“Why don’t you ever do anything to market your novels?” he asked me.
I’d sat down across from him while he ate hoping we’d have a pleasant conversation. I didn’t expect this.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You’re willing to write guest posts and run ads and do interviews about your personal development stuff, but you’ve never marketed your books. You just put them out and that was the end of them. I was wondering if there was a reason.”
My husband has this knack of calling me out all of the time. Just when I think I’m getting my act together he shines a glaring light on a major hole in my carefully constructed life. I shrugged and mumbled. “I don’t write genre fiction, so my novels aren’t really worth marketing.”
“Not worth marketing? Are they good?” he asked, “I think they’re good. Do you think they’re good?”
I nodded sheepishly.
My husband does have a point, and I wanted to write about that point today because ever since he’s brought it up I’ve been thinking about it.
My novels are a sore spot for me. They represent something that I wanted to do, but never really put the effort into making it successful. I only sell a few a month and most people don’t even know I’m a novelist. Yet writing fiction has always been a huge part of who I am.
If these novels were so important to me why didn’t I market them?
I have a mental block when it comes to this subject. Many people have things that are important to them that they are simply blocked about. They have a false belief that is so ingrained that it seems true to them. Not only does it seem true, but it feels like a truth that has become a part of them. For me that belief was …
My novels will never sell because they aren’t genre fiction therefore they are not worth marketing.
Do you have a belief that is holding you back? Is there something that you haven’t tried because you’ve convinced yourself that it is impossible? Is that thing a sore spot in your life? Do you think about it and wonder what would happen if it weren’t true?
This belief that I have is kind of like a snake trying to eat it’s own tail. My novels won’t sell because they are not genre, so I won’t market them. In reality they won’t sell because I won’t market them.
Have you ever not tried something because you were afraid you wouldn’t be able to do it?
I used to learn an Korean martial art called Taek Kwon (the precursor to Taek Kwon Do). There was a rock wall in the gym where I learned and after class the students would all climb the wall. I never did it because I didn’t know how. I would sit on the floor in the gym and watch them all climbing up but never did it because I didn’t know how.
I could learn a few things about climbing a rock wall from sitting on the floor watching them, but in reality I would never learn how to climb the wall unless I tried. I wasn’t prepared to try though because I’d already decided that I couldn’t.
Have you ever made these kinds of decisions about what you can and can’t do? Where did these ideas come from? Are they really true?
[Tweet “Don’t give up before you ever even try.”]
If you really want to … if it means something to you, stop listing all of the reasons why you can’t and figure out how you can.
Give yourself permission to try.
Give yourself permission to mess up and try again.
Give yourself permission to do it badly …
to be a wreck …
to make mistakes …
to change your methods …
to find a new way …
You’ll never get there by sitting on the sidelines telling everyone about why you can’t. You only get there when you’re willing to get in the game, get dirt on your uniform, and get up and keep on playing.
Are you willing to try, even though you thought it was impossible? Are you able to imagine the possibilities?