The Scottish summer has been beautiful, full of long stretches of sunshine, and more dips in the cool water of the North Sea than I can count. The air has been crisp, warm when the wind wavers down, and for someone who has lived through the scorching heat of the south for the last decade, even though I know that June, July, and August are behind us, my body is still a bit perplexed that it’s now September, wondering if summer has even happened…!
Perplexed or not, I’m overwhelmingly thrilled that it’s September, because that means that pages I have labored over for the last 600+ days get to held and read by others.
And as I reflect back on those hundreds of days, I realize just how naive I was coming into my first publishing project, in so many ways…!
I had no idea how long this process normally took, I had no idea the kinds of deep edits that I’d need to come to again and again, and while I’ve heard the publishing industry is brutal, I simply didn’t know what I didn’t know, and am learning along the way. There has been so much personal formation and growth that I wouldn’t trade for anything, and also, there have been experiences that have been deeply painful and cast a dark cloud on the journey. Like all of life, it’s been one big both-and that I’ve been taking in and soaking in, now on the cusp of finally sharing the finished pages with you and the rest of the world. I absolutely can’t wait until Tuesday :)
Now, as you may or may not know, I came to this project in a pretty untraditional way. A more traditional route of publishing these days is that you build an online platform with thousands of followers, and then literary agents and publishers will want to work with you, knowing that you already have a solid following. Back in 2022, when starting to look into agents, I saw that many required 50,000 followers on at least one platform just to inquire about working with them. And as you maybe also know, that is not my situation!
I was fortunate to get a self-published workbook into the hands of a publisher almost exactly two years ago, which spurred on a process of speaking to them and another publishing house, and ultimately led to the opportunity to publish this book.
At that time, I thought I knew what I wanted to write in this book, and then I signed a contract and hit a major writer’s block for weeks. I hoped this was part of the process, and also deeply feared I might not be able to produce what I promised I could…
And then I started writing what I thought I should write, something that would show off my two master’s degrees together…
And then I realized that a book inviting others to get out of their head and into their body would probably be most authentic and accessible if written from a gut level, rather than a head level, and went back to square one to rewrite it…
And rather than it becoming about me producing words, the whole project became a gloriously embodied and creative process of these words being shaped by—and shaping—me.
And now, as I stand five days away from the release of these words, I would love to ask you to join me in supporting their arrival in the world. And don’t worry, my whole substack won’t become a continual plea to purchase these pages. This one post today is to honor the birth of this book, this birth of my voice, which I’d love to have you join me in celebrating :)
So, if you have not preordered a copy of this book, would you consider preordering a copy today? Preorders are one of the most helpful ways to support the launch of a book. Along with this, reviews are incredibly helpful. If you enjoy what you read and want to leave an honest and genuine review, please know it would mean the world to me.
And if you feel so inclined, please feel free to post links to preorder on social media, or share with family and friends. If you do want to share about the book on social media, please include (1) a direct link to order the book and (2) tag me @a.c.seiple on Instagram or A. C. Seiple on Facebook.
Alright… Thank you for supporting my words in this space, I can’t wait for you to enjoy printed words on a page that you can hold in your hands as well.
If you’d like to read more about the book before ordering, you can view this page here, and if you’d like to read more about my process of writing this book, you can read this post here.
Launch Date = September 9, 2025.
The book is available for preorder on these and other sites:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble (currently running a preorder sale!)
Tyndale
Bookshop.org
Target
Amazon UK
I’ll be checking the book out! Congrats!