I published my bestseller at 83
- Feb 20
- 3 min read
By Wendy McAra
How I came to write a book
Wendy McAra was once a professional writer of in-depth market research reports for multinational corporations, advertising agencies and government departments. At that stage she had no ambitions, no intentions, to become an author!
When the pain of divorce kick-started her personal development journey in her early 40s, she discovered the skill that transformed her life forever. She learned ScriptWriting, where you manifest your dreams in the simplest way possible: You write them into reality as if they have already happened. Within a year, she had met and married her ideal partner and doubled her income. A year later, she sold her company for a figure in the millions and set up a psychology and life coaching practice.
Finding, to her delight, that she could teach other people to manifest their dreams too, it became her passion to share this gift with as many people as possible. Despite already being in her 80s, she went through an on-again, off-again process of writing ‘Create Abundant Possibilities – seven steps to fulfil your dreams.’
In the words of one of the reviewers, “This book is an inspiring, easy-to-read roadmap for those ready to create a life filled with love, abundance and joy. Wendy provides a practical toolkit to overcome limiting beliefs and teaches you the art of ScriptWriting to create what you dream of, no matter where you are in life.”
Finishing the book is the start of another journey
Although Wendy heard rumblings about the need to build a following, she kept her focus on writing and ignored the warning. Then came truth time: finding a publisher.
A bold pitch to a prominent US literary agent yielded an invitation to submit. Then came the rejection letter! And following that, the decision to self-publish. Mistakes made, money squandered, not as enjoyable as the writing, but at last the book made it onto Amazon. Her advice to other would-be self-publishers is to do their homework and make a thorough analysis of what’s on offer. Ahh, and, of course, to build a following and be active on socials!
Publishing is the start of another journey
Goal realised, her book was on Amazon. Now what?
After her success as a consultant to multinationals, followed by her successes as she built a client base and helped turn many of her client’s lives around, Wendy wasn’t really up for a slog, setting up meetings, promoting her book at the coalface. She was a manifester of dreams, wasn’t she? She’d scripted a bestseller, hadn’t she? It wasn’t so much arrogance as trust in herself as creator of dreams. She was used to receiving better than 90% (truly) of what she scripted. But not this time.
No author or publisher will be surprised to find out that apart from books sold personally to clients and friends, her sales were lacklustre.
There is a Way
Using Freebooksy, Wendy did achieve bestseller status for her book. Unfortunately, this kind of bestseller comes without earnings.
After sulking for months, making low- key approaches to local bookstores and media, Wendy decided to bite the bullet. She signed up with a PR company, and while it is early days yet, and months of PR to come, Wendy believes that the PR support down the track, and visibility and inspiration created, will turn her book into a lasting brand.
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