The 3 Biggest Fears That Stop Authors From Succeeding

Most people would never guess that authors have some very common and debilitating fears. The three top are:

Fear their book won't sell.
Fear someone will criticize their writing.
Fear they only have one book inside of them.

Are these valid fears? Any fear can be a valid fear. This may not be the question one needs to ask themselves. A better question is, "How do I get through the fear?"

Let's start with the fear of your book not selling. The fact is most books don't sell enough to financially break even. It's true. The majority of books will not make money for one main reason; authors do not take enough control of marketing their book(s).

There are far too many authors who live with the misguided belief all they need to do is write a book and somehow it will miraculously become a bestseller. The fact is, this is likely not to happen. Books don't sell themselves.

If you want to sell books you must alleviate fear number by learning how to market and promote.

The next big fear is people criticizing your writing. Guess what? There will be some who will. It's as simple as that. You can either let this hold you back or accept it and do the very best writing job you can.

No matter how good a writer you are not everyone will like what you do. Granted, if you have really poor writing skills this is another story. But for most competent writers it's not necessary to spend time worrying about the occasional bad critique.

The last of the three is only having one book inside of you. If you had one, you have more. The way to get through this fear is to write, no matter what. Even though some authors say they won't write until inspired there are others who say it's a discipline.

I tend to lean toward writing being an inspired discipline.

Besides, if you write one book that's one more than the majority of those who would love to write a book.

And... if your desire to write a second, third, fourth, even tenth book is greater than the fear nothing can stop you.

So what are you waiting for, get through the fear and get writing that next book.