Embracing the Fiction Author Journey

52. Turning a blog post into a book w/ Hilary Kinney

• Erin P.T. Canning / Hilary Kinney

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Have you ever wondered if a seed of an idea could become a whole book? What would that process look like? How would you even go about verifying if you have enough content?

In today’s episode, you’ll find out how Hilary Kinney figured out the answers to those very questions and successfully published her first book.

Hilary is a blogger, nonfiction author of Project Management for Parents, and a mom to one pre-teen. 

So stay tuned to discover how you can turn a blog post into a book.

Topics discussed in this episode: 

  • When a non-writer gets an idea
  • Taking action and actually writing
  • Blog post triggering a book idea
  • Moving past the TOC
  • Writing while the kid is home
  • Compiling a marketing plan
  • Tip: Know your audience
  • Time and organization hacks for parents
  • Favorite books
  • BONUS: Books that influence our writing

 About Hilary:

Hilary Kinney is an award-winning blogger and author of the non-fiction book Project Management for Parents. She wrote this guide to teamwork and organization during the pandemic, to help families reduce stress and streamline life at home. 

Her day job is as a corporate executive where she has spearheaded global projects across The Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels. She is also the proud mother of an elementary school student. Her recent parenting accomplishments include teaching him to plan his day independently, make dinner, and get his chores done without complaining—most of the time. 

Hilary earned a BS from Cornell University and holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification from the Project Management Institute.  She lives with her family in the Washington, D.C. area.

Get her book: 

Connect with Hilary:

 Books discussed during the show: 

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Erin:

Hey, friend! Thank you for following my journey thus far as I've recovered from burnout and worked through my struggles with anxiety and depression, all while chasing after my own writing dreams. Before today's episode, I just wanted to share with you the exciting news that I've I have finally published my first novel, Ruins and Redemption. It's about an anthropologist who unintentionally travels to another world and uses her skills to bridge the cultural gap between elves and humans. I hope you'll enjoy Adaline's story, which is a blend of fantasy, adventure, and romance. Check the show notes for the link. Happy reading, my friend. Have you ever wondered if a seed of an idea could become a whole book? What would that process look like? How would you even go about verifying if you have enough content? In today's episode, you'll find out how Hilary Kinney figured out the answers to those very questions and successfully published her first book. Welcome to Parents Who Write, the podcast that helps parents pursue their writing dreams. I'm your host, Erin P.T. Canning. I'm a mom of two young boys, a writer, editor, and writing coach. My mission is to help you regularly make time for your writing, find your voice again, and confidently share your stories so that you can own your identity as a writer and be a happier, more patient parent. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Parents Who Write. Today I am joined by Hilary Kinney, who is an award winning blogger and the author of the nonfiction book, Project Management for Parents. She's also a corporate executive who has spearheaded global projects across the Ritz Carlton and Marriott Hotels. And Hillary's the mom of a pre teen. Hillary, thank you so much for joining me on the show today.

Hilary:

you for having me, Erin.

Erin:

All right, let's dive in because I know we've got a bunch of awesome topics for us to cover. My first question to you is, what's been your writing journey, and were you always a writer?

Hilary:

I have not always been a writer. I am a relatively new writer in the last two years. Yeah, it's, it's been interesting, you know, you write in school. I've got a business degree. You don't do a whole lot of writing there. I write PowerPoints at work. That was about the extent of my writing. And then the pandemic hit, and it started making me really thoughtful. And I started writing, I think, just to process what was going on in the world. And, um, it became therapeutic as a way to just sort of like work through what's going on. And with my business background, I just started posting them to LinkedIn. Cause that was a platform I was on, and they had an opportunity to post articles, and I just started writing there. And it was just sort of this itch that started at that time.

Erin:

I love that. You never know when the itch to write is going to start. But it's also funny because I've heard so many people who have shared how much the pandemic became the catalyst for their need to write.

Hilary:

Yeah.

Erin:

And as somebody who struggles with anxiety, I have found for years that writing is my number one method for dealing with my anxiety. But I try not to look back at my journal entries from the pandemic because they're just so, you feel like the world is crumbling and, and just, it was. Oh my gosh, it's just, talk about a record of what 2020 was

Hilary:

Yeah. Just the emotional rollercoaster for everyone. Who knew what was going to happen? And then who knew it would last that long, right? There was, it's a lot. And still today, the repercussions.

Erin:

Definitely. I remember dropping my then preschooler off, on the last day before school was shutting down, and she, this bitty old lady, whom I adore, she said, Oh, I can't wait to see you guys in two weeks. And I just looked at her and I was like, Oh, no. Have you been following Italy? No. But anyway. So, what changed? What pushed you to move beyond thinking about writing and actually taking action?

Hilary:

Yeah, it was interesting. I think, I definitely needed to write, like you said, it's almost like therapy to work through these thoughts and in a way of like addressing the world. And I'm a project manager, so I like to do things. So I was thinking of, okay, what can I do to help. I think that's how I'm wired. So I was like, okay, what can we do about this was my approach. And so I saw all these parents struggling, with school and work, and we're stuck at home, and everything's happening at home, and we got to keep the kids entertained 24 seven. And there's no, no one's there to help us. And I just got this feeling like, huh, this feels a lot like work, you know, when I get assigned this huge project, and they wanted out really fast and I don't have enough resources to do it and they don't have enough money in the budget to get it done. But we still get it done. And I was like, huh, this feels like a really similar situation. So I just sort of processing in my head, like what that looks like and what, how those might two might fit together. I posted an article on LinkedIn called"Project Management for Parents" in May of 2020 with five tips of things you can do during this time when we're doing remote schooling that can help the situation and help the family get organized and communicate and keep the train on the tracks.

Erin:

Yeah.

Hilary:

It started resonating with people. So it was interesting. You know, I just put it out there, and it picked up, and it reverberated with people and it just continued into speaking engagements and a book deal.

Erin:

Hmm. That's so interesting. You started writing. Where did your writing go from there? From just those initial LinkedIn posts?

Hilary:

Yeah, so I had that one post and then the other ones were about women and crisis communication and what was going on with race relations in the country. So they're different topics and you never know which one's gonna hit, right? You know, which one's really gonna resonate with people. So I, I got the most feedback on the"Project Management for Parents" one, and I just, it just got me thinking like, Huh, I wonder if there's more here? I guess it was a beta test that I didn't realize I was beta testing, right? So I was taking some of, you know, my professional development units I have to get for my project management, professional certification. And I was taking a class from a woman who was a published author, and her speech was about like, you know, just go for it and achieve your dreams and just try stuff. And, you know, it was during the pandemic, and I was laid off at the time. And I was like, what have I got to lose? I'm just going to reach out to her and see if she has any tips for me on, on a book. Cause I had no clue. Never even thought about writing a book. So I sent her an email and let her know that I listened to her speech, and we just wanted to get her feedback and advice on what would it be to write a book and how do you go about it? Cause I had no clue. And she was so accommodating. She's like, yeah, let's get on a call. And she was super supportive and she said, why don't you write your table of contents, your introduction, and your first chapter, and just see how it goes because I just wasn't sure if there was enough content because it was a very short article. I was like, well, is there enough for a book? She's like, why don't you try that first and just see how it goes.

Erin:

Okay. So, after you did your intro and your first chapter and your table of contents, what steps did you take after that? Did you see like, Oh my gosh, there really is a lot of content in here. And then how did you start turning that into your book?

Hilary:

It was an interesting process because as someone who hadn't planned to write a book, I was sort of testing it out to see how it would go and can I do this? Do I like it? Do I want to write a book? Do I have enough content? So there's just a lot of questions in my head of, does it make sense for me to devote time on this. And as I was going through that, it answered, you know, yes, to all those boxes. Yes, I do enjoy this. I enjoy the writing process. Yes, I do have enough content when I map it out. And yes, this does seem to be a logical flow for a book. I had to think through like, what would this book look like? And it started answering all those questions. And I sent it to her just to get her feedback. And she said, yeah, I think this is great. Keep going. And, by the way, do you want to do a speech at it at a global project management conference, which was another really interesting part of, that helped me build out the book too. Like writing that speech, and getting feedback through that speech process, was also a really useful way to figure out how to frame things up and how to organize it and what topics to include. So all this was, you know, more beta testing of my book and just helping me, it was a very iterative process. You know, it morphed as I went along, and then I just kept going. Like I started getting really excited, like, okay, I can write this. I love project management. This is really interesting to me. I love the theory. So let's just keep going and see where it leads. So I started mapping it out. And from that, as I'm going through the process and writing the book and doing the speech, you know, it naturally leads to the question of what about publishing? So I started researching what are publishing options, cause again, it was all new to me and I needed to figure out what the landscape was. So I took a class from a literary agent on the different publishing options and what are the different routes you can take. And he actually ended up recommending a publisher to me, who ended up picking it up. So it was a very fast process. I'm very fortunate that it was such a fast process.

Erin:

Yes.

Hilary:

reason is because we're in the middle of the pandemic and the topic was really relevant to what was going on right then. But it also has, you know, a longer term lifespan, like it's pretty timeless, the content that you can use it forever because parents are going to be needing project management and organization tips for forever. So I think the topic was really timely. Yeah, it happened really fast. And then once you get a publishing deal, you're under contract with a deadline, right? So that's motivation in itself to just keep going. Then I felt like I was more in the crank it out phase.

Erin:

Oh, yes.

Hilary:

You know, just really focused on getting those words to paper and getting feedback on them and working through that more comprehensive process of getting the book done.

Erin:

Yeah. So how did you manage all of that work? Because you previously mentioned that it was 12 chapters and 43, 000 words. How did you manage to crank all of that out during the pandemic with your kid at home?

Hilary:

I mean, I was laid off at the time. I work in hospitality, and 75 percent of my headquarters was laid off. So I had the time. My husband was still working. So what we did is we divided it up as I would work from 830 to 1130 in the morning on the book. He would observe online school. And then 1130, I'd take over and take care of our son the rest of the day. And then, you know, the thing with writing is the muse hits at different times, or if I'll get in the zone on one chapter, then I'd pick it up at night. Or, you know, in the afternoon when my son's doing something, I'd find little pockets to really focus on one chapter if I was really in the zone on that chapter. Or, you know, on weekends my husband would take care of my son so I could really zone in and work on it. So I think, without the support of my husband, I wouldn't have been able to write the book.

Erin:

Yeah. Yeah, my husband has been instrumental in that as well. Like even with recording this podcast, I don't know what he's doing with the kids right now, but they are.

Hilary:

Yeah. We need that extra set of hands. And for the single parents, you know, is that relatives, is that friends, is that other caregivers that can support our kids while we're trying to get our writing done.

Erin:

Yes, exactly. Or, honestly, if my husband's not around, then I completely confess, their screen time is my writing.

Hilary:

Yeah, exactly. I know he's focused for an hour, and I can just get some writing done. I do the same thing, right?

Erin:

Exactly. The last time we spoke, you mentioned that you also needed to put together a marketing plan. So can you tell us a bit more about what goes into that?

Hilary:

Absolutely. So, one thing that I learned throughout this process is that once you finish writing your book, it's just the beginning. Like you think you're done when you write the book, but no, you have to sell the book, and no one's going to sell the book for you, but you. And getting the book done is hard. That's a huge milestone, but publishing these days, you need to have a marketing plan to get that book sold because no one's going to pick it up unless they're going to sell it, right? They're in business, and their business to make money. And, you know, they're not a charity. So it's a whole nother piece of work that again, for me, was this huge learning curve. I just had to figure out as I went along and say, okay, all right, the publisher wants a marketing plan. Okay, well, let me just figure this out. So it's basically, what exposure can you get for your book? What sort of natural communities are already connected to that makes sense for your audience? Who's your audience? Where is your audience? It's identifying all that and just showing that you have the ideas and the the breadth to get your book out there. I think the thing that's hard, I'm not a real salesy person. I'm not someone who necessarily enjoys being out front on stage. But to get the book out there and if, if you want people to enjoy your book, they need to hear about it and they're going to, they need to hear about it from you. So that's one thing I've actually gotten a lot more comfortable about. And I've actually come to enjoy a lot more than I thought I would. Like I, now I really enjoy public speaking, and I never thought I would. But it's really fun when you're talking about your topic and you know that you're helping people, and they really engage with it. So that was a huge learning curve for me. You even, you have to create a website. Okay, well let's create a website. Okay. I need to, you know, create an LLC. Okay, let's create an LLC. It's just all these different pieces that I just took step by step. And in time, it was like just in time. And my husband would joke with me, oh, so what did you figure out today? I was like, Oh, I figured out how to create a newsletter, which I'd never done before. It's just each piece I just had to figure out as I went along. And now when I look back, I'm like, wow, that was a lot of work, but at least I have the foundation in place now. And now the platform is, is set up and I can manage it on a day to day basis.

Erin:

Yeah, my, uh, podcast coach talks about the watering holes where we can go and connect with our ideal listeners for our show. And so it's just a matter of reaching out into those groups on Facebook and just making your presence there. And connecting with people, right? I'm not going into these groups saying, listen to my podcast, listen to my podcast. I'm going into those groups because, for the exact same reason why I put out this podcast, is to connect with parents, to encourage and inspire them. And so I just do that in other communities, for me specifically, Facebook. But it is fun because of the fact that I know that I'm not out there trying to sound like the smarmy car salesman. It's more the driving force behind everything is that need to pay it forward and help other parents pursue their writing dreams. And it is a lot more fun when you think about it from that perspective, rather than the guilt induced, Oh my gosh, I'm trying to sell stuff and that can get really

Hilary:

If you take it from like the service perspective of I'm helping people, I think it's a lot more fun. And engage, and connecting with people is always fun.

Erin:

And it's the same thing even for fiction writers, because I'm working on a fiction book too, and when I'm reaching out into those communities to connect with my ideal readers in that genre, it's still about providing entertainment and fun and the connection that we all have when we read books. And yeah. so can you share some time and organization hacks?

Hilary:

Yeah, absolutely. So I think the thing that's important to keep in mind as parents, we're very busy. And in project management, we have this theory called constraints, which means we're all limited, you know, time, money, resources, and we also measure quality levels. So I think just as a paradigm shift, if we want to write, we can't just add it onto our existing schedule because we already know our existing schedule is super busy, right? It's not just like going to magically happen, and then we get a guilt trip when it doesn't happen. Because our schedules are full and kids, you know, stuff pops up and it's not like we can actually like keep to a very set schedule because you never know what's gonna happen. Parenting is, there's a lot going on and things change a lot. So what I would encourage people to do is think about what you can do less of and what could you sort of lower the quality level of or what can you bring in to help? Because the goal is you got to reduce the amount of work, or you got to bring in people to help you do it to make that work go down for you personally, because you got to think about you. So if your kids are old enough, can they help out? Can you hire services? Can you bring in meal delivery more often? Can you have relatives watch the kids while you write? One thing that I do that is a great hack is we have the same things for dinner every week. We have burgers, nuggets, fish, and tacos. And the kids love it. Everyone's happy. And then we also have on the schedule, which my husband put on, which I think is brilliant, we have a make your own dinner night, or it can be a leftover night once a week. And we have a takeout night. So that takes a It takes care of dinner two nights a week. And the thing that, that does is it streams line your grocery shopping because you're getting the same things every week and you don't really have to think about it. So that takes away that mental load of trying to figure out what to make for dinner. And the kids are happy. You know, my husband's happy. Everyone's happy. It's just easy. So what can you make easier and where can you bring in people to help you?

Erin:

We have started doing that, especially as our kids got to be pickier eaters. We don't want to make different meals for them, and everybody tells us to not give in to that and start making separate meals. So we don't. So we just simplify dinner. My husband and I, prior to having our kids, love to make different dinners and experiment with different flavors. And then with our kids, we're like, you know what, we'll just, we'll pick it up again in about 10 years when we can. And right now our standard dinners are a nugget night, a mac and cheese and hot dog night because that is our kids super favorite. And then David and I can have something special for us that night, if, you know, but one of our go tos is cacio e pepe, which is an Italian dish. And we love it. It's super easy to make, but it's spaghetti and the sauce is more of a cream and Parmesan mixture with pepper. Absolutely amazing. You use some of the pasta water to add to the flavor, and we put in meatballs for our protein. We've got steamed veggies on the side with some butter and garlic salt or celery salt, and everybody's happy. So we have definitely simplified our dinners because, between me trying to write a book, and freelance editing, and running a podcast, dinner is like, gone. I was like, I need to simplify dinner a

Hilary:

And I love the perspective of, you know, we can do that later. Now is just not the time in our lives for that. And that's okay. it's okay. You know, your house doesn't have to be perfectly clean all the time. It's okay. You're writing a book. That's a focus right now, and that's okay.

Erin:

Yeah, exactly. And we still expose them to different foods when we do our takeout night, because then we change it up. You know, we're gonna do a Greek night. We're gonna do a Chinese food night. We did sushi last night, and both of my kids tried a big piece of sushi.

Hilary:

Wow! That's great!

Erin:

I know I'm so excited. So we're like, okay, next time we're going to get them both a Philadelphia roll. I'm surprised they ate the one that we had last night because it was called the Fuji roll, and it's got some spicy sauce with crab meat on top. And then there's salmon inside. And I,

Hilary:

I'm surprised they wouldn't. Usually the California role is the way to start, but, you

Erin:

Right? Side note, what is it with kids where we try to make a very nice authentic Italian meal at home or we try to cook pad thai at home, which I know will never taste as amazing as what you can get from the restaurant. But we try to make these at home with, you know, less sodium and whatnot. And our kids refuse to eat it. But then we get it from the restaurant, and they're like, yes, I will eat all of that and I'm

Hilary:

it's much cooler from the restaurant. I don't know why.

Erin:

I, right? I mean, I agree. It's better.

Hilary:

Yeah, it's good. It's a bit insulting. Like oh, this just isn't good enough. Like my son, he doesn't like leftovers. I'm like, come on. Give your mother a break like

Erin:

Eat the

Hilary:

you need to eat leftovers. Like be a team player here.

Erin:

Yes, I agree. So we are coming to the end of your episode and I always like to talk about what are some of your favorite books and why?

Hilary:

Yeah, absolutely. It's a good question. You know, I, growing up, I loved the classics, like Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jane Austen. Love the Secret Garden, all that kind of stuff. My mom is a librarian. These days as an adult, I'm a big James McBride fan. There's one book of his I've read two or three times, Song Yet Sung. It just has this lyrical prose, and it just creates this ambiance that you feel like you're there that I love. I read that every couple summers. So yeah, I guess I'm, I like the classics more. But then it depends. It's interesting. My reading changes. Like in the summer, I do more in depth reading. During school season, I may grab a romance from the library, just something light cause I just don't have as much mental energy in the winter months to really dive into a deeper

Erin:

I completely understand that. 100%. Um, I'm curious. Have any of those books influenced Project Management for Parents, or is it more of the nonfiction books that help influence that? Because I've been talking a lot recently in my Facebook group about mentor texts and how the books that we read, even during our childhood, still taught us about the patterns of storytelling. And it shows up later on, even if we're not aware of it. So I was just curious if you can think about how those books might have still influenced or which books might have influenced what you

Hilary:

Yeah. It's an interesting question. Cause as from creating a nonfiction book, I'm trying to think of the tie in, but, maybe I'm just trying to think of a common thread, cause my book is pretty tactical. But you know, you try to keep it interesting.

Erin:

I've got a possible answer. While your book is very tactical, do you include any anecdotes from your own personal experience or from other people's personal experiences? Because that's still storytelling.

Hilary:

I have 25 stories in there. High drama. High drama from managing teenage risky behavior, to health issues, to when you get that call from school or from your child care provider that school's closed or your child care provider can't provide services. Ah! From a parenting perspective, that's a lot. So yeah, I guess there, there is good storytelling in there in the highs and lows of parenting journeys and what you can do with the project management to help you get through them.

Erin:

yes,

Hilary:

point.

Erin:

Yeah. That's interesting. So look, even when you're telling those stories, I bet there's an influence in there in your writing with the kinds of books that you gravitate toward and what resonates with you.

Hilary:

Yep. It's interesting cause in business you're trained to be like super clear and make your point up front. But the high school I went to, we focused a lot about on storytelling. You kind of lead the reader in, and you come to the conclusion at the end.

Erin:

Yeah.

Hilary:

it's just an interesting, I always found that juxtaposition interesting. And when I switched from high school to business school, it was hard for me. My teachers was like, make your point up front. I was like, wait, I gotta wait until the end. But in my book, the beginning of every chapter is top three tips. It's also geared toward my reader, right? Because parents, they may not have time to read a book. So, okay, give me the top three tips at the front of the chapter. One, two, three. Do this to call it out and just get access to it. So I think it's also, depending on the format of your book and what you're trying to achieve and who your reader is, you can adjust it accordingly.

Erin:

Thank you so much for sharing that with us. So all of your contact info and the links to your book are in the show notes, but is there anything else that you would like to share before we go?

Hilary:

Join me on socials if you want. I'm on Instagram and Facebook. I post regularly about our adventures in parenting and project management and what we do at our house, and just throw out tips and tricks that I hope are helpful to parents.

Erin:

Oh, that's fantastic. Thank you. I'm going to be sure to follow you because I want that. And then I want to keep being able to share it with my audience.

Hilary:

Yeah, because we all need, we all need, help, right? Parenting is a journey, and we all need as much support as possible.

Erin:

We do. We do. Whether that's help with writing tips to help you decrease that anxiety and, uh, release the pressure on the pot and also through project management to

Hilary:

reduce the stress, get stuff done. Yeah.

Erin:

Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you again so much for joining me on the show.

Hilary:

Erin, it's been fun.

Erin:

Take care. Bye. You've reached the end of another episode of Parents Who Write. Ready to take action and start writing now? Don't wait! Before you forget, download my free guide, 5 Steps to Help You Start Writing Today. You can find it conveniently located in the show notes. Get it, and start making progress immediately.

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Erin P.T. Canning

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