I have been the CEO at Hay House for 23 years now and the one consistent trend I see in first-time authors is that they try to write books to either impress their colleagues or to address their critics. Here’s my advice to them and my advice to you: Write from your heart. When you write to make a difference in one person’s life, you’ll make a difference in many lives.

When many new authors sit down and begin to write the first pages of their new book, they are most concerned and almost obsessed with satisfying the largest possible audience. As they keep this goal in mind, their story becomes less authentic and compelling than it could be.

Hay House will be releasing a new book on March 1st called Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing. The author, Anita Moorjani, had a miraculous near-death experience that resulted in her healing from an “incurable” illness. This is also her first book. When Anita turned in the first draft of the manuscript, I noticed that she left out much of her deep feelings about her experience. It seemed to be missing the heart of the story. Instead, she tried to write a scientific account of the events. When we asked her about this, Anita said that she chose this direction so she could avoid being criticized by main stream media and medical professionals.

It was one of our best-selling authors Wayne Dyer who first heard about Anita’s miraculous recovery and helped bring her story to Hay House. And it was also Wayne who helped encourage Anita to go back and allow her inner feelings to be expressed in the manuscript.

In addition, we suggested that Anita not worry about her critics. There will always be the skeptics who won’t believe her story no matter how much factual evidence she presents in her book. In the outcome, Anita was relieved and very excited to include the material she purposely left out and write her true story from her heart. And by writing from her heart, Anita created what we believe to be a future Hay House Bestseller.

Did you know that Louise Hay decided to self-publish her book You Can Heal Your Life? When she talked to some of the “big publishers,” they wanted to change her words so the book would be more marketable. Louise decided to self-publish because she didn’t want anyone to change her words and the feeling of the book. She wrote from her heart and knew in her heart that this book would help those in need. Louise wasn’t interested in gaining the largest audience. Her only passion and drive was to help as many individuals as possible to heal their lives by showing them how to change their thoughts.

There are many more Hay House authors who originally self-published their manuscripts for the same reasons, including Bruce Lipton and his book The Biology of Belief and Donna Gates and her The Body Ecology Diet.

The bottom line: Believe in yourself and your message, and write from your heart.  That’s what will help the most people and sell the most books.

For a more update analysis of the publishing world today, see my article How To Get Your Book Published In The Digital Age.