Late bloomer, finished anyway – Black Women Amplified | Podcast | Storytelling | Personal Development | Journals

Have you ever walked into a bookstore and wondered what it would feel like to see your name on the cover of a book? Not because you want to be famous. Not because you are chasing a list. But because you have lived enough life to have something to say. You have built something, healed something, changed something, and now you are ready to put it in one place.

That thought followed me for years. I have started so many books. A memoir. A romance. A few business ideas. I would write a few chapters and stop. Life would get busy, or I would convince myself that there was not enough time. But the idea never really left. It just sat in the background waiting for me to decide.

Then one day I did.

Cynthia, one of my closest friends, said what she always says. “You need to write the book.” This time, instead of brushing it off, I said, “Alright. Let’s go.” At first, the book was going to be tied to my storytelling school. I planned to call it Signature Story: The Power of Sharing Your Legacy. It made sense. It lined up with the work I do every day. But when I sat down to write, something else came through.

What came out were the real conversations I had been having behind the scenes. Conversations about the way AI is reshaping everything. The pressure to keep up. The loss of voice and depth. The speed. The silence. The substitution of real wisdom with quick content. That is what I started writing about. And once I started, I could not stop.

I wrote for three days straight. I barely slept. I was tired, but I was clear. I had something to say, and I needed to get it out. Seven days later, I had a finished book. I built a sales page and added “author” to my bio. That one decision, to finally finish, shifted everything. Not because I got a deal. Not because I hit a list. But because I followed the idea all the way through.

This book was never about being a bestseller. Especially not after I saw what that actually takes. Some people are spending over two hundred fifty thousand dollars to get their books on those lists. You need thirty thousand copies sold in a tight window. PR firms, bulk orders, paid placements. It is expensive, and it is curated. I have worked behind the scenes with authors and publishers. I have seen how the machine works. And I decided I did not want the machine. I wanted the truth.

So I wrote the book. I finished the book. And I published it myself.

Books like The Four Agreements or The Alchemist remind me that one clear idea can travel far. Not every book needs to be a memoir. Not every book needs to be groundbreaking. It just needs to be yours. Maybe your book is about how you healed from something. Maybe it is how you started a business. Maybe it is how you figured out how to manage life after a major change. The story does not have to be big. It has to be yours.

If you have ever shared something with a friend and they said, “That sounds like a book,” they are probably right. If people come to you for advice or ask how you did something, that could be the beginning. If you have lived through anything and now you know something worth passing on, there is a book in that.

You do not need more inspiration. You need to finish something. That is what this was for me. I did not wait for approval. I did not spend years building a funnel or begging for attention. I sat down, wrote the truth, and published it.

And it changed how I see myself.

If you have been sitting on a book, this might be the moment to stop sitting.

Here is mine:
Have We Lost the Plot?

Monica Wisdom