One of the most important keys to success in any Author’s journey is mindset.

When I started blogging and writing books back in 2012, I didn’t realize any of this. It didn’t cross my mind that there was a shift in mindset that I needed to embrace to accelerate my growth as a successful Indie Author.

Today, I share the three most important lessons I’ve uncovered about writing, growing as an author entrepreneur and developing your indie author business.

More on those lessons learned below…

Lessons Learned Along the Way…

It’s hard to believe I’ve been at this blogging and writing thing for a little over nine years now. It’s been somewhat of a roller coaster ride of learning – with many mistakes, failures and a few wins thrown into the mix.

When I started out, it all I thought was that I needed to “do the action steps” and by doing that, success would come.

Umm… not exactly true.

What I’ve learned is that becoming a successful Indie Author, is about much more than ‘doing stuff.’  In fact, what I’ve learned is that it’s really difficult to keep ‘doing stuff’ (writing, blogging, podcasting and whatever else you’re doing), unless you’ve embraced a mindset that is flexible, resilient and committed to a continual learning process.

From what I’ve learned through many years of challenges and changes as a writer, blogger and podcaster, is that an author’s mindset is probably the most important key to your success as an author.

In fact, you can have a great book, blog, all the right marketing strategies, but if you don’t have the right mindset, none of the other stuff matters.

In this blogpost, I want to share with you three of the biggest things I’ve learned (and still learning) over the past six years about mindset and being an author entrepreneur.

1. You Were Meant to Do This.

I truly believe if you’re reading this right now, it means that you were meant to do this author entrepreneurial journey.

There’s a reason you naturally gravitate to reading posts like this one. It’s because you are in constant learning mode, to build your author business and to grow so you can step into a bigger sphere of success.

The reason you’re working so hard writing books, perhaps blogging and podcast or perhaps doing other side hustle things, is because you have a deep passion and drive to build your author business. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this.

There’s many reasons why you have that inner drive to build a thriving author business. Maybe you’re unhappy with your day job, maybe you want to earn more money on the side or maybe you want to leave a legacy for your children and grandchildren. Whatever your reason, the bottom line is you know you want more and have decided to grow your author business…. and that’s exciting 🙂

Many times as author entrepreneurs we doubt ourselves. We say things like: well, not many people have bought or read my books, maybe I should quit trying. Or we might believe: I’m just not cut out for this, I’ve never written anything in my life. But, what happens when you accept that mindset? It stops you from being fully committed to your author business.

Being fully committed to learning and growing as a writer and as a author entrepreneur is what it takes to be successful. 

You need to go all in.

Here’s a Big Key: whenever you doubt or question whether you should be doing this, always remember why you started this journey in the first place. Ask yourself, what is it about writing my books and growing my author business that excites me? What are the opportunities and dreams that you see ahead on  your path?

Remember: you were meant to do this.

2.Accept Failure as Part of the Process of Learning.

It’s much too common nowadays where we feel the expectation from others, for us to be perfect.

Many times even during grade school all the way through high school, we are taught to do everything correctly – from our marks in school to how we express ourselves. However, this continual pressure to ‘not make mistakes’ and to ‘do things perfectly’ puts stress on us and makes us afraid to fail.

I definitely experienced this pressure when I started writing in elementary school. I loved stories and attempting to write down my stories in grade school, but when I was ten, my teacher told me that my writing was like chicken scratchings. That one comment stopped me in my tracks, so much so, that I didn’t write down my stories again for over twenty years.

The sad truth is that this huge focus on not making any mistakes is all too common. We are expected to be as close to perfect as possible. Our society or culture around us many times is too focussed on the right answer. We’re too focussed on the what and not the how – the process of learning. I believe that often good enough, truly is good enough.

When you are in the process of becoming an author, this inner need to be perfect, comes into conflict with what it really takes to be successful. Because if you’re scared of failure or making mistakes, you’re not going to get much done. The never-ending pursuit of perfection is going to delay you and cause you to procrastinate on doing what you really need to do to actually run and grow your writing business.

Sometimes we’re afraid of failing as we begin, because we believe those mistakes will ruin us. Just like in school, we’re afraid of getting a huge “F” on our score card at the end of the day. So we work harder, to try to avoid failure as much as possible. But when you are an author entrepreneur — someone who creates value from nothing — failure is good because it’s in this process that we begin to learn.

So I encourage you to remember: even some of the most successful authors didn’t get to where they’re at overnight. They faced a ton of rejection, made a bunch of mistakes and persevered to make it as an author entrepreneur.

Here’s the thing: if you let failures stop you in your tracks, there will be many people who will miss out on the unique help and inspiration you bring.

I urge you to not let fear of failure stop you from letting others experience the uniqueness of you:)

3.It’s Never Too Late for You to Begin.

If you have just started on the path toward your writing dreams – and you are not as young as you once were – it can feel as if you’re too late to the game.

Maybe you look at writing, self-publishing and marketing your books and it all feels overwhelming. Or maybe you tell yourself “I wished I started earlier…”

If you’ve been feeling like it’s too late for you… I want to encourage you today:

1.You are not too late to write your book and grow your author business. This is the best time in history of writing and publishing, to write and share your books with the world. It’s easier than ever before and with the ability to self-publish our books, it’s faster than ever before(it only takes 24 hours and your book is on Amazon, Kobo, etc) and it’s more profitable than ever before, especially when you self-publish and you get to keep 70% of the royalties(when you price your book between $2.99 – $9.99).

2.When you decide to begin with focussing on learning one new thing at a time, it doesn’t become overwhelming.  As you begin to write and grow your author business, I want to encourage you to only learn those new things you need to know at the time.

For example, if you’re just starting out writing your first book, then focus on writing. If you wanted to, you could set up a free website or your own self-hosted website where you have your author profile(I share 9 simple steps on how to setup your author website here). As a next step, you could connect one or two social media profiles. Then when you finish your book, learn the next step on how to self-publish your book.

After you’ve uploaded your book(after it’s edited and you have a great book cover), then you could begin to learn how to market your book. That way, your learning curve is step-by-step and not so overwhelming.

I really want to encourage you that it’s not too late for you to begin to grow your author business.

You can get started now, to write and self-publish stories that you love that will create income for you and also that will leave a legacy for your family and friends. What an awesome gift that keeps on giving!

I hope you get started writing that book today.

 

Do you have fears or doubts that hold you back from growing your author business?  Please do share in the comments below… we can learn from each other 🙂