Be Positive and Proactive to Silence Author Doubt

By Guest Beth Vogt 

Doubt is part of an author’s journey. 

Any and every author, obscure or famous, struggles with believing they are good enough. That they’ve got what it takes to be a success, however they define success.

And there are hundreds of ways to define success.

But that, friends, is another blog post. (I believe I’ve already written one on this topic.)

There are lots of different ways to deal with doubt. Some well-known authors drink or do drugs. *cough* Hemingway … Faulkner … Poe … *cough*

Not recommending that.

Some authors look to their reviews to bolster their flagging ego. But what do you do with the less than positive reviews?

Other authors just ride the mental merry-go-round and go ‘round and ‘round, up and down, between doubt and confidence.

I’d like to suggest that being positive and proactive is one of the best ways to silence doubt. I’m not talking about reciting “I know my worth” self-affirmations. Although, if that helps you, please continue.

One way to step away from the writer’s search for significance is to stop thinking about yourself. Focus on another author instead. Go from woe-is-me to Yay-you by doing these simple things:

1.     Share another author’s social media post about their book. We all know authors would rather be writing than marketing. But we also know writers need to market. Help another writer expand their social media reach by retweeting a tweet or sharing an Instagram post. 

2.     Share a quote from their book on your Instagram feed or story. No, you don’t need to be a full-fledged bookstagrammer with a bio and candles and props to do this. Keep it simple. Use a Picmonkey or Canva template and type up a quote. Or take a photo of the book’s cover and again, using a graphic design tool, add a book quote – maybe the first line? – to the photo. TIP: Asked to read a book for endorsement? This is a great time to write down quotes to use later.

3.     Celebrate an author-friend’s book on its release day. We all love birthdays, right? It’s also fun to celebrate book birthdays, the day a book launches. Again, you can do something as simple as saying, “Happy Book Birthday!” on an author’s Facebook page. I’ve made a graphic that I post on authors-friends pages when they have a book birthday. 

When you’re busy helping out other authors, it encourages them and it also cheers you up, too. Remember, when in doubt, help another author out.

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Beth has graciously offered to give away one copy of one of the books from her Thatcher Sisters Series! Winner's choice of which book (U.S. residents only, please). Let us know in the comments if you'd like to be entered.

Check out Beth's new release from Tyndale!

How can you choose what is right for you when your decision will break the heart of someone you love?

Having abandoned her childhood dream years ago, Johanna Thatcher knows what she wants from life. Discovering that her fiancé was cheating on her only convinces Johanna it’s best to maintain control and protect her heart.

Despite years of distance and friction, Johanna and her sisters, Jillian and Payton, have moved from a truce toward a fragile friendship. But then Johanna reveals she has the one thing Jillian wants most and may never have—and Johanna doesn’t want it. As Johanna wrestles with a choice that will change her life and her relationships with her sisters forever, the cracks in Jillian’s marriage and faith deepen. Through it all, the Thatcher sisters must decide once and for all what it means to be family.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Beth K. Vogt believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “Never.” Having authored nine contemporary romance novels and novellas, The Best We’ve Been, the final book in Beth’s Thatcher Sisters Series with Tyndale House Publishers, releasers May 2020. Other books in the women’s fiction series include Things I Never Told You, which won the 2019 AWSA Award for Contemporary Novel of the Year, and Moments We Forget. Beth is a 2016 Christy Award winner, a 2016 ACFW Carol Award winner, and a 2015 RITA® finalist. An established magazine writer and former editor of the leadership magazine for MOPS International, Beth blogs for Learn How to Write a Novel and The Write Conversation and also enjoys speaking to writers group and mentoring other writers. Visit Beth at bethvogt.com.