What’s worse than readers hating your book? Readers loving it….I know that sounds counter intuitive, but bear with me here…

You’ve just published a book! You’re pretty sure it’s okay. I mean, you kind of love it, but it’s YOUR book, so most likely people will like it, hopefully buy it (fingers crossed!!), and maybe even recommend it to a friend? But then something crazy happens…readers don’t just like it, they LOVE it. You’re seeing it recommended all over, you’re getting emails and messages telling you it’s their new favorite book, it’s blowing up and you’re so happy you might pee your pants just a little. It’s a thrill that has no match, it’s the culmination of everything you’ve worked so hard for. There’s one catch though…you sit down at your computer to start working on your next book and anxiety grips you so intensely all you can do is stare at the doc in front of you.

What if it was a fluke? You can’t even remember what you did that made that last book so good. You spewed out a bunch of words and by some impossible miracle readers loved it, but there’s no way you can reproduce that on purpose. Lightning struck and, as we all know, that never happens twice.

The harder you try to write, the more you get into your own head. Every five star review you read only makes you more and more sure that you probably accidentally uploaded someone else’s book last time because there’s no way YOU could write something people would love that much!

Why was it so much easier to write when almost no one was talking about your books? Why was it so much easier to write when expectations were much lower? Why is it that every time someone tells you they “can’t wait for the next book” you cringe inside?

I’m here to tell you something. Are you ready?

Take a deep breath, get out of your own head. You did it once, and you can do it again. Trust yourself and trust that any success you’ve had wasn’t pure luck, it was something you worked hard for, even if it IS hard to believe that you get to daydream and write stories all day long. And yes, these words are from me to me, but it’s okay, you can have them too 😉