In December 2015, Anna-Louise’s life changed forever.

On a walk home from a Christmas party, her husband and 7-year-old son were struck by a car. Anna-Louise was thrown into a whirlwind of grief and disbelief.

In 2021, Anna’s story was penned by a wonderful ghostwriter but publishing houses rejected her book proposal, saying she’d ‘already had enough press coverage’, and that she ‘didn’t have enough Instagram followers.’ The book languished until 2024.

I re-ghostwrote some parts, edited the entire book, and self-published Anna-Louise’s book in September 2024 and it became an instant Amazon best-seller.

The Problem

Anna-Louise’s story had been played out in the public domain via sensationalist headlines, both in print and online. 

Anna-Louise wanted to tell her story, her way. But with traditional publishers declining the book, Anna-Louise needed another way of getting her story published.

All Anna-Louise had was an 80,000-word manuscript that needed to be restructured, party re-written, edited, and published.

The Solution

We built our own audience with Beehiiv, and self-published Anna-Louise’s memoir.

Stage One included building an engaged audience in readiness for the book’s publication. I created a website through Beehiiv, giving away the book’s first chapter for free in exchange for email addresses. This allowed us to grow an audience in anticipation of the book’s launch.

Stage Two involved building anticipation on social media channels and directing people to the website. I continued to grow the email list while restructuring, partly rewriting, editing, and preparing the book for publication.

Stage Three included launching the book and getting everyone on email to buy it at the same time, rocketing the book into Amazon’s best-seller charts. This was followed up with requests for reviews on Amazon.

The Results

Anna-Louise’s memoir was published on 15th September 2024, on what would have been her son’s 16th birthday.

Before the evening was done, we’d hit:

#2 in Real Life Tragedy Biographies 

#13 in Women’s Biographies

#531 on all books on Amazon

The book was subsequently featured in the national press, reaching millions more potential readers via their websites.

Anna-Louise said:

‘I wouldn’t have entrusted my creating book to anyone other than Patric. I am so happy.’