Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Eight times International Best-Selling Publisher and USA Today Best Selling Author, Brigid Holder of The Art of Grace Publishing House, loves to push the boundaries of publishing. Her literary prose spotlights empowerment, truth-telling, and women breaking barriers.
Brigid believes that stories have the power to impact and shift multi-generational patterns. Her goal is to collaborate with others in leaving a legacy that evokes heartfelt wisdom and to honours bad-ass heroines, all the while cultivating a blazing literary trail for emerging authors to follow.
Most recently, a new collaboration in a digital magazine, The Journey of Words, is shining a light on all things writing and publishing for our entrepreneurial publishing industry.
When she is not publishing, Brigid can be found hiking and at her boys’ sporting meets, fostering her own empowerment, and watching her family create lasting memories, surely to later be found bound by a curated collection of words.
As a businesswoman and a best-selling author, your life and work revolve around books. We will delve into this below, but can you first tell us a little about yourself in general? Who is Brigid and what has your journey been like?
I grew up in the small country town of Gundagai in Australia, lived in various cities and travelled the world, I chose to settle back into another small country town of Cootamundra to raise our two boys whilst building a business alongside my husband and now I also enjoy creating books that transform lives!
I never saw myself as a writer, joining my first multi-author book I witnessed the impact I could make with my stories. This drew me to publishing and creating The Art of Grace Publishing House - named after my grandparents whose stories and the best memories of my childhood are held by.
It’s really important to me that I shine a light on topics that are often taboo. Domestic abuse and motherhood shame are the first two we have addressed. We will continue to buck the trend and share stories to allow others to change their current reality with a book on Bullying set to be published this year. This past year has been a whirlwind of goodness! I won a business leader of the year and our traditional business won employer of the year, I became a USA Today Best Selling Author, I was featured in 10 inspiring women that are changing the world with their gifts in USA TODAY. Last week we published our eighth best seller at our publishing house, this week I received a nomination for AusMumPrenuer of the Year and now Brainz Magazine is featuring me!
I am just a small-town girl doing things that I love and I am receiving more than I ever dreamt possible - I believe it is all because I shared my stories!
Your business, The Art of Grace Publishing House, helps female authors work collaboratively with other women while creating the opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Who can join your business and which women are you targeting?
Women have a tendency to default to “I’m not good enough”. I want to show these women that they are - I want powerful leaders to be shown the way through storytelling. The ripple effect of books is incredible… they will never die and it’s important we have more of our journeys in print! Every woman can join a multi-author book and every woman can write her own book.
"I’m here to be your book mum and hold your hand through the journey! "
I seek those brave women ready to share their transformational journey - they leave their lamps on for others to light the path to what’s possible for each and every one of them if they dare to follow!
What is the most important thing to keep in mind when entering the industry as a writer?
That your story is worthy of being published! Traditional publishing knocks back some incredible stories, our journeys are worthy of publication. Every woman deserves a voice, a platform to use that voice and The Art of Grace is here to give you that!
Your new book, INTUITIVE - SEEING HER TRUTH just became an Amazon Bestseller - Congratulations! Do you want to tell us more about the book and what it is about?
This is the third book in the INTUITIVE book series and shares stories of 17 women who discovered their own innate power. We all have intuition, most lose it somewhere along the way… I know I did!
We can reconnect to it and these women share part of their journeys relating to just how they did this!
Can you give our readers who are interested in writing 3 quick tips on how to write a bestselling book?
1. Write from the heart, not the head.
2. Connect with your reader energetically and literally as you write - share the writing journey with them.
3. Utilise a great indie publisher - there are plenty out there, I’m just one of them!
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
That traditional publishing was not allowed to reject books - we would have so many more incredible works in the world. Stories bind us together, the more of them available, the more connected we could be as a human race.
So, what’s the next big goal or project for Brigid and how can someone get in contact with you?
We are launching three new solo authors in the coming months - you don’t want to miss these books!
applications for two anthologies open in July!
INTUITIVE - Feeling Her Truth - the fourth in the series for women who felt the change in their lives once they truly trusted their own intuition
BULLY - Look Who I Am Now - a book sharing the stories of women who have experienced bullying and in some way it shaped who they are today through choices they made.
And we re-open the doors to Launch Your Legacy - the group program for the solo female author ready to share her transformational journey and lessons to enable others to change their lives!
