My self-published book made it to Forbes

Believe in yourself and others will too

Hi there!

Let this story be your permission slip to turn that crazy art idea of yours into reality.

Something that I have noticed (and I am not alone in this) is that the more we choose ourselves and our art, the more we become magnetic to opportunities without having to pitch for it (or at least work extremely hard at pitching).

By creating our art, putting it on display and advocating for it as if it’s the biggest deal BEFORE someone else does, it automatically makes everyone around you (including big media outlets) think of it as a big deal too.

It’s pretty remarkable really as it creates this wonderful cycle of BIG DEALS.

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Ten months ago I decided to take action on my growing desire to build a physical legacy, as in, finding ways to bring nearly a decade’s worth of posts to social media into physical form.

Looking over my embroidery work the red thread got obvious almost immediately… WANDERLUST!

I’ve built most of my art career on making embroidery designs inspired from around the world. I even wrote my first book as an invitation to “Stitch Your Way Through The Charming Streets Of Europe” where my husband Charles assisted to take the photographs.

But this time it was different…

Because I decided to go at it independently without a publisher.

I didn’t want to recreate the typical pattern-based crafts book but rather design an experience for the reader. I wanted the reader to get to travel along with me!

With that in mind, I set out to scroll my own Instagram account haha! Going through 1000+ images and hundreds of locations and artworks, the big quest was to find a red thread and cohesive narrative…

Europe became the red thread and I built the story arc with the help of geographical location as opposed to chronology of events. In this way I was able to recreate little travelogue episodes from various countries across the continent while infusing insights about the artistic process.

For many months I felt alone in my bubble… I questioned my pursuit a million and one times and was very close to call it off…

But I didn’t.

I persisted. Because I believed in the vision. And thank God for that!

Because Forbes picked up on it…

Link to full article is at the end.

Today I received the proof copy and I couldn’t stop crying.

The creative process truly is a whirlwind. Having felt at the bottom, wanting to quit, to then be featured in Forbes and finally holding a close to finished “product” in my hands is just a lot for my system to hold haha!

I made a spontaneous video in the heat of the moment this morning, right after the mailman drove away. Ps. The final version will be hard-cover whereas the proof is in soft-cover (tiny and mighty detail).

In the coming week I will make the final adjustments and then place the bulk order relative to the pre-orders. The circle will be complete.

Or… almost.

I’ll also have to source shipping materials, sign the copies when they arrive and send them off to the loveliest readers around the globe… Not me over here crying some more!

I’ll end by saying this: FOLLOW YOUR GUT and be the first one to believe in your work and magic will follow suit 💖

→ Read the full Forbes Article HERE

Ps. If you’d like to grab one of the last spots for a physical copy (only 20 left!) OR read the e-book version you can:

→ Grab your copy HERE

Much love,

Elin

Pps. Looking for support to develop your artistic practise and to remember how incredible you are? Check out my 1:1 mentoring here