My first project as a spiritual editor

Working with Vancouver-based hypnotherapist Kemila Zsange on her book came serendipitously. I initially reached out to her back in 2019 because I was interested in training as a hypnotherapist, but I didn’t have the funds to take a program. I figured I’d reach out to local hypnotherapists and ask if they needed admin or marketing experience, and no one took me up on my offer.

After taking several book editing courses in 2020, Kemila asked if I was interested in editing her book in exchange for services. This was the perfect opportunity to get experience in editing a nonfiction book while experiencing hypnotherapy for myself! Years ago, I had one session with someone who was training in the modality.

Each chapter in Many Blessings Will Come: Tales of Recovering Inner Commitments, Gifts, and Wisdom Through Hypnotherapy came from one client’s recorded sessions, many of them involving past-life regression. She changed all the clients’ real names to protect their identities.

It was fascinating to read these stories, and what I learned is that hypnotherapy wasn’t just a type of therapy, but one that delves into the spirituality (even psychospirituality) of people, even people who weren’t religious or spiritual. Some of them woke up from their sessions and asked when the session was going to start. I was inadvertently learning spiritual book editing!

The book was already well-written, and Kemila had even formatted the manuscript somewhat, so I changed very little. This was my first editing project ever, so I hadn’t even established my process of using Google Docs to make comments and ask questions, which I do now when line editing.

I made some suggestions on the order of chapters (which I’d later discover is structural editing) and since Kemila didn’t have a book title, I suggested using “Many Blessings Will Come,” which was one of the chapter titles. This is the first spiritual book I officially titled!

Later in the summer, I did my first official hypnotherapy session with Kemila. While we didn’t go into past lives (apparently I am about 50/50 suggestibility), we rewrote one of my earliest traumatic childhood experiences.

A few years later, Kemila said her book was out, and she kindly sent me a copy of it; I need to get signed next time I see her.

What I learned on this project that I’ve said many times in my social media is that you may not even need to sit and write your book. If you have recordings of yourself or your clients, that could form either the content of an entire book, or at least part of your foundation or outline.

So for those of you who create a lot of video content (long or short), transcribe that (which you should already do to repurpose the content for blogs and/or emails) and you’ll already be forming the content for a potential book.

Need a book coach, ghostwriter, or editor to help you publish your book so you can get it in the hands of readers? Read more about my author services here and contact me if you’re ready to begin.

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