different needs and maintain their professional relationships over the long term. Not only is it important to communicate consistently by setting a regular posting schedule, but it’s equally important to have creative campaigns that stand out from the competition and background noise.
The key topics covered in the book came about from a series of blogs I wrote on Linkedin between 2016 and 2018 which were adapted to the music business.
· The importance of quality branding to build an emotional connection and strong memories in the audience’s minds.
· Using social media to build popularity, visibility, and a fan base, either with niche or mass audiences.
· Deciding which social media channels suit your brand and adopting a brand tone.
My personal experience of marketing my own music on social media has been successful in terms of keeping in touch with my fans, some of whom have been following me for 30 years, long before social media was popular. Because of the memories of seeing my performances in person, they connected with my profiles and pages on social media and often come to concerts or find my music through these avenues.
Thanks to digital marketing, I’m always able to turn to my platforms on Facebook and other channels to launch a new song or other products.
Inspiration for Book Writing – Seeing Through the Eyes of Magical Realism
II. The Light Walker: A Leap into Creative Fiction
From professional education, I made a leap into creative fiction in 2023 with The Light Walker. To write this magical realism book, I combined an invented story about the main character, Alexandros, with facts drawn from Cyprus’ history. Alexandros is a child prodigy, a brilliant mathematician, whose childhood ends abruptly when he’s recruited by the British government and taken to Oxford.
Having lived through some of the island’s post-colonial experiences, writing this fiction book was a chance to let my imagination run free and ask myself and my readers, ‘What if?’.
It was a transformative journey to become a fiction author and one of the best lessons I can share with you is to put the reader directly into the story with no filters or preparation. For me, this is the essence of storytelling, for the story to be like real-life experiences which rarely come with a manual or the chance to prepare – they just happen, and we must adapt and react according to our personalities, characters, and resources at the time.
This approach to storytelling can work well with most other types of content, including video scripts, advertising campaigns, social media posts, and blogs. Immerse the reader or viewer and engage their interest as quickly as possible. In the context of grabbing the reader’s attention, drama is a good thing!
Inspiration for Book Writing – The Search for Creativity
III. Transformation Journal: Cultivating Personal Growth and Professional Development
The search for creativity is universal, I see it everywhere in business and life in general because ideas are valuable, they develop into hobbies, passions, projects, and companies.
Creativity is elusive though, so Transformation Journal’s purpose is to inspire creative thinking and gather ideas in one place. It applies to content writers and anyone who is seeking creative inspiration, a private place to write down and flesh out ideas and keep a handwritten record of their own creative process. Writing ideas out by hand is more creative and natural than typing them out as the hand is close to the heart and it’s the way all children learn how to write.
The journal aids self-reflection, creative flow, and the overall development of an individual’s unique ideas. Each page starts with the date and the writing prompt: Today I create…
Some examples:
Today I create… a book outline about the lessons I learned as a content writer.
Today I create…inner peace and calm by meditating on my future goals.
Today I create…a blog focused on what it takes to launch a new product line.
The journal’s pages will be filled with valuable ideas in no time, that was my experience. You might not carry them all out but having them in the Transformation Journal is a proven way to store your ideas, focus on creativity, and keep the ideas safe from memory loss caused by being too busy and having a million distractions in everyday life.
In conclusion, repurposing content writing into books has been an exciting and fulfilling experience for me. Through my recent publications like Digital Marketing for Musicians, The Light Walker, and Transformation Journal, I’ve delved into different genres and mediums, extending the reach of my writing beyond short-form blogs.
Digital Marketing for Musicians shares practical tips and strategies to help musicians take control of their marketing in the digital landscape. From branding to social media engagement, the book aims to empower musicians to connect with their audiences and build long-term relationships.
The Light Walker marks my leap into creative fiction, where I had the freedom to let my imagination run wild. It’s been a valuable lesson in immersing readers in captivating narratives from the very beginning, inviting them to embark on thrilling journeys of their own.
Transformation Journal seeks to inspire personal growth and creativity. This journal provides a dedicated space for individuals to reflect, capture ideas, and foster their unique creative processes. Handwritten ideas offer a more natural and intimate connection with our inner creative urges.
To purchase my books from Amazon, please follow the links below:
Digital Marketing for Musicians
The Light Walker
Transformation Journal
Thank you for reading, you’re welcome to send me feedback by emailing info@sarahfenwickauthor.com.