It's been a few weeks since I launched The Witch Clans: The Heritage and I'm surprised at how nervous I was to submit the final manuscript and publish it.
I don't talk about it often, but while I'm a pretty confident person, I dealt with a large dose of imposter syndrome when moving into the author space. It's why I didn't really discuss my books with the people in my life, or I struggled to do a massive marketing push before launching my first book.
It's really difficult to ignore those critical thoughts that we tend to have like "what if people hated my books?" or "What I have get destroyed online?" or anything along those lines really. We've all seen how Tik Tok authors get destroyed online, and it's really hard to put yourself out there like that. It's also one of the reasons why I went with a pen name instead of my real name.
But with each new book that I released, that inner voice got quieter.
With each sale and each review, I started realising that I had audience and that I had great stories to tell. It also gave me the confidence to start pushing the marketing of a book pre-launch, because I started realising that my lack of confidence in my abilities was actually sabotaging my potential success as an author.
It also helped me realise why I was so nervous about launching the Heritage, because now, there was a certain expectation with my writing and then that critical voice came back with a bang.
Imagine my shock when the Heritage was received really well and it's on track to be more successful than my first series. Never in a million years could I have predicted that outcome.
When authors tell you to keep writing, they're not really joking. Don't let any fear keep your stories from being told. While you may not be everyone's cup of tea, I promise that for someone out there, you will be.