Greetings from Nowhere: End-of-Year Updates & a Deadline

Details on Next Month’s Event + Becoming a Subscriber

Hi there. I’m sending you this from “nowhere”—the place I’ve been inhabiting these past few weeks while on sabbatical. Or rather, perhaps, the space that has been filling me from within, revealing all my emptinesses.

Photo by Mark König on Unsplash

It hasn’t been perfect, but I’ve learned (and am learning) a lot from this little break, which I’ll share more about next month and thereafter. Suffice to say, unplugging from “everything” has been a combination of challenging and relieving with some surprising stressors mixed in for good measure. But that’s all I’ll say about that for now.

Meanwhile, I hope you’re enjoying the holidays. And if you are interested in any end-of-year gifts and/or splurges for yourself or the ones you love, here are a couple of opportunities to consider before the end of the year… along with a heartfelt thanks.

Bestseller Bootcamp

First is Bestseller Bootcamp, which I shared initially about here. This is a limited event for a fraction of the usual price, and I tend to only do these a few times per year (last time, in fact, was over a year ago). That said, the price for this event is going up on Jan. 1, so if you want to save 75% off the ticket price, you can do so here. 

This is a live event (yes, you can buy it and watch the recording if you’d like, but in-person attendees will get a lot more out of it).

During the bootcamp, I will work with you on a plan to write your next book. I’ll share examples of finished products, as well as worksheets and templates to help you. I will review your work ahead of time, share feedback and coaching with you, and we will “workshop” the process together for four hours on Zoom with a small group. 

This is the process I take all our agency clients through, and for us it is Step #1 before anyone can move forward with writing a book. You can use this bootcamp to work on a book proposal or to outline your next project. It’s up to you. 

We are taking a limited number of students for this high-touch event, and if it’s not for you—no worries. But if you’re looking for a chance to get some work in front of me and get my opinion on a book project of yours, this is the chance to do so for a quarter of what it would normally cost. 

When I do coaching or consulting, I charge $500/hour and require a minimum four-hour commitment. If authors want to hire our agency to help them plan a book, those projects typically cost $15-25K. You are going to get the same process and content for a fraction of what someone would typically pay. Instead of us doing it for you, however, you will be doing most of the work yourself with coaching and guidance from me—in a small workshop setting of less than twenty people. 

I don’t do a lot of teaching and coaching these days, and almost none of it is one-to-one work. So this is a rare opportunity to see our process that helps authors turn their big ideas into bestsellers—and to work closely with me on it.

That said, I won’t be doing a bunch of high-pressure sales tactics or the like. The price goes up on Jan. 1, then again a week later, and again a week after that until two days before the event or we reach capacity (whichever comes first).

After that, I’ll be reviewing your work, sharing some pre-event work for you to do, then we’ll meet later in January and work on your book, then I’ll follow up two weeks later to make sure you’ve implemented all the feedback and coaching received in the bootcamp.

All details for this live, virtual event are here, and you can sign up at this page. After the live event, all attendees will get the full recording, book planning worksheets, and direct feedback from me on their book plan. 

If you have any questions, you can email sandy@freshcomplaint.com. 

Get (or Give) a Year’s Subscription to the Ghost

This little publication runs on passion and subscriptions. I’m grateful to those who care enough about my work and words to support both. I try to return the favor with little perks and private calls for subscribers to the Ghost as much as possible. However, I intend to do more next year, including giving you a backstage pass to the writing of my next book (shhh… that’s all I can say about that for now). 

If you’ve been enjoying the newsletter, there are a couple of ways to show your support.

Become a paid subscriber or upgrade your subscription. If you are paying monthly, you can sign up for an annual membership and save some money. Or if you want to give extra support, you can still become a founding member, which entitles you to some special bonuses including an “make-me-an-offer” perk where you let me know what would make the most sense for you.

Give a subscription to someone else: a writer, budding creative, or someone spiritually curious who appreciates the interplay of words with soul work.

A Final Thanks

Thank you again for reading and subscribing at any level in any way, if only with your attention (which is a very big deal). If you can support my work in any way beyond that, I am grateful. But it is not expected. I know the holidays can be hard for some and beautiful for others and often mixed for most.

If nothing else, I hope you receive this as a note from a friend, saying, “Hang in there. We’ll talk again soon.”

I know personally that I would not be here without the gift of friends both up close and personal and those of you from afar who continue to show love and support in beautifully surprising ways. The kindness of strangers has helped me continue doing work I can be proud of for over a decade now. It is a wonderful gift I try to not take for granted.

I hope, together, we can make it another ten years—or better yet, fifty—in this creative journey we talk together. I pray the holidays have been kind and restful to you. And I’ll see you again in the New Year.

All the best,

Jeff