34: From First Draft to Published Author: Christy Smith’s Journey to Writing a Book That Opens Doors

What happens after you publish your book?

In this inspiring episode of For Women Who Write, Mikaela sits down with author, speaker, and former educator Christy Smith to discuss her journey from aspiring writer to published author of It Begins with a Book: An Everyday Guide to Growing Young Readers.

Christy shares how she explored different writing paths, including poetry and children’s stories, before discovering the book she was truly meant to write. Together, she and Mikaela unpack the power of community, the importance of knowing your ideal reader, and how consistent writing habits helped turn a dream into reality.

They also dive into what life has looked like since publication, including podcast appearances, speaking engagements, homeschool events, collaborations with other authors, newsletter growth, and expanded book distribution through major retailers.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your book could create new opportunities, build your platform, or make a lasting impact, this conversation is proof that writing a book can be the beginning of something much bigger.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Christy found the right book idea after feeling stuck
• Why community and coaching played a key role in her writing journey
• The process of structuring a practical nonfiction book for busy parents
• How consistent writing habits helped her finish her manuscript
• What opportunities opened up after publishing her book
• How writing a book strengthened her speaking career
• Why understanding your ideal reader changes everything

Connect with Christy Smith:

Website: christiannewrites.com
Book: It Begins with a Book: An Everyday Guide to Growing Young Readers

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to For Women Who Write Podcast. I'm Michaela, a certified writing coach, editor, and self-publishing expert with over a decade of experience helping women turn their ideas into powerful, best-selling books. If you felt the call to write, share your story, share your experiences, how you can help other people, then you are in the right place. Here we talk about the real process of writing and publishing. From finding your voice to structuring a book, from overcoming resistance and imposter syndrome to launching it into the world with confidence. My mission is to show you that becoming a published and best-selling author isn't just possible. It's absolutely within reach. Your story matters, and chances are you're closer to holding your finished book in your hands than you did. Hello guys, welcome to another episode of For Women Who Write. I have a really fun guest. Such a fun guest today. She has been with me for a while. It's been a minute. Christy was one of my very first clients, actually. We'll talk about this story, but it's she was one of my very first clients after I got certified as a writing coach. And we have been working together for a while for her book, and it came out last year. It begins with the book. It's a beautiful book. And we are going to talk today all about her process and what life is like after her book. What has happened to her since she wrote and published the book? So it's gonna be a great conversation, Christy. I am so excited you're here. Thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Great. Thank you so much for having me. This is so exciting. I think about our journey and I'm thrilled to be a guest this morning. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Okay, well, tell us a little bit more about yourself and about your book. It begins with a book.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Okay. Yes. So I am Christy Smith. I am a mama, and I am a Gigi, and I'm a wife, and I am now an author, which is very fun. And I'm also a speaker, which is something that I'll touch on a bit later. But yes, I started writing It Begins with a book, an everyday guide to growing young readers. Several years ago, after having spent 23 years in an elementary classroom, um, I stopped teaching and still had a love of literacy and a love of littles. And I felt that there would be a great way for me to find a spot for helping parents with their little ones so that they could grow up and love reading the same way that I do. And that was kind of the precipice for it begins with a book, but there's a story that starts well before that. As all good books do, they start with a story. And that's this one. So if you're ready, I can just jump on in. Yes, tell it to us. We want to hear. Okay. So I I stopped teaching. I retired in 2019 and I spent a couple of years trying to figure out. Well, I was healing. So I had some some autoimmune uh disease that I was working through. And then I was just trying to take care of myself and figure out what look life looked like teaching. And I still was connected with books and stories and I loved words. So I started writing a few, and they came in the form of poetry, which I felt was really freeing and flowy and um flowery. And it was just fun to write poetry. And then I started to write a few children's stories. And I figured that if I could help into children's stories, that that would maybe be a good tool for families. So I wrote some faith-based children's stories and I liked them. And then I went to a few writing conferences and tried to figure out how poetry and children's stories worked for me as an author. And I struggled. I didn't have a writing background. So I needed some help with that. And I didn't have the focus and also honestly the discipline that I needed for really putting forth something out into the world. So started to get on Instagram, social media, which I hadn't been on for over 10 years. And that was a little scary. And I was very out of touch. But fortuitously, I came across your page and you were getting started with coaching, and I was thinking that this might be a good fit for me. So I reached out to you and we connected, and you helped me with some editing on a few of my children's stories. And then I kind of put those aside, and I started to realize that while I have a love for children's stories and I love kiddos, maybe my expertise, my background in literacy and in teaching could come forth in a guide for families. And that was the birth of the idea. It begins with a book, an everyday guide to growing young readers. I wanted it to be something that was going to be manageable, easy for busy families to read. So I needed, but I did again need help because doing this on my own wasn't going to work well. So then you and I spent time figuring out how we were going to map out my book, the chapters, the outline. Um, we talked about who my ideal reader would be and what that looks like. Um, even so much that you had me write a letter to ideal readers that I would be able to understand what my reader was needing and how I was going to be the one to help them get what they needed to help their kiddos. So we started with just some strategy sessions. And I did that in small group, which I loved. Yeah, that was fun. You could just chunk a chapter at a time and you would share out some um suggestions, some improvements, some edits, and we would talk through some of that in small groups. And um I loved that. I loved the feedback, but I also loved hearing other authors and what they share because I learned so much from what they were learning, even though it was a different genre, even though it was a completely different um space than what my book was. So that was kind of the the beginning. And then we talked more and decided that the best bet for me would be to do one-on-one coaching.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

And we worked.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

So before we keep going, I want to kind of go back to a little bit of what you were saying at the beginning. It's that you tried a couple of different things first before you felt like you really found your book idea. And I think for a lot of people that I talk to, they feel like they need to have the idea figured out ahead of time. Like they've got to know exactly what they're gonna write and then they'll start writing it. But really, you were just very open and curious and exploratory about it. You're like, let me just try poetry, let me try writing children's stories. And would you say that they weren't really like scratching the itch for you, that they weren't things that you uh wanted to publish, or do you think that you would still publish those eventually? What was it that made you kind of move from those stories into writing the guide that you ended up writing?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I think what happened was I got stuck.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Got stuck with where I was going with my children's stories. Poetry is really niche or niche these days. I hear it both ways. So yeah, me too. I don't know. And I'm and I'm older, so I don't I don't know. I try to stay up with things, but anyway. Yeah, so it was in its own category, and I felt that that was going to lead me toward maybe um a gift book or something smaller. Um at the time I was also looking to see if I could get an agent, a literary agent, and that's a really specific area. So the same is true with children's stories. And then once um I was trying to finesse my faith and trying to use that well, that became a little more involved for me. So at that point, as I was kind of stuck, then I thought, well, I'm not really sure where I go next with my words. Um, I had been given some really wise advice from someone earlier on in the very beginning of my career, kind of challenging me to write for adults. And I wasn't sure that that was where my heart was. But what happens in time if you have the patience and you have the time to wait, which I did because I didn't have an agent, I didn't have a book contract, I had the privilege of kind of growing through this process. God showed me that I had a lot to learn still, and I needed to be patient in the wait. And through that time, I was able to become a better storyteller. I was able to understand a little bit more about the foundations of writing. I was able to grow and learn in my craft. And I was building connections along the way. And this is really pivotal. I started to find some children's books that were faith-based and the authors who wrote them. And I began to book promote and book launch authors. And this was an open door for me that brought so much joy. And these authors were kind and friendly and helpful and encouraging. So as I was helping them get their book babies out in the world, they were encouraging me in my journey. And the friendships and the bonds and the connections that were being made were really fulfilling in that wait period of time for me.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Then as I continued on, there was a period of a summer, I believe it was 2023, that I spent about one month just writing down all of the things that I felt were like mini chapters for a guide that would maybe help parents in their reading with their kiddos. And I started to think, gosh, I'm spending a lot of time with my preschool grandson. And we're doing a lot of things that I used to do with my daughters when they were young. And I'm using a lot of ideas as he was growing up, like I did with my kiddos in my classroom when they were kinders and first graders and second graders. And so that's when you and I started to structure some of my ideas and really make them into like an outline and then put some practical pieces into place so that we had a game plan.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Yes, yes, yes. So I feel like I'm hearing too like you kind of once you were like, hey, maybe I'll try this, you it came from community. So I've heard like multiple times you say like community has been a really big important piece of this. Seeing other people doing something similar to you really builds belief that you can do it too. And just meeting like so many kind people on the journey of all of this and and learning from them, because there are so many wonderful people out there that like want to help you, they want to make a way for you and to encourage you. And so having that community in place helped you to pivot. But then also just like kind of brain dumping some ideas of like, well, if I did try this, what would it look like? And so you just kind of wrote out a bunch of things on a piece of paper. I remember that because I had a baby in between that time, and so I took a little bit of time off. And I remember you came back, I guess in 2023, and was like, okay, I think I know what I think I know what I'm gonna do. And we started to kind of map it out. And we didn't have like a formal outline at the time. This was a little a couple of years ago, but um, you we still outlined it in a way and mapped out what it would look like. How do we take them on a transformation journey? Who is your reader? And you know, getting super clear on on all of that. So once you had that in place, how did it feel for you then moving forward?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

At that point, it was really powerful for me because I felt like I had direction. So I knew with clarity my who my ideal reader was, what they needed, what their time frame was, what their budget was, what was going to be practical for them. And so that really helped me with guiding my chapters. Um I broke up my book into four sections and how the theme of grow in each chapter, and how it started with birth and then continued on into older age children. So there was like it felt like I was I was on a journey and it was a um a map of like here we're gonna start and here's where we'll go. And um, in the process, I was learning to become a better storyteller so that I was able to weave some of that in because it is nonfiction, but also people want to feel that this is relatable. So um so that it wasn't dry, that it had a bit of something that would hook them as well. Um, so yes, there are some, there's some data and there's some story and there's some book suggestions and recommendations, and but trying to keep it light and joyful and manageable was was my goal. And then affordable, we talked about the price point so that that would be just something that they would feel like is a tool. It doesn't have to be read cover to cover, it can be read in bits and pieces, and so yes, at that point, then we looked at what would it look like and what's my time frame.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

We sat down, knowing that, like I think you have said time and time again, there isn't an ideal time to write a book.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Yes, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

You will not ever probably be ready. There will be things that come up, life will get messy, things will get in the way. So, how do you how do you do that? One of the suggestions, there were two things that were really powerful for me in that in that process. And I guess if we're talking about a timeline, I think it would be about a year that we set. So it was about 2024 when we really started to establish what this would look like. My book came out in May of 2025. Backtracking into that story, we were looking at, you know, what what's our timeframe gonna look like? How are the how are the pieces gonna go? We started with I started with a journal. And I in my journal every single day before I wrote, you had suggested to me find a writing time that works for you and be consistent in that writing time. And I wasn't wanting to do that because I wanted to be spontaneous and flexible. And I told you, Michaela, I don't know when that is. And you said, well, just start to kind of monitor yourself and see where you're sitting down to spend some time. And I did, I found that first thing in the morning after Jesus and coffee was a great time for me. So I could devote a solid like hour, 6:30 to 7:30 in the morning to really be devoted to my book. And what I started with was a journal. And every morning before I started my book process, I wrote out either a prayer or a reflection of what I had done the day before or where I was hoping to go. And even at times I look back now, it's so powerful, it's also very emotional. There were times where I wasn't sure how am I gonna pay for this? Like I'm self-funding this, and what does this look like? And God showed up every single time. And every time I needed a deadline, He was there. And every time I needed encouragement, you were there. And every time I needed editing support, you helped me walk through that. And that was really important for me. So I think a few pieces that really helped with the whole process from beginning to end, I stayed with that commitment to my time frame to the best that I could, and then my my um journaling along the way.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

So man, okay, Chrissy, there's so much we could talk in this. But one of the things that I just admire so much about you as we're talking is that you did not have the answers to the questions before you kept going, even going back to when you were just exploring, you know, what you should write about. You didn't have the answers and you kept going anyway. You didn't have the answers of how it would get paid or how it would happen in your time, but you still went anyway and kept figuring out a way to make it happen. And then you ended up publishing it, and it is a beautiful, beautiful book. I want to talk a little bit more about your structure. So going back just a little bit, because your structure is so beautiful and interesting. One of the questions we kind of wrestled with was Is this a book just for mamas of young kids, like little kids, versus reluctant readers? I believe is what you call them, like readers, kids who just are not feeling it and they are reluctant. Should we just talk about that? Should we have older kids? Like what does that look like? And what made the most sense for you and that you really had vision for was that it was almost like a reference book that these mamas could come back to throughout the years. And so that's why we decided to expand it and make it kind of, you know, chronological. And that really dictated so much of your structure of your book, too, because the chapters are a lot shorter too, right? Like we don't want these long chapters, they're exhausted moms, they don't have time for that. And if it's slightly more referenced, then we want for them to be able to go back to it quickly so that they get the information they need and then start to implement it. So there was just so much in there. And then you used uh you mentioned grow was the acronym that you used. And on the cover, there's these adorable children uh picking flowers, and so we have like that theme all throughout. And then, of course, the book grows as the kids grow as well. And so there's just it just works on so many different layers. And that structure, I think, is so important to the book. And I think why you've seen a lot of success with it too, is because people can track with it, they get the transformation that they want and that they need. So let's talk a little bit more about where you are now with the book. Now that you've published it, it's been a little over a year. Before we started talking or like recording officially, you were telling me a couple of the very exciting things that have been happening. So tell me what has all really come from writing this book for you.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Yeah, I think so many pleasant surprises that I hadn't expected with the book. I had been doing some speaking with Mom Co. And my presentations were about reading with the littles and the importance and setting up a home library, and it was bringing me a lot of joy. And um, mom co would often say, We'd love to sell your book at the end of the presentation, kind of as a way to offset expenses. And I thought that was such a generous offer. However, I had no book. So that was another piece that was encouraging about putting out a book was that I would have something tangible for the mamas to take with them after they had been in the presentation or the talk or however you want to discuss their morning setup. So that's that was something that was really hopeful and exciting for me was to see how that book could get into the hands of others through a small group or a presentation. So in initially that was one of my thoughts. But what has since come from that is that the book has been more far-reaching than I expected. So I've been a guest on podcasts, and that's been very fun for children's uh for families and to support children's literature and bringing in um quality faith-based stories to homes. I had an opportunity to be a guest in a blog. I've been a guest um in a magazine. And I've additionally been able to plug a lot of things in with my newsletter, which I do every month. And so that's been a really fun way for me to continue to share my ideas that come from the book, but then also bringing in book recommendations because that's one of my passions is to share quality literature with families. Um, I also love books and baking, so we always put in a little books and baking section in there as well. But the newsletter is really comprehensive, so that's been really fun. And I remember when I was first starting my newsletter and you would give me advice and assistance. And boy, it was, it would take me probably 15 hours to put out one newsletter. It was so hard for me. And I couldn't embed the links, and you would just be so patient with me. And now I'm able to do them so much more seamlessly. And so it that's been fantastic. I've had opportunities to collaborate with other authors. I've been invited to be in um author giveaways, which I'm actually in right now, and that's been such a fun surprise to be able to be included with other um authors in their journey and share out books to readers with contests and then um homeschool co-op. So I was able to go in April. I was invited to go be a speaker at a homeschool co-op where I got to encourage families, primarily mamas, in their reading journey with their littles. That's awesome. And I've been invited back. So I get to go at the end of the summer, and I'm looking into that as a really important opportunity and an open door and thinking about what it could look like to go visit some preschools and some talk to some parents of preschoolers about the joy of reading with their littles and some ways that they can make reading fun. So there's been some fantastic open doors, and even in my publishing journey, I started with Amazon, but I've since expanded out, and now my book is available through Walmart. And bookshop.org and Barnes and Noble. And so I'm just in indie bookstores. I'm looking forward to so many opportunities. I'm celebrating those that I've had already. And then just seeing the new that are on the horizon.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

Yes. And anticipating that as well. I love that. Oh my gosh. So many exciting things. And yet I'm also like not surprised. Like I helped you write the book, develop the book, you know, and like that makes sense. There needs to be more of what you write, more of Christy out in the world. And I just I see the world responding and I'm so grateful for that. Do you feel like your speaking has been easier or been improved because of the book and like the process of writing the book? How did like that process of writing the book help you when it comes to speaking?

SPEAKER_01 22:49

That's fantastic. This was such a fabulous challenge for me. In going to the homeschool co-op, I structured my presentation differently than I do for my mamas of preschoolers. So these are mamas that are educating. So I set up an entire Google slide deck. Um I embedded photos and videos, and I used a color scheme, and it was very fun and incredibly challenging. My learning curve was huge. I had used PowerPoint before, I had used Canva presentations. I had never used a Google slide deck. I spent a long time learning. I did a lot of research. I had a little bit of um uh chat GPT when I would get stuck on something and I would ask chat, how am I gonna do this? And you know, AI, you have to use that very tenderly. But it was great for answering my questions and giving me some breakdown in the step-by-step pieces of the presentation. I presented for an hour with a half an hour of QA.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

That's a very lengthy presentation, but um I felt like it had a great flow. I had tremendous feedback. It was a fantastic challenge for me. And it brought me a spark of joy in that not being in a classroom for a while. I miss some of those kinds of connections of the teaching piece. And so that element was brought back in in presenting. I love to speak in person. I love the face-to-face contact. I love to see the feedback, the smiles, the nodding. That just energizes me. And then I get to bring all my books. Well, not all of them, because I probably have a thousand. But I bring I bring a lot of display. So I set up tables where I get to display my books. I do all of the ways my creative packaging of my books and how we can do books on the go. So I bring all of that, books in creative play. So I bring the books with all of the things that are interactive. And so the families can really see like, here's the hands-on piece, as well as recommendations and then reference. And so I think it's just it was a culmination of everything that brought me so much joy in the presentation experience. And then looking back afterwards, the reflection, because that's a lot of growth comes. So I know what I'll do in future presentations. I know how I'll have to shift it when I speak to parents of preschoolers, not just in a mom co setting, but in um perhaps at the beginning of the year before uh preschool kicks back up again. Yeah. Those families, get them geared up and excited. So there's that um challenge for me mentally as well to stay on top of what this looks like. And again, you know, going back to that ideal reader, your ideal audience, you really have to know your audience. You need to what are they wanting? Their time is valuable and they want to get a lot out of a short amount of time or expense. So I think that's that's important too. And then that piece also leads into a little bit of marketing. So being able to sell books at the end of a presentation or prior to is also a plus. And while I don't love that piece of authoring, I know, I know it is part of it. And if I don't promote that book and I don't help families see the value, it's not gonna happen. Yeah. Because that's that is part of my job in this experience. And so the better that I embrace it and I look for the positives in it, then the easier it is for me to invest my time into it.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

So and it's still trial and error, and I'm still growing.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Oh, 100%. And we're always, I mean, and that's the thing too, is like your book is this long-term asset. It's something that you always have and you're always kind of figuring out your marketing with it. You never fully arrive ever when it comes to marketing. It's not, I mean, you can get better and better at it, but it's not like you're this you have arrived, you know, at marketing. And I think too, one of the things you said too, of like knowing your ideal reader, knowing who you are talking to bases everything. And so you can tweak some of the things from the book or from other speeches based off of your who your audience is. And that's one of the things that we talk about so very much. And you know, you and I talked about it so much when you're writing your book, is who are you writing to? I think a lot of people ask, like, is my work any good? Is this going to be worth it? And a lot of it comes down to do you know who you're talking to and do you know what you want to help them with? Because that's ultimately one of the reasons why people come to books is because they have a problem and they want your help solving it. And so if you have those types of questions that go to your ideal reader, honestly, most of your questions will probably be answered when you know who your reader is, or at least many of them. So I love that, Christy. This is so exciting for you. And I'm just so proud of you, of all of the really, really hard work that you've done. Where can we go find you? Where can all of us mamas who are like figuring all this out, which I still use your tips by the way? And my son is now six. He's reading now, which is so fun. We're reading Flat Stanley chapter book right now, and I think of you because I know you have a connection to the Flat Stanley, one of his illustrators. And so my book. Yes, yeah. It's so fun. So I still a lot of these tips are so like practical. So, anyway, where can we find you and connect with you and most importantly, buy your book?

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Okay. My book is available at Amazon and other bookstores. You can find it at Barnes and Noble, you can find it at Walmart.com, you can find it at aidbooks or bookshop.org. Indie bookstores would be able to order it if it's not in stock for them. So pretty much your favorite retailer. And then you can find me at christyannrights.com. That's C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N-N-E. W-R-I-T-E-S dot com. On Instagram, you can find my if you sign up for my newsletter, you'll see me every month. And you can do that through my website as well. You can also go to itbeginswithabook.com to order straight through Amazon if you wanted a simple way to get to the book.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Amazing. I love it. Her newsletter is so pretty and like great rec book recommendations. Love it. And so it's just, it's such a great book, great resource, great work that you're doing, Christy. And I'm just so grateful for you. And anything else that you wanted to say? Anything else that as we head out?

SPEAKER_01 29:37

It's been such a pleasure, Michaela. I look back at our journey together and our friendship and your patience and your instruction and the growth that we have had together. And I just am so excited to be sitting in this moment, having spent the last four years on this journey, five years, I guess, and just watching the changes and the shifts. And so it's just a celebration, I think. And so I'm so incredibly proud of you and the effort that you've put in and all that you have done in your journey and the transitions and the shifts and the staying with it and the process of it. And that makes me super proud that I get to watch you from this side of it. And then just for the the success that we've shared together and and the journey. So thank you so much for including me in this podcast, for inviting me to be part of your brain and for letting me share so much about It Begins with a book, an everyday guide to growing young readers.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Yes. Well, thank you, Christy. It's been so sweet and such a fun journey we have gone on together. And I'm just so grateful for you. So thank you for being here and just everybody go buy her book. It's beautiful. So thank you so much.