BTP144: Behind the Scenes of the Everyday Tarot Book

Today's the day! My book Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future is officially out and I couldn’t be more excited.   

In this episode of the Biddy Tarot Podcast, I’m going to tell you my story of creating the book from start to finish.  You’ll also hear about the process of writing the book and where my inspiration came from.  Plus, how writing Everyday Tarot allowed me to tap into my intuition more than ever before. 

 I hope after hearing this episode, you’ll understand my elation.  

Additional Materials

• Out now! Order your copy of the Everyday Tarot book and deck at Everydaytarot.com 

 Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Biddy Tarot podcast. Oh my goodness, today is the day, the day that the book Everyday Tarot is in bookstores. My goodness, this has been a huge, huge project, and it is so exciting to see it really come into fruition. I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to share this book with you finally, so today I want to give you a little bit of a behind the scenes account of the Everyday Tarot book, how it came into being, what my process was, what I discovered not only about how to write a book, but also a lot about how to really tune into my intuition and how to let this flow. It has been a very interesting process and I hope that you'll enjoy today's conversation. This is the side of things that you don't usually get to see, only you get to see, “Here's the book” and “isn't it amazing,” and all of this stuff that sits in the front, but I'm going to let you come in behind the curtain and let you know how this book came about. Plus, of course, I'm to tell you more about the book and how you can take advantage of some of the coolest bonuses that we have to celebrate the launch of the book and the Tarot deck as well.  

Brigit: You're listening to the Biddy Tarot. This is episode 144, behind the scenes of the Everyday Tarot book. 

Intro: Welcome to the Biddy Tarot podcast where you'll learn how to connect more deeply with your intuition and lead an empowered and enlightened life with the Tarot cards as your guide. Listen as Brigit and her guests share their very best tips and strategies to help you read Tarot with confidence. Now, here's your host, Brigit Esselmont. 

Brigit: Hello and welcome to the Biddy Tarot podcast. Oh my goodness, today is the day, the day that the book Everyday Tarot is in bookstores. My goodness, this has been a huge, huge project, and it is so exciting to see it really come into fruition. I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to share this book with you finally, so today I want to give you a little bit of a behind the scenes account of the Everyday Tarot book, how it came into being, what my process was, what I discovered not only about how to write a book, but also a lot about how to really tune into my intuition and how to let this flow. It has been a very interesting process and I hope that you'll enjoy today's conversation. This is the side of things that you don't usually get to see, only you get to see, “Here's the book” and “isn't it amazing,” and all of this stuff that sits in the front, but I'm going to let you come in behind the curtain and let you know how this book came about. Plus, of course, I'm to tell you more about the book and how you can take advantage of some of the coolest bonuses that we have to celebrate the launch of the book and the Tarot deck as well.  

So, I wanted to start with the very beginning, not the very very beginning, but this is probably going back two, maybe even three years. I had a book agent, she reached out to me and she said, “Brigit, have you ever thought about writing a book?” and I thought, well, I've written the Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings, and … I lost count, I think that was 160,000 words, so I thought that one was a bit tricky to get out, I'm not sure that I'm really up for writing another book, and she was like, “No, you really need to think about it,” so I did and then I thought about it and I decided no, now wasn't the right time. Then, about six months later, she just nudged me again my inbox and said, “Brigit, are you thinking about it yet?” I'm like, “No, no, not at all.” Then, I had a publisher reach out and said, “We'd love to be able to publish your book, the Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings.” Now, for all sorts of reasons, no, I'm not publishing that book. It's so successful as a self-published book. Plus, we use the content on our website as well.  

So, going down the traditional publisher route wouldn't quite work with that book, however, I did listen and I could hear that there's this demand for Tarot books and I said, “Okay, yeah, got it, but this isn't quite the right opportunity.”  

I don't know about you, but I have a little rule of three so if I hear something three times it's usually the time at which I really need to pay attention and the universe is trying to get across a message to me. So, only just a few months after that I had another book agent reach out to me and she was like, “Have you ever thought of writing a book? I heard you on this podcast, you were great, and I think writing a book would be just perfect for you right now.” I said, “I thought about it, I haven't been sure, but you know what, this is the third time, let's do it.” There was this reluctance inside of me, but I truly felt that the universe was opening up this opportunity for me to do something special and to step into this new place. I didn't really know what it would be like, haven't really ever written a book where it's traditionally published, but I thought you know what, I'll just give it a go, I'm being asked to do this, let's just do it. No more resistance.  

So, from that point I had decided to work with Loralee, who is from Present Perfect as the book agent, and Loralee and I got to work in terms of doing a bit of research about what's currently out there in terms of Tarot books and where is it that the Tarot community …. What are they looking for? So, here's what I found when I looked at some of the most popular Tarot books on Amazon … I mean, many of them were about how to read Tarot and what the Tarot cards meant, and I thought, okay, that's great, and I've seen some awesome books that share Tarot card meanings and they do it in such a beautiful modern funky, funky way, but I knew in my heart that that wasn't what I was here for. I've already covered those elements anyway in my other self-published books and pretty much every time I pick up a book it might have something really interesting at the start, it might be an interesting take on Tarot, but then most of it would be in the Tarot card meaning space, and I just knew I had to do something different.  

When I started to really tune in, not only to my intuition but to my community, I started to get the sensation or the feeling that we needed to have something that was more of an integrated approach to Tarot reading. So, not just where you sit down, you do a Tarot reading, you learn how to interpret the cards, you learn what to do in a spread and so on, I wanted to create an experience with Tarot that would elevate people's everyday lives to a whole new level of consciousness because I have been able to do that in my life with Tarot.  

The way that I used Tarot in my life is not like I'll lookup a spread and then I'll do it, and then I'll go “great, Tarot reading done,” but for me Tarot is so much more integrated into my life where maybe I'm connecting it with my intuition first, or I'm doing some journaling and then I pull a card and I see what that tells me, maybe I'm making some important decisions in my business, maybe I want a little bit more insight into my relationship, all these kind of things I'll be integrating Tarot into it. I've seen it work for me in so many different ways, and particularly when I go a bit off the script and I don't necessarily follow the Celtic cross reading or I don't follow how to do a horseshoe spread and so on. When I got off script and I really trust my intuition, that's when my Tarot readings … Well, it's not really Tarot readings, that's when my life starts to flourish. I was absolutely inspired to write a book that would show how to integrate Tarot into your everyday life, so how you might have Tarot and intuition to help you make better decisions in your life, to create more fulfilling relationships, to get yourself into a career that really lights you up, to use Tarot and intuition in your daily ritual, or even your sun and moon rituals and so on.  

So, this is where I landed. I landed at this place like, right, it's Everyday Tarot, this is how you use Tarot in your everyday. And, to take it even further, this is about how do you unlock your inner wisdom, and your intuition, and your inner voice, and your inner power and all of that good stuff, and then how do you manifest your future, because here's the other with Tarot, a lot of people have the misperception that Tarot just tells you your future and you're kind of almost like a victim to your fate, but I believe something completely different. I believe that with Tarot and your intuition, you create your future. You don't just tell your future. You set your intentions, you set your goals and by using the cards and by trusting your intuition, you find the most resistance free path to what it is that you want to create and manifest in your life. 

Once I had established this, once I got really clear in my mind this is the gap, this is the place where people want more of this but we just don't have it yet in Tarot books, I knew that that was what I had to write. Then, Loralee and I got about writing our proposal, this is what you do when you get a traditional publishing deal, we put together the proposal, and I'm not kidding you it was like 5,000 words plus a 5,000 word sample chapter. This thing is hefty. If you want a good deal, you've got to put in the effort and the work, that's for sure. So, we put together a proposal, we put it out to a number of different publishers and we got some really good interest, and you know what was actually really neat about that was we were looking at some of the big name publishers and they were interested in this. Probably, 10, 15 years ago, they might've just thought it was some silly froufrou, woo woo thing on the side, but now these larger publishers are really starting to pay attention to things like Tarot, or crystals, or astrology, or any other kind of energy healing because there is a much stronger movement now towards using these tools to access your intuition. That was very exciting to see publishers interested in this. 

Now, when it came down to it, there were three particular publishers who were interested in pitching or, bidding I suppose, for the book. Now, here's where my Tarot cards came into it, so we had a round of meetings with these different publishers and after those meetings I drew a Tarot card, I wanted to see, okay, what are the chances here. I had one publisher who is a very popular publisher and I thought, my goodness, it would be so good to have a book with this particular publisher, if I got published with them, I'd made it. This is what was in my mind. We had the meeting with them and it was awesome, they were so pumped and excited, we were excited, it was all going very very well. But after that meeting I drew the three of swords, and I was like, “What? What is this? I've clearly done the wrong thing. I've clearly pulled the wrong card. This reading's wrong. Whatever.” So, I actually ignored it.  

Now, when I had the publisher meetings with the other two publishers, I had much more favorable cards. Those meetings were a bit less like, woo, this is amazing, but purely because these were publishers I hadn't necessarily heard of before, but of course my agent was like, “These two are great and they really get you”. And they did, like in our conversations they really understood the core essence of the book. When I drew cards for each of them, they were showing a lot more positive outlooks. I think one is even maybe the nine of pentacles and another one as well, and in contrast to this three of swords with the publisher that I so I wanted to go with, it was like, “Oh, this is so topsy-turvy. I don't know what to do.” What I didn't realize then that that was really the beginning of my intuition being such a huge part of this book creation process.  

Anyway, short story, long-story short, it turned out that that first publisher just put in a really poor deal, it did not reflect the kind of connection that we had at the beginning, but the other two publishers put in awesome deals and eventually, I went ahead with Running Press. Now, Running Press is part of the Hachette Book Group, which is a very large publishing house, and I'll tell you what, I was over the moon to be working with Running Press. They fully understood what it is I wanted to convey with this book and they were completely on board, which is awesome.  

Then, to make things even more exciting, they had proposed putting with the book a mini Tarot deck. That's right, designing my own Tarot deck along with an illustrator and having that as a complimentary product to the book. So, not only was I getting a book I was getting a Tarot deck as well, so kind of crazy out there dreams come true thing.  

All right, so I landed the publisher, the deal and then there's all this waiting period that you have when you're waiting for contracts to be signed and so on, and my agent had advised me not to start writing, just wait. I'm not very good at waiting. So, while I was waiting I thought, oh gosh, okay, I guess I'm going to be an author, but what do authors do? So, I went on this rampage of reading all sorts of book writing books, one of my favorites was Elizabeth Gilbert and Big Magic, that was a great book to get into, and … Oh gosh, I should've had the title, Bird or something about Writing Bird and Bird, I don't know, anyway it was another really classic book that was actually quite helpful for getting me into the right mindset of being an author.  

I also hired a book coach because I thought, I haven't done this before I'm going to go and get some help, and I also joined a few Facebook groups about people who were writing, but I realize those groups weren't quite the right fit for me. These were more aspiring authors and I really had the deal, I just needed to get on and write the book. Of course, I Googled how do you write a book, all sorts of things came up with that one, but anyway, that's another story.  

So, in this waiting period I thought, great, yeah, get into the mindset of being an author, and as I do I started planning out, okay, once we have everything agreed I'm going to have probably about, literally, three months to write the book, and this wasn't just any three months, this was three months over our summertime here, so December, January, and school holidays which here are about seven weeks at that time, plus they had a tip to Melbourne planned and all sorts of things, so I started scheduling my time to write this book.  

Now, I knew even though I was being very proactive, my intuition was telling me something quite different. My intuition was like, okay, I think you're really going to open up when you write this book, you're going to discover new parts of yourself that you've never discovered before, and it's not going to flow exactly the way that you think it is. I thought it would be linear, but actually it wasn't in the end. I had this feeling in the background.  

Now, what I did from this point is I though, great, I can still run my business and also write a book. I've seen other people do it and all they had to do was schedule 90 minutes every day and just commit to getting like 1,000 words done in the day, so I though, great, that's what I'll do. So, I schedule my 90 minute, sometimes at the start of the day, sometimes in the middle or at the end, and the first week or so, great, I was excited, but then I started finding that I was just exhausted having to fit in writing around doing business stuff as well. What I thought would be this beautiful creative process where I'd download from the universe and I'd be drinking my herbal tea with the candles and the crystals, it just ended up feeling like this massive slog, like a hard slog, like “Just get it done. Get it done. Get it done.” It just wasn't what I had really imagined.  

I think the turning point for me was when I was in Bali in November and I was at a Mastermind and I knew I had to write this book, and yet it's Mastermind as you do, I was getting all these great ideas for the business and how we could really turn things up a notch and I felt so frustrated. I was like, “I really want to do this stuff in my business, but I've got to write this book.” I felt really conflicted, so I sent an email to my team, I said, “Look, team, I need to dedicate the next 2 1/2 months solely to my book. Can you please clear my schedule, take care of everything in the business, so I can just write? Pretend like I'm not even here,” and they were awesome, so a big thank you to my team. They were awesome. They were able to clear the decks, take care of everything and, in fact, they even did a full launch while I was writing a book to … I think we had 250 students join one of our courses during that launch, and the team ran the whole thing. They're awesome. 

Anyway, I cleared the schedule, and this time what I did was I just had full days allocated to writing, and what it allowed me to do was just to get into this creative space and spend some time in nature and just get … I don't know, connected into the universal energy, and then I would write what's coming to mind. I would just free write, I wouldn't edit, I would just go. Anytime I felt inspired to write a story or create a new Tarot experience, I would just write it.  

I think what transpired over those 2 1/2 months was something that was so much more in flow and it wasn't linear, I didn't start at the start of the chapter and then write until I got to the, I'd write a little bit here, a little bit there, and then I'd patch them all up, and then I'd scribble stuff out and then I'd put it back in, which is so unlike the way that I normally work. I normally work in a much more structured way. So, I learned a lot about how that writing process goes, it's very nonlinear, and what I also did because I was on such a short timeframe is I hired an editor. This is in addition to my editor at Running Press, who's Shannon Fabricant, I hired a different editor, and it's Ann Maynard, from Command Z Editing, and she was like my writing buddy. She held space for me, she gave me awesome feedback as I was going along, “this stuff's awesome. I can't fill you in this part,” and she just held the space for me to write. Of course she also helped just clean up my writing, get it really nice and concise, find that beautiful story thread throughout the whole book. She was invaluable. So, if you ever want to write a book, hit me up because I've got an awesome reference for you with an editor. 

What happened with Ann, Ann's a fascinating person because she has helped other authors, some who are in the online marketing space, others who wrote a very dark memoir about some really tough moments in their lives, she has helped authors in so many different places and yet she could tap into the space that I was in with intuition. She even bought her first Tarot deck as a result of helping me with the book and she was inspired to use a Tarot deck and really get into it, and then that's infused in the way that she was supporting me. It was beautiful to see that this book was already, not just impacting me, but it was impacting others, and not only Ann, but also Shannon at Running Press. She had picked up her own cards and was really getting into the cards as she was doing the book, and also with Eleanor as she was helping create the deck. It's just really lovely to see it take on a life of its own. 

Now, it's interesting with this book I knew that it needed to be more than just instructions, more than just a Tarot spread, more than here are your five steps to do X, Y, Z, and so I knew that I had to bring me into this book. When I showed it to one of my friends, she said to me, “Brigit, this is like a memoir mixed with a practical activity guidebook,” I was like, “I guess it is,” because in each and every chapter what I do is I share some of my story and how I've used Tarot in all sorts of ways in my own life to manifest certain outcomes or to have certain experiences. I found myself writing this book and really getting into a very deep part of myself, a part that I rarely share with anyone else. It's almost like writing your own journal, but then knowing that hopefully thousands and thousands of people are going to be reading your private journal. That's what this book is a little bit. There was this beautiful unfolding of sharing my personal stories with the intention that it might inspire you as the reader to see your own journey in my journey and see where the Tarot and your intuition can help you in your journey.  

Now, it's funny, I came up to … Chapter six is one on work, Tarot for work, and I knew it had to have me in it, however, my work trajectory is very different to most. I'm an entrepreneur, as you know, and I have the absolute freedom and flexibility to create the kind of career and work that I want. I know most people don't have that, so I thought, first up, okay, I've got to fit this into a cookie-cutter mould, I thought, great, I'll do some spreads on how to find your ideal job, how to deal with a boss, how to get promoted, how to get a pay rise and so on, so I went ahead and wrote all of that. And then, Ann and book coach, Azul were like, “Well, Brigit, this hasn't quite hit the mark.” I was like, “Why? What?” They're like, “It's just so flat. We can't find you in here.” I'm like, “Yeah, that's because I'm not because this is not how I operate.” So, with this chapter I really had to find my true self in work and in a way that could be relatable for others.  

So, what I found myself getting more into was looking at work as a conscious choice, so whether you are employed or you are self-employed, running your own business, work can always be a conscious choice, and the more that we are in alignment with who we really, what our purpose is and what impact we're here to have in the world, then the more that we can align our work and then the more fulfilling it becomes. I really wanted to tap into these core essence of work and find that place where I could support others to say, what are my career dreams, what is this vision I have about my career and my work, and how can I start to bring more of that into my daily work? This chapter took on a whole different energy and it's almost like it runs parallel to doing a sole purpose journey, but it's in the context of career. That was a really interesting process for me because I initially thought I'll just do what's expected of me and talk about work stuff even though that feels so far removed from me, but it just did not cut it. I knew that this book had to be fully aligned with who I was and I needed to have me on a plate along with Tarot and how I work with Tarot so then others could join into that kind of vortex of energy. So, that was really interesting. 

Even through that process I became so much clearer about my own journey and what that had led to and how each little story along the way had taken me to this place where I am now. For me it was very interesting, hopefully it is for you, who knows. 

I think from all of this, though, my intention has always been with this book to help others, to help others get to a place where they are using … Like you, you are using your intuition, you're using your inner wisdom, your inner power and you're using it as a superpower. It's just one of those frivolous things that you use and you don't really tell anyone, and if you do you giggle nervously and so on. No, intuition and Tarot is  the tool to connect with your intuition. It is a superpower. It is something that takes you next level. If you add it in with your everyday talents, then you have created a whole new level of operating in your life which is really, really exciting.  

We finally got to the end, that was exciting, and, of course, near the end you've got a  word count to meet and what had happened was I'd written so much content, I'd probably done almost 80 to 100,000 words, and I needed to get it down to 50,000. So, there's a bunch of content, a bunch of Tarot spreads and processes and experiences that I could not include in the book, but luckily after having a good chat with Running Press I was able to bundle this all up inside of the Everyday Tarot toolkit. Now, that tool kit comes free with the book, so when you buy the book you also get access to the Everyday toolkit which includes those additional spreads. It'll be worksheets, stories, and so on. That's all inside of the toolkit and it's available free when you're buying the book. 

Now here we are on the day, the official day of the launch, September 18th, and on this day is when Everyday Tarot: Unlock your Inner Wisdom and Manifest your Future, is officially on the bookshelves, plus inside of Amazon and of course, it's available via our website. If you want to find out more about this book, go to everydaytarot.com and you'll get links to all of your favorite bookstores and you can go online and bank a purchase, or you can even pop into your local New Age book store, and if they're not selling it, you ask them why and you make sure that they order it in for you.  

Let me tell you a little bit about this book. Everyday Tarot is designed to help you unlock your inner wisdom and manifest your future with Tarot as your guide. It's a practical guide filled with actionable tips, soulful activities and loads of Tarot spreads to help you access your intuition and manifest your goals and dreams in your every day life. You'll discover how to use the Tarot to manifest your wild dreams, create love-fueled relationships, who doesn't wasn't that, set and achieve your goals, fulfill  your soul's purpose in work and life, make important decisions, and bring the divine into your life through everyday rituals. 

Now, Everyday Tarot is perfect if you are a modern soul seeker who wants to leave in alignment with your inner wisdom and your truth. It's a great book for you if you want to go beyond those stock standard spreads, the Celtic Cross, or your past-present-future spread and so on. This is this huge opportunity to dive into something much bigger than just a standard Tarot reading. This is about diving deep into your soul and exploring all of yourself and getting closer to who you really are and bringing that part of yourself into your everyday life. This is where the divine meets the practical. Everyday Tarot is great whether you are new to Tarot or you're an inexperienced Tarot reader.  

Now, if you are new to Tarot, there is a quick crash course on Tarot inside of the book, plus the activities are designed in such a way that you will get huge insight whether you know everything about the cards or nothing about the cards. There are always ways that you can find out a little bit more about the cards and I give you some quick and easy techniques to interpret the cards quite intuitively.  

Now, of course, if you're more of an experienced Tarot reader, you're going to love this book because it's refreshing. It allows you to go beyond the standard Tarot spreads and do something very different, and perhaps even more meaningful with the Tarot. I think you'll really enjoy this breath of fresh air. I don't know about you, but sometimes it can get a little bit dull and boring when you're just doing spread after spread after spread. This will show you a whole new way of working with Tarot. 

Now, inside the book you're going to learn why you don't need to be a fifth-generation psychic to be intuitive, and I'll let you in on a little secret, we are all intuitive, including you. You're going to learn, when it comes to Tarot, why fortune-telling is out and intuition is in, especially if you want to create your best future and manifest your goals, you'll learn the quickest and easiest way to read Tarot and access your intuition, you'll discover how to connect with your soul's purpose and make it a part of your everyday life, you'll discover how to turn goals into reality by aligning with your highest self and also aligning with the guidance that your Tarot cards show you, you'll and why the Tarot cards will never tell you what you should do, only you can decide how to do this, but they will give you alternatives and options for you to make a conscious choice from, you'll learn how to use your inner wisdom and intuitive guidance from the Tarot cards to make informed decisions about your life, how to bring intention and purpose into your work and career, and I'll tell you what, that is where the magic happens if you can get to that point. I'm going to show you a couple's readings, so it's a beautiful Tarot spread designed specifically for couples to manifest a long-term, loving relationship together.  

There are powerful rituals inside of this book that align with nature's cycles, such as the sun and the moon and the seasons, to really accelerate your manifestation powers. Ultimately, this book is going to show you how to bring Tarot into your everyday life to create more peace, more purpose and more potential.  

As I said, it is available in bookstores from today onwards (yippee!) and you can go to everydaytarot.com, not only to learn more about the book, but also to get the links to where the book is sold online. I do hope that you will check it out. Now, if you're listening to this as it's getting published, I will also be in the US and having a number of different live events to celebrate the launch of the book and also to give you a taste of what Everyday Tarot really looks and feels like, so check it out, all those details over on everydaytarot.com. So, make sure you order the book and order the deck and also make the most of the extra bonuses that we are adding to celebrate this launch.  

I am so excited to be able share this book with you. It comes with that kind of crazy nervousness, “what will people think” feeling, but also a huge amount of pride with what has been created. The thing with this book is, yes, it's mostly me in there, but it's also a collaborative creation, and it's a creation that has happened as a result of everyone I've interacted with over the course of my life and my Tarot career. It is a result of working with some awesome editors and support people to create this book. It's also with thanks and acknowledgment to the Tarot Facebook group that I had as a group of a hundred people from our community who've been so gracious to try all of the different spreads and ideas from the book and give me feedback as I'm writing the book, so I appreciate our Tarot playgroups so very much. And, of course, our team has made this possible by taking care of business and also helping to grow to Biddy Tarot into what it is now in and, of course, my family and all those good things. It's a bit like the Oscars, but I just wanted to honor those who've been contributors to this book. 

All right, so stay tuned because next week I am interviewing the owner of the New Age store, JuJu in Philadelphia. I hope I've got that right, I always get them mixed up, Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. I think Philadelphia is … Or, Pittsburgh. Anyway, you'll need to listen next week when I finally got that figure out. Anyway, so we have Leslie McAllister, she is absolutely gorgeous and so fun to talk with, she's going to be talking more about Tarot trends and how she uses Tarot in her everyday life. Stay tuned and remember everydaytarot.com, that's where you can get the book. All right, have an awesome week and we'll speak soon. Bye for now. 

Order Your Copy of ‘Everyday Tarot' Today

My book Everyday Tarot is a practical guide, filled with actionable tips, soulful activities and loads of Tarot spreads to help you access your intuition and manifest your goals and dreams in your everyday life. I want to help you discover how to use the Tarot to manifest your wildest dreams, create love-fueled relationships, set and achieve your goals, fulfill your soul’s purpose in work and life, make important decisions, and bring the Divine into your life through everyday rituals.

Sounds pretty great, right?  The book is now available in both hardcover and ebook format.  Click here to get your copy!

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