Writer’s tend to come into two groups – the person who thinks they’re not any good, and the person who thinks they’re much better than they really are.
My experience is this – the first group is usually much better than group two.
I certainly don’t believe in the Norman Vincent Peale “power of positive thinking” nonsense. Nor do I believe in the laws of attraction, the “Secret” type of “If you imagine it, your thoughts will attract it.”
However, I do believe in certain facts.
You rise to your own expectations.
If you believe your writing is no good and you’ll never get an agent, you’ll be correct. Why? You’ll never send out the query letter and 30 sample pages of your novel.
You’ll never get the call-back.
You’ll never sign with the agent.
They’ll never go to Simon & Schuster with your novel.
Simon & Schuster will never offer you a $10,000 advance and a contract.
Your book will never end up on the bookshelves.
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You’ll be living forever in a “World of Walter Mitty” where you daydream of meeting someone in the grocery store who recognizes your face from the back cover of the book.
Here’s how to change that.
Get really, really good at writing. Write your novel. Re-Write it at least four times.
Get a mindset of RECOGNIZING you are a good writer. If you don’t recognize it in your writing yet, then quickly write three novels. Writing is a muscle that must be constantly exercised. Once you are there ALLOW yourself to recognize you are a good writer.
Have a mindset of being successful. This is not the “If you think it you’ll attract it”. This is the “Put yourself in the position of acting out your expectations.” Send out the query. Now, here’s what you have to add to your expectations – realism. You will have fifty two rejections. Write that down, stick it on the wall. Be excited about it. Because Fifty-three is actually the one that signs you. The more you get, the closer to that goal. And if number twenty-seven signs you, hey! What a surprise!
Now contrast that with thinking that you get signed with Query one. And you’re rejected twenty-seven times. That’s crushing.
Have a mindset of my books will appeal to certain readers. Know them, and be prepared to discuss them. Michael Hyatt used to tell authors that if their novel was for everyone, it was for no-one. I disagree with that, but he was the professional who signed authors!
If you think of your book appealing to women of a certain age, you’ll subconsciously write that. You’ll aim the book at people. If my books don’t choke me up at some point and bring tears to my eyes, I re-write and re-write until they do. The movies and books I like the most are usually the ones that choked me up at least once. And I’m not a “tear-jerker” Hallmark channel watcher!
So have the mindset. Know what appeals to them. If Michael Hyatt asked me what my audience was, I’d say it’s people who recognize the conspiracies that surround us because people seek power. My readers don’t mind action, and want to feel an emotional reaction reading my novels.
Believe it or not, that’s a huge percentage of the reading market. How many books did Clancy write? And only one of his books made me tear up (The Cardinal And The Kremlin).
Part of this is confidence. Make sure it doesn’t become arrogance. Confidence. You’re a professional selling something. Have confidence in that something. If you don’t, find out what steps will convince you that you should have confidence.
