Meet the Author: Jenni Gritters

Our interview this week is with a writer and business coach whose work I have followed for years—and Jenni Gritters is now my business coach! We cover a lot of ground in this interview, from Jenni’s decision to self-publish her forthcoming book, the visions she had of the book idea and how to market it, and Jenni’s advice for authors who feel like they are stuck in a season that keeps them from writing.

--

​Jenni Gritters is a business strategist and coach for solopreneurs and leaders seeking stability, sustainability and ease. She is a writer and a mom of two living in the woods of Central Oregon. She has many other titles, too: artist, gardener, oracle, witch, priestess, author, daughter, friend and leader.

You can subscribe to Jenni’s newsletter, pre-order her book, The Sustainable Solopreneur, and listen to her podcast at the links.

Tell me about your journey to writing this book.

I have always wanted to write books. When I was little, I would sit on my floor, probably like many of us, and literally write and draw books.

I have a whole box of them my parents sent to me, but the reality is, and you probably get this, Bailey: When I was a professional writer, I didn't have a lot of extra words to spend. I spent a decade plus working as a journalist, doing a lot of product reviewing, writing feature stories, and my joke was that I used up my word count.

I've tried to write an ebook a number of times about freelancing. It's what became the Writers’ Co-Op podcast. I knew there was a book under the surface, is what I have said.

In January, I shut down my writing agency and stopped doing freelance writing work and fully stepped into coaching. It's not an accident, the timing. In March, I started working on this book, The Sustainable Solopreneur (affiliate link*).

I definitely had more creative bandwidth, I would say, and more time to do my own writing work. I was doing a visualization in March at a retreat, and I saw the book.

You and I have talked about this, how you almost energetically can see the creation. I saw it. I saw the chapter outline.

I sat up and opened my eyes. Everyone else was still meditating but I grabbed the notebook, wrote it all down and started working on it the next week. It felt like a little bit of a divine drop-in, if that makes sense.

It's been baking for a long time, but it was like, “Okay, now it's time, and it's clear, the form’s clear, and you have to say yes, even if it's inconvenient.”

The Sustainable Solopreneur is such a juicy title. Who is this book for? What is it about? Who should read it, and what do you hope they will get out of it?

This book is for those of us who perhaps were eldest daughters, were obsessed with being good, and we are running businesses by ourselves. It starts to feel like a trap for a lot of people, right?

It's like a lot of the old patterning that comes from capitalism and comes from being a straight-A student all of a sudden drips into your business. The question I always get from people is, “Can I keep doing this?”

They've survived for three years, five years, working for themselves. But it's like, “Wait, could I do this for my whole career?”

The idea of sustainability is that it's something that lasts. You're building a system or a structure or a process that lasts, and so that's where the idea came from.

It was originally the name of my newsletter, but it felt like the perfect fit. Sustainable solopreneurship feels a little bit like a movement to me, less so just a concept and more of a way of being.

The book uses nature basically as a map—the nature outside of our window, trees, the ecosystems that we see—for how we can learn how to function more sustainably in our businesses.

A lot of what we see in business is hustle and scale and grow, and for a lot of us, that doesn't work if you have chronic illness, if you're neurodivergent, if you're multi-passionate, if you have small children, all of which is true for me. These rules do not apply.

This is the book for those people. I imagine it as a field guide, almost like a birding guide that you would take into nature. This is your field guide that you tuck into your bag. It could be read chronologically, but it's also something you could just flip open.

There are a lot of journaling prompts. It's meant to be a very practical road mapping tool. But I'm not giving you the road map. You are building it as you read, which is my way.

My hope is that everybody walks out of it with their own unique take on what sustainability looks like for them in their business.

It's really built for those of us who are doing this whole business thing by ourselves.

What did you do once you had that idea? How did you approach writing this book?

A couple of things feel important to say. The first is that I think I always put book writing on a pedestal. I was like, “Well, if I write a book, it's going to need to be special, and I'm going to need to go on a writing retreat.”

And my coach kept saying to me, “Jenni, this is like any other product you've created in your business. This is like any creation you have worked with.” There was something about that that gave me permission to really do it messy.

I have two little kids. They're three and five and a half, and every part of my life is chaos. There's no way I can go for a week into a little cabin in the woods—I wish!

That was really important for me to have to figure out how to weave it into my everyday life, instead of pressing pause and being like, “I'm only going to focus on this.”

I also was in luck because one of my best friends is a book coach. I sat down with her and was like, “Hey, do you want to trade sessions? I will give you business coaching.” I think, as you know, the accountability part of it is really key.

I needed someone to hold the dream with me, hold the vision with me, and help me take it into practical form.

This book is self published, but she's the one who actually was like, “We need to talk about this. Why would you self publish? Why would you traditionally publish? Let's make that decision together.”

So, permission to do it messy. Then there was the accountability piece, where I actually made a plan with her, and then I wrote the book in five weeks, which I know sounds insane. We could talk more about this part, but it felt like it was kind of a channeled experience.

I found I couldn't work on it between anything else I was doing. So I would block off one day a week, and I would sit and kind of get myself into the zone, and then I would write.

On a couple of days, I wrote 10,000 words in a day, which, again, I know this sounds insane, but this is also my body of work that I've already taught. So it's not coming out of nowhere.

I wrote it in six weeks, and I actually did that on purpose, because I knew I wanted the book to come out in the fall, and this is not that long. I mean, I started the process in March, so it's been pretty quick.

When I did the math from, “Oh, I would like to publish in the fall,” I was like, “I need a draft really soon.”

But that actually was a great decision, because dragging it out is almost harder for me. That's also my personality type, to really dedicate to a thing, do it, and then raise my head above the surface and be like, “What just happened to me? Where am I now?”

I've wanted to write books before. I think accountability was the thing that actually made it happen, sitting down with her and creating a game plan.

What was it like to move back and forth between the practical aspects of planning, having somebody hold you accountable, and having this channeled writing experience?

It's worth saying that I'm a professional writer, so it is important to remember that I used to write 6,000-word product reviews in a day. I'm used to churning out words, but I needed structure.

The outline I sat down with post meditation is not exactly the outline I went with. I ended up with five core principles of sustainable solopreneurship that actually came into my head while I was at the swimming pool with my kids. So again, a permission to go live your life.

I was going to do it chronologically with my journey, and I ended up organizing it with the principles. Once I had the core principles, I wrote an outline of what I thought would probably fall beneath it.

When I sat down to write, at least I had some kind of guide. I wasn't just like, “What could fall under this?” I did notice if I pushed too hard on the practical, almost trying to make it make too much sense, I would get stuck. There was something to staying in the flow.

The book is a little bit different than I planned. I don't know if you've had this experience with your writing, but this is not the book I thought I would write. I think it's the book I was meant to write.

There's certainly more of a spiritual, philosophical component to it than I would have planned on. So it was sort of like have a structure, but leave room for whatever's coming.

And then, you know, of course, there were like 17 edit processes where I was moving things around. I know as a writer, you just have to get it on the page. It's the only job at first.

Blessedly, I'm pretty good at the trash draft, the get it out of your head, the no judgment zone. When I say I wrote 10,000 words in a day, I probably didn't keep them all in the book, but at least they were out.

How did you decide to self-publish, and what has the process been like?

There are so many tiny logistical steps, is what I'm going to say. Originally the decision came about when I was sitting with this friend, and she was like, “I know you don't really want to self-publish, but I kind of see this as a self-published book.”

As a professional writer, I think I've had this thing of like, someone's going to come, an agent's going to appear, I'm going to write something great, they're going to bless me with their presence, and be like, “You are now chosen.” And that had never happened.

I'd had it happen to friends a few times who were journalists. But when I sat down with it, I realized the timeline of traditional publishing was actually way longer than what I wanted to invest in.

This feels like a capstone for the first body of work that I've put out into the world, and I'm kind of ready for the next one. Waiting for two years for this to come out would have meant my business is so far past it that it almost doesn't apply, and I don't want to talk about it.

Part of it was timing, and then part of it was I really wanted to have control. I worked with a fine artist on the cover. I had a really strong vision for what I wanted the book to look and feel like, and I knew I didn't want to compromise that. So self-publishing was the right answer.

I kind of had to get over the ego part of like, “Well, what if the quality isn't as good?” Thankfully, I coach a lot of writers and editors, so I have a lot of people in my world. I hired an editor for developmental edits. I had several people copy edit. It didn't need a huge fact check, because it doesn't have a ton of those elements.

It's also been really logistically challenging. There's just a lot you don't know. There are so many drafts, and now I'm managing all the different marketing components as we approach launch, and that's just a whole bucket, too, you know? But I do like being in control.

I also think it's important to say I have a big audience. I had to ask, what's the point of this book for me? And the truth is, it's like part of my body of work, and so I don't even need it to be in bookstores, frankly. It can be part of my ecosystem, of my business, and that's enough.

That's been helpful for me to realize too, that I don't have to follow the rules necessarily. So whenever I get in the “Oh, I should be doing this,” it's like, okay, but do I need to for this book, and what does this book want in terms of how she's going to be marketed?

How are you approaching marketing, knowing this doesn’t need a traditional process?

I do think this is going to become more common from a publishing standpoint. You know, I have a lot of feelings about it.

Amazon KDP makes you check, like, was this book written by AI or not? And I'm like, “Oh, my God, no, it was not. It was from my soul.”

I have friends who now talk about this, instead of assuming they would all be traditionally published books. The friend I mentioned who's a book coach, she's working on her fifth book, and this one's going to be self-published. The others have been traditionally published. The next one is going to be hybrid published.

There are more options now, and you get to ask, what's the best fit for this project? I have a few more book ideas that I'm starting to work on, and one of those would be traditionally published. There's just more choice now, and it depends on the book.

From a marketing perspective, I wanted it to feel fun. I also sat and meditated on this. I lit some candles in my little altar and I actually put the book on the altar, one of the proofs, and put candles on it, and sat there and was like, “How does this want to move in the world?”

I kept getting the visual of those dandelions, where you blow on them, and all the little seeds go out everywhere, that kind of energy. Like a playful little kid out in nature, connective, but also a ripple effect.

I'm not shouting about it, and that was sort of my vision. I'm doing a lot of conversations like these with people I love and adore.

I have a great network of people I've worked with for a long time, and so intimate conversations with people who have more micro-sized audiences actually are more exciting to me. Lots of podcasts, lots of newsletters coming out in the next little bit.

I'm doing a very small gathering, and I'm going to have my mom interview me about my book, because there's a legacy component to it, of her generation of women. The way she raised me is part of why I can ask these questions and pick non-traditional models. So that feels special.

That's going to be in my hometown, at a small, private event. I decided I didn't want to have a big, wild party, mostly because I don't like going to those. Permission to do it your way.

I'm also doing book boxes that I'm sending out to people. That was something I went back and forth on. They have wildflower seeds in them.

There'll be a little campaign that's like, “Business gets to look like this,” where people are holding up the book in nature, writing poetry about it. Business gets to feel like running through the ocean on a hot day.

Kind of like letting it pollinate, if that makes sense, and it's great because I own it, so I could change the pricing, do a promo, do a special release of a hardcover. It's totally up to me. That's the plan through end of year.

The question I keep asking is, what would feel grounding to my nervous system versus what do I feel like I'm supposed to do? I'm not in it to make money. It's really just a tool to introduce more people to this concept.

As you know, my coaching practice is pretty full, so I don't even need more clients. It literally just feels like the art wants to be out in the world. So how do I do it justice? That is sort of the question. I'm making it playful and fun.

I feel like having this experience of self-publishing first sets the tone for me. What's the point of writing a book? It's about agency, it's about creativity, it's about art, it's about delight, it's about connection.

A lot of those pressures would have come in if it had been traditionally published, so to not have to deal with them—I think it's good. But it is a weird dance. The publisher is going to require you to be done. I can still futz with all the words and everything. I'm having to keep myself from that. There's a little more self accountability in the process.

You are on the cusp of launching this book. What comes after that? What feels like it is tugging at your attention creatively?

A great question. Whenever I do future self meditations, I see myself with all of the books I've written—like many, many books.

I think my little self was wise, when she wanted to work on this, and I sort of figured, well, book writing is impractical, so I'll be a professional writer instead. Now, I feel like I'm sort of circling back to this.

My next body of work, for sure, is teaching about money and wealth and the horrible, systemic trauma that we all have related to money. I know that's coming for me. I have a rough outline of a new program I'm going to teach.

What happens is, I usually teach some programs, I start to do this work even more heavily in one-to-one coaching, and then it sort of turns into a framework or some kind of body of work that will become a book.

I have people do a lot of meditations about, like, what does money want you to know? This one feels a little bit more intuitive and spiritual.

Money is so related to power, and I love teaching women and non-binary people how to unlock their power, but it feels like we can't do that without talking about money. Money is definitely the next foray. I think the book on that will probably be in a couple years.

I actually have a sci-fi book that I wrote when my son was two that is probably 75% done. I've been getting major, major shoulder taps to pick it back up again. But I haven't felt like I could until this body of work was done.

I think I'm getting closer to that. Probably towards the end of the year, I'll pick it back up and it's interesting. I wrote it a couple years ago, and now I look back at it and I'm like, “Oh, it's all the things I'm teaching right now.”

It's like this woman discovering her power, and she's a hyper-rememberer, so she probably has some level of psychic ability. I need to go back and pick that up. That one feels like it's a traditionally published book.

I think this happens a lot with projects where it wasn't the time for me to publish it, but it was the time for me to write it. This is like four years ago, as I'm talking now, and now it's time to pick it back up again with my current perspective.

I do actually see myself probably writing a lot of fiction, which is really interesting. It's always what I've loved to write.

This feels more like my professional writer self, and there's my playful writer self that does all the sci-fi. And I want to be able to do both. I actually want to be able to dance across genres, because that sounds delightful. So I think that's what's coming next.

My business is pretty solid right now, blessedly, so it actually creates more space for some of this, which was part of my vision over the past year. Sci-fi incoming with women in it.

If you had to give a writer a piece of advice, whether that is about doing things sustainably or tapping into intuition, what would you want them to know or do or try?

Projects come and tap you on the shoulder. I believe this about creative ideas. I've been in a season with really little kids and being the primary earner for my family where I couldn't say yes, no matter how much I wanted to, no matter how guilty I felt. I did not have the capacity.

I want to say out loud that that doesn't mean it will never be time. It feels like you're so stuck. And when those ideas are coming in and you're saying no, there's grief in that, for sure. So I think my advice is actually, hang in there.

Having some kind of practice where you're quiet in some way—for me, it's usually nature, but that is when I receive those ideas most clearly. I often have to prime myself to be in that more sustainable, flowy, creative mode. That doesn't come naturally.

I'm constantly juggling a million things. I'm a business strategist and coach; that's fairly linear a lot of the time. I think intuition and creativity are, if not the same thing, very closely linked. So something that allows you to tap into that inner wisdom, some kind of ritual or routine, it just feels essential.

I know people tell you, “You just need to sit down and write,” but there are some seasons where you actually don't have time for that. Still, listening to that inner voice is the part that's essential to me.

Forgive yourself if you're not in a season of being able to take on a larger project, it's just real life. There will be a time. That's what I've come to realize. Two years ago, I wouldn't have told you that, but I think it'll circle back around.

What's the best book that you have read recently?

Oh, my goodness, what a good question. I read a lot of young adult fiction and sci fi, so I'm actually reading this great murder mystery called The Herd right now that takes place at this feminist co working space (affiliate link*). That's just a delightful romp.

Because a lot of my work is so linear, I read a lot of fiction, so I highly recommend that.

I also love the book Mary Magdalene Revealed (affiliate link*). It was a big one for me. It's part memoir, part nonfiction, which feels kind of like the style of my book. It's all about what was left out of traditional Christianity.

That's been one I've been loving as well, for a perspective shift on what's possible and where we're all going in the next era and where our power comes from.

Those are two wildly discrepant recommendations, but my style gets to be all over the place.

Meet the Author interviews are lightly edited for clarity.

---

I loved getting the chance to talk about The Sustainable Solopreneur with Jenni, and to hear more about her experiences writing and marketing this book (affiliate link*). Don’t forget to pre-order your copy!

And before we go, I'm speaking at the Indie Book Lab today at 2 p.m. Eastern! Book designer Karolina Wudniak and I are going to chat about navigating edits for your book. You can learn more and sign up for free here!​