Before Anything You Must Believe
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Jun 01 2017
Your #MondayMotivation on a Thursday
Before I, or any other agent, can ever believe in you and your book you must believe in yourself. I don’t mean, “yes I’m going to write a book” believe. I mean really, truly, with every atom of your being know that you are going to write an incredible book that will be published and that you will be a successful author.
The authors you see on bestseller lists and making a career out of their writing are the ones who truly see themselves having success well before they ever even finish that first manuscript. They don’t worry about annoying their agents or asking for too much from their publishers (or asking their agents to ask too much), they don’t worry about if checking in on a submission will bother an agent, because they believe they have a book worth bothering someone about. They are doers because they believe. They not only know they’ll succeed, but they know they can succeed and deserve to succeed.
How bad do you want this? Believe that you can, meditate on it, journal on it, say daily mantras on it until you can’t imagine anything other than success.
This was just what I needed to read today. Thank you!
I needed to read this today. I’m always afraid I’m nagging my agent and will be perceived as being unprofessional. It’s encouraging to hear an agent say, ask the question! It’s okay!
I wish I could finally get the hang of this. While I do write every book with the intention of making it the greatest romantic suspense/thriller ever written, and don’t spare any effort, I have trouble visualizing myself as a successful author. I’m very grounded and realistic and, in the end, I always feel – this isn’t about me; it’s about the book. The book has to be successful. The girl behind the scenes doesn’t matter but, in matters of promotion, I’m starting to see a spike in interest every time I show my girl-behind-the-camera face, LOL.
I really needed to hear this tonight. Under an onslaught of rejection, it gets to easy to think it won’t happen. Early in the process, I was confident, I believed. Now, when my writer friends tell me how “good” I’m doing, and tell me they know I will succeed, I catch myself wondering if they’re wrong. I need to squash that doubt before it conquers me.
Woo-hoo….I love every word of this post. It’s easy to get caught in the currents of rejection and disbelief. Then out of nowhere comes a life raft of positive thinking–a reminder of how this is my my purpose. After 20 years walking in the wrong direction, I’m now on the right road. I will continue to meditate on just these things when it comes to my writing path. Slowly, it will seep in, saturate, and become a part of my fibers, until it’s second nature. Incredible. Thanks for sharing!
thank you. Turns out I needed this a lot more on Thursday than I would have Monday. 🙂
[…] one well-timed blog post and two nuggets of information saved my spiral. For starters, Bookends, Literacy Agency posted a short and sweet kick-you-in-the-pants-and-keep-your-eyes-on-the-prize blog post about […]
Think of bread dough rising, the action of the yeast akin to a writer’s self-confidence and belief in one’s self. The dough swells magnificently (think first novel). It’s beaten down (rejections) only to rise again (second novel). Over and over this is repeated until there is no more chemical reaction in the yeast. The entire creation remains flat. Unlike dough, however, I believe most writers have the self-confidence and resilience to keep coming back again and again. But even the strongest have limits.
So, I’ve always been curious about something: As a way of ranking the ‘belief in one’s self’ within your client list of Bookend authors (I’m, guessing about 75-100?), what is the average number of novels your clients had completed prior to signing? I know there are exceptions: Let’s say one came charging in with five or six novels under his or her belt. Another might have offered up a half-finished manuscript, which you liked so much you cajoled and supported her through a sometimes halting and tearful effort until he or she finally finished the thing. These are the outliers, the special cases. But I’d like to know the normal or average amount of previously completed novels your writers were able to bring to your table at signing. We can compare their measure of self-confidence and belief in themselves to ours (I’m disregarding craft, expertise and commercial appeal, because your blog only addressed the self-confidence issue).
Anyway, I’m just curious… And for obvious reasons, the number of novels completed AFTER becoming a Bookends author doesn’t count. Thanks
This would be interesting to find out. I’m afraid we don’t have the statistics on that.