As an author, having a confidence in you and your work is vital. And you will need confidence at different times. Having confidence in your book when others are refusing to believe in you is an example of one occasion. Having confidence to leave your secure day job and take the plunge into full time writing is another. Confidence comes and goes. This is normal. So, if one day you’re feeling super confident, and the next it seems like all you can see are problems in front of you, relax. Remember the 5 things confident authors do differently, which we’ve described below, to help you get back on track.
1. They get joy from writing what they want
There is a type of confidence that comes from doing what you want to. This variation of confidence is evident in authors who write the story they want. Yes, there is a whole business lesson out there around writing books that are based upon analysis of what a particular reading audience wants. However, confident authors get huge amounts of satisfaction from writing the story they desire, and yes, having one eye open looking at what the market is up to is a bonus.
2. They never lose sight of the small wins
When writing a novel, if your entire focus is on seeing your book in stores (online or offline, or both), then there is the potential for difficulties to arise during the actual process of writing your book, editing it, during book design, printing etc. Confident authors understand writing and publishing are essentially project activities, each one of which can be split down into mini-tasks right down to the level of completing a chapter. And they reward themselves when they’ve reached certain milestones. They are all achievements, no matter how little they may seem.
3. They embrace constructive feedback
If you’re concerned about letting people see your work in case they don’t like it, you’ve living in fear. This type of fear is normal for most writers, especially when they’re just getting into the industry. However, without feedback you’re not going to know the quality of your writing, or what areas you need to make improvements upon, or what aspects you’re doing well at. Successful writers embrace comments, and opinions of others, as they know the views of others about their book, all contribute to the production of a more superior book. And they also know what feedback to take on board and what to ignore. In fact, it takes a confident author to ignore certain input from others, because in his heart of hearts, he has total belief in what he’s doing.
4. They accept sometimes they will get it wrong
This point is related to the one above about embracing feedback. At times a confident author may refuse to accept perfectly valid criticism and get things wrong by doing so. A particular book might fail to make the sales levels you expected, for instance. In such cases, a confident author acknowledges he got it wrong and accepts responsibility. He learns the lesson from the experience and next time tries doing things another way, which could be the approach he initially ignored!
5. They hold other authors in high regard
Other authors writing in your genre were there before you. Others will come in the future. Confident authors don’t view other authors as competitors. Instead, they view them as partners and associates. This is especially evident on social media where you see authors helping to promote the work of other authors, each and every day. Such authors know they need each other to succeed, and reach out more readers. This kind of mutual respect between authors is a much better place to be in, instead of being insecure about the progress of other writers, and worrying about having to compete with, or fretting over not being good enough.
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[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]