January 10, 2025
I didn’t anticipate how difficult it would be to rebuild, not just my life, which I am doing after becoming unmarried, but my writer brand.
Back in May, I wrote ya’ll I was quitting the writer life. I stupidly cancelled all my editing clients, said see-ya to The Rebel Newsletter, closed my website, and bounced.
Six months later I was desperately missing being a part of the creative world, my newsletter, my writing clients –I longed to talk about the creative process and books with anyone. I knew rebuilding it all would be hard.
But shit, not this hard.
Because I am not interested in fake influencer culture or gatekeeping, I thought I would tell you some things I did not anticipate. Why might you care about this? Because one day you may take up a new pen name, change your genre, start your own business, or move your domain. It will be good to know what you are up against. So here goes-
When using a new email address and website, Google is harsh. It doesn’t want to put you in front of anyone. When I was writing The Rebel Newsletter, I had a 50% open rate. Now I am lucky to get 25%. Yes, my newsletter is a little different now, but not that different. Through Kit I can see analytics and 80% of my letters are just going to spam now, which is very different than my stats before. There are other Libby James in the world. There are even Libby James authors out there. Getting my new website to rank has not been easy.
I see my clients are cautious to return, because what if I bounce again? Like what if I get a divorce on top of my divorce? I get it. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.
I’ve had to lower my prices to build good faith. Over on Fiverr, to rank, I had to offer my services in a way I haven’t done so in a decade. It is humbling as shit.
And I feel like I have two different readers right now—those that want to hear about my own personal journey and creative life on top of writer talk and then those that are here because The Rebel Newsletter was their jam. They liked the writing tips and business talk and how I rarely wrote about myself. When I now write about the messy bits of my life, they are like hard stop no. It makes me question how I want to show up here.
This is what I feel I am up against right now.
But what I must remember—I spent years building my life under my old name. I spent years perfecting the SEO for my website. I spent years establishing links around the internet leading artists to me and my newsletter. Some things take time. Rebuilding anything takes time.
And let me tell you something about my divorce—it was a great diminisher. Everything still feels difficult, but insignificantly so, compared to what I’ve been through since May. Emotionally, I feel next to nothing about the ways I may have f-ed up relaunching my creative brand. Thank you for the lessons, let’s move on.
This is all an opportunity to know you better— I want to know why you are here. Where are you in your creative journey? What kind of seeker are you? What do you hope to get from these letters? Is art still as important as it was in the past?
Write me, will you? Tell me some truths.
Book Recommendation:
Dorie Clark is a really great thinker. Normally I am so over to the "story time" part of self-help/motivation/business books, but I really liked the way Clark told stories and showed examples from her own experiences with leveling up.
