What My Most Successful Author Clients Have in Common

My brain loves to synthesize.     

If you're a writer, I'm sure yours does, too. We like to gather up all the things we've observed, distill what we've learned and use it to tell a story that will have some kind of impact on the world.

I do lots of observing of writers and what they think about marketing. (Spoiler: most don't like it much.) Then I mentally gather up all those observations and see what I can make of them. 

When I think about my most successful clients, the ones who sell the most books, have the biggest audiences and are generally awesome, there's one thing they have in common: 

They are willing to be uncomfortable in service of a big goal. 

If you've written a book, I'll venture to say you already discovered there are some uncomfortable parts of the process; getting negative feedback from an editor, for example.

But you kept on going, probably because you've always aspired to write a book and you committed yourself to seeing it through no matter what.

Congratulations, you've already learned an essential meta skill you need to market your book successfully!

Many, many writers are uncomfortable (at least at first) with the very idea of marketing. But if you believe in your book and its right to find an audience, you can work through the discomfort and learn the steps to market your book. And, like anything, the more you practice something, the more comfortable it becomes.

But if we give up as soon as we feel a twinge of embarrassment or self doubt, we'll never get to a place where marketing becomes easy, fun and effective. 

Remember that discomfort is just a temporary feeling in your body and your brain. The accomplishment of writing a book and getting it in the hands of readers who'll appreciate it lasts much, much longer.