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Natasha Tynes

Why I invested in myself this month

Published 15 days ago • 3 min read

Hi friends,

Time for my weekly update. First, in my efforts to scale and improve, I invested in the first-ever live cohort of Jay Clouse's Build a Beloved Membership. I have been a fan of Jay's work for years, and if you don't already listen to his Creator Science podcast, go fix that immediately; it's a must-hear for anyone building something of their own. And yes, I will be launching a new membership program soon. Watch this space for updates.

Meanwhile, on the client side, it's been a full week too: I'm finalizing a big sensitivity read on a novel I'd been living inside for a week.

Also, a new book just entered our Suburban Press imprint pipeline (a fantasy novel!), and the Read and Write With Natasha podcast is now booked with guests all the way into January (Yowza!).

I'm also talking with a potential client about offering Arabic translation for her new nonfiction book, which is something I'm really excited about, as publishing in two languages might open many doors for my business.

So yeah, suffice it to say, I'm very busy, but I love what I do, and I'm in the flow all day (which is a huge blessing). It took me years of tears and blood and tears to get here, and I'm so grateful.

Stay creative,
Natasha

✍️ This week's insight: The jacket copy can get you unstuck

A client felt completely lost in her own novel last week. So I gave her fifteen minutes and one assignment. Write the jacket copy for your book — the version that sells it.
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Not the plot.
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The promise.
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By minute twelve, she'd found the one sentence the whole book is about. When you're lost in a draft, stop drafting and write the back cover.
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Find your north star.
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This is what book coaching actually is, not more writing advice, but the right question at the right moment to get you unstuck.
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If you're lost in your own manuscript, that's exactly the work I do. Respond to this Email, and I'll tell you how we'd find your north star.

🖼️ Photo of the week

🎁 The Writer's Goody Bag

✍️ Must-Have Tool — Ulysses. A clean, distraction-free writing app that hides your formatting and your word-count anxiety and just lets you draft. Perfect for the "keep moving, don't polish chapter one" discipline — there's nowhere to fuss, so you write.

🎧 Podcast — The Creative Penn. Joanna Penn's long-running show The Creative Penn is one of the best resources going for writers who want to finish and publish. She covers craft, self-publishing, and the business of being an author with the calm, practical clarity of someone who's actually done it.

🎧 Read and Write With Natasha Podcast

In the latest episode of "Read and Write With Natasha podcast​, I talked with

👉 Watch the episode (and please consider subscribing to the YouTube channel).

video preview​

Or if you prefer the audio-only format, you can listen below:

show
Writing About Marijuana: Res...
Jun 29 · Read And Write With Nata...
30:27
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🌍 From My Little Corner of The World

  • I was the guest this time. I sat down for a podcast interview on the Clarity to CEO Podcast with Philippa Channer, and we chatted about writing, publishing, and the long game of building a body of work. If you'd rather hear me answer the questions than ask them, watch it here.
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  • New on the Substack Writers Salon: I sat down with bestselling author and self-publishing advocate Dale Roberts on how to navigate the industry and get your book into readers' hands. Practical stuff, whether you're just starting or sharpening your book-marketing strategy — come watch and tell me your biggest self-publishing hurdle.
video preview​

🚀 Work with me

1:1 Coaching — Write Your Book in 120 Days.

If you're stuck rewriting chapter one for the fifth time, you don't need more willpower. You need structure and someone in your corner. Here's what we do together:

  • Build a clear, chapter-by-chapter roadmap, so you always know what to write next
  • Set a realistic writing cadence and hold yourself accountable to it
  • Work through the stuck points — the messy middle, the opening you can't crack, the doubt
  • Get you to a finished draft you can actually publish

Here is what my client Noami, whose debut non-fiction book is coming in the fall, had to say about my coaching time with her.

👉 Book a free 30-minute Discovery call below

Stay creative, folks!

1711 Tweed St, Rockville, MD 20851
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Natasha Tynes

I'm a Jordanian-American author and journalist with over two decades of experience.I help authors, both aspiring and established, publish their books through book coaching or memoir ghostwriting. I publish the weekly newsletter "The Storyteller Quest," offering tips on monetizing your writing and navigating the content-creation journey.

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