Making the move from influencer to author: Lucy Jane Wood
Lucy Jane Wood, YouTuber and author of much-anticipated debut, Rewitched, discusses her experience of moving from book influencer to book writer.
Such is the excitement around YouTube star Lucy Jane Wood's cosy fantasy debut that, when she announced it, it flew to number one on the Amazon book chart on pre-orders alone. Here she tells us about moving from reviewing books to writing them.
Had you always wanted to be a writer, before your YouTube channel took off?
I think every decision I’ve ever made was subconsciously based on the end goal of writing books. I studied English Literature at university, I became a writer for a teen website during my final year, and then moved into freelance journalism for places like Marie Claire US, Cosmopolitan, Metro and MTV. I’ve continued the written work alongside social media, and pivoted towards much more book-based content a few years ago. Finally, the idea for Rewitched popped into my head back in 2020, and I had a feeling that it could be the story to make the author dream finally happen.
How did you get your book deal with Pan Mac?
From start to finish, the process of writing Rewitched has been slightly spooky and serendipitous. I'm convinced there was a little bit of real life magic (and a lot of luck!) involved. My editor was hunting for New York vlogs on YouTube ahead of her own trip, and stumbled across my channel. In other videos, she noticed me alluding to a writing project, so she dropped me an email out of the blue to find out more. That’s where fate took over, because she’d been looking for a cosy witchy fantasy book to work on, and that was exactly what I’d spent the last three years writing.
Has being an influencer helped you in the writing or publishing process?
In some ways, absolutely. The key to an engaged social media audience is attracting like-minded people who can genuinely relate to you, and twelve years of uploading has led to an extremely supportive community of people who are very similar to me. We often share the same insecurities, interests and sense of humour. So in that respect, it makes sense that a book that I had written privately for myself would also appeal to a portion of that audience, who may now be potential readers. There’s also valuable experience in working with brand sponsorships, which have taught me what works and what doesn’t when it comes to effectively advertising in an authentic and engaging way. An audience can easily spot a disingenuous project, and if something doesn’t feel like a natural fit for their favourite influencer then they simply won’t support it. In fact, it will almost certainly backfire.
But while these platforms might provide a temporary boost to an author, the book still has to do most of the leg work to reach out further than the limited following that an influencer can bring to the table. A social media following can only carry so much of the weight, and it is ultimately only the book itself that can attract enough support and reputation for author longevity.
And does it come with any extra pressures or difficulties?
There was certainly extra pressure because of the initial springboard effect, but I hold myself to an impossibly high standard in everything I ever do! Rewitched was always intended to be a reasonably small scale book, so its early success has just been a very happy shock more than early pressure.
The difficult thing about sharing any kind of creative project online is that it automatically makes failure extremely public, which is often enough to put people off going for it. It brings a lot of extra eyes to work that you’ve poured your heart and soul into, and it’s hard to know it will be seen through extreme parasocial criticism, and very high expectations.
Do you now feel more connected to the writer community or the reader community online?
I’m still a fairly isolated author who spends most of her time alone with her cat, and am only just starting to be fortunate enough to meet other authors at publishing events. I’m very grateful whenever that chance presents itself, because it can be quite a lonely experience. There’s very few people to discuss the experience with, who can really understand how it feels to see a bad review for example, or not know whether something is normal in the process. It’s widely agreed that reader/review spaces are not for authors, but that’s exactly what I’ve enjoyed making (and following!) for years, so I’m currently slightly stuck in the middle. . .
Who are your other favourite writers who started on YouTube?
Lex Croucher is an author who I really admire. Lex made the switch from ‘YouTube author’ to ‘actual author’ seamlessly because their wonderful work speaks for itself, and rightly earned the respect that it deserved from the outset.
I’m also a fangirl for Leena Norms, who is not only a brilliant YouTuber but she also has a fantastic poetry collection, and her first non-fiction book is coming in 2025 which I’m so excited for.
How did you find sharing the publishing process as you went along? Did you ever wish you were doing it in secret?
I didn’t really share the writing part of the process at all! I only mentioned once or twice that there was a project that was taking up my free time, and that I was enjoying writing again. It was just a story that I wanted to write for myself without any pressure. I had no grand plans for it, I thought I might try my luck with querying literary agents when it was finished, and maybe self-publish when it inevitably didn’t get picked up.
I’ve shared content around the later parts of the process like the cover development, recording the audiobook and visiting the book printers. They’re quite special experiences that people don’t get to see very often, and I wanted to document them for myself too. I‘ve been able to be much more open about the second book, and will probably share a bit more about the drafting and editing stages.
Final thoughts. . .
Just a reminder that the fear of public failure and public embarrassment often feels enormous and impossible to defeat. It’s absolutely valid to be afraid of it (I still am), but you can’t let it stop you from doing something that you’re passionate about. The whole message behind Rewitched is that you’re worthy of nurturing your own magic. Social media doesn’t have to be scary, it can be a powerful support system. As someone much cleverer than me once said, ‘embarrassment is the cost of entry’!
Rather than worrying about ‘who might be watching’, publishing with Pan Macmillan has made me flip that idea completely on its head into a positive; who might be watching?!
Rewitched
by Lucy Jane Wood
Balancing work at her beloved Lunar Books and concealing her witchcraft from the non-witches around her has left Belle burnt out. But when her thirtieth birthday brings a summons from her coven, and a trial that tests her worthiness as a witch, Belle risks losing her magic forever. With the month of October to fix things, and signs that dark forces may be working against her, Belle will need all the help she can get – from the women in her life, from an unlikely mentor figure, and even an (infuriating) watchman who’s sworn to protect her . . .