Jen Louden
jenniferlouden.com
Before We Began
Jen Louden already had several best selling books under her belt when she came to me — really best selling books. Like many millions of copies sold. She wanted to write a memoir, but like so many writers, she was confused about who it was for, what her point was, and why she wanted to do it. She has an incredible life story that would resonate with people trying to live creative lives — so many ups and downs, so much persistence — but the form of memoir was not serving her. Jen is a vibrant, beloved subject area expert, and the memoir was coming across as flat. There was a disconnect. Jen is a pro and she knew something was wrong, so she came to me to help diagnose it.
What’s The Big Idea?
Jen has a passion for inspiring women in their creative lives. She believes that owning your desires is not a destination or a skill to perfect. It is a spiritual practice.
When she dug into her deep level why for writing the new book, she found some resistance to writing another self help book. (This book >> is one of her earlier successes.) She didn’t want to be “just” a self-help writer. And yet self-help is in her DNA, and everything she was writing was moving in that direction. We worked on her deep level why, her resistance and her motivation to serve creative women— and she committed to writing a new kind of self-help book, one she could be proud of, one that was deep and resonant.
The Outcome
After much trial and error — truly hundreds and hundreds of pages tossed aside in service of finding the right structure — Jen landed on writing a book called, Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What’s Next. She published with PageTwo Book, a premier hybrid publishing company that allowed her to have creative control of the entire process. The book came out during the pandemic — a crushing blow. But Jen persevered, got her work out there, connected with her ideal readers, made a guided journal to go with the book, and gathered her readers together in virtual workshops.
The kinds of praise Jen gets:
“This is a truly brilliant book. Jennifer Louden is warm, down-to-earth, and thoroughly practical as she explores the profound question of what matters most to each of us. It’s quite stunning how she weaves together personal stories, deep reflections, inspiration, and immediately useful actions. A gem. ” —Rick Hanson, Ph.D., author of Buddha’s Brain
Jen’s book was awarded a Silver Medal in the 2020 Nautilus Book Awards.
In Her Own Words
“Jennie Nash is by far the best book coach I’ve ever worked with. She had the very difficult job of telling me a book I had worked on with another coach (for years!) was not publishable and the wonderful job of helping me turn it into my best book by far Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What’s Next. I’m so proud of it and how much it has helped people. Jennie understands book structure, which is tricky, and she gets how to keep an author motivated at the same time she’s completely honest, also tricky! She’s super-smart about the market and even chock full of marketing ideas. I recommend investing in Jennie’s coaching and doing it way sooner than I did” — Jenifer Louden
Watch a video of me and Jen discussing her book launch.