You’d think Mary was reading my mind about my New Year plans (no resolutions here, folks, just positive thoughts!) I was going to share what happened at the wonderful LERA meeting Saturday when this popped into my inbox. Which means I have another blog in the works! For now, let’s share the wisdom of Mary, the Muse Charmer. And isn’t that a lovely horse with Mary? Mona
Can Your Thoughts Affect Your Sales?
Mary and Fortune
It’s an interesting notion. And I’m not going to go all Pollyanna and say that by thinking positive thoughts you’re going to hit all the lists. I’m also not going to say that your thoughts have no effect on your sales. Why? Because your thoughts affect everything you do.
Let’s pause for a moment. You’re a writer, and that means the stories you write come from your mind and heart. As an author, I know I fall in love with my characters. I find myself wrapped up in universes and world-building. It’s one of the reasons why I no longer really plot, because even if I do, the story takes an unexpected turn and I find myself wandering away from the set points. At some point and time I decided the heck with it and just began writing.
Which brings me back to the subject of how our thoughts affect sales. We can step away from our stories for a moment. Our moods affect so much. We can look at a bookshelf full of books on our “to be read” list or a folder in our e-reader and think that we want to read a book, we just don’t know which one. The same with movies, or the old question of what’s for dinner. You know you’re hungry or want to read but nothing seems to fit. It happens with writing, too.
Muddled thoughts create indecision. If our thoughts are laced with worry or fear we make certain decisions, like diving into that pint of ice cream we have in the freezer instead of making an actual meal or having a healthy snack. Those tiny actions, no matter how small, impact our writing, and yes, even our sales.
So how does this work? Let’s take the very common writer’s thought: my books aren’t good enough. We all have that thought from time to time. How can this thought affect our sales?
We write with the thought that our work isn’t good enough. This most likely means we’re not giving it our best. In the back of our mind we have the nagging belief that it doesn’t matter, we’ll never be like “big name author” that we perceive as writing so much better than we do. The book gets accepted and published by our publisher or we still self-publish it. When we go to promote we still have thoughts that the book isn’t good enough, readers aren’t going to like it, we’re not going to sell…and our actions tell that tale, too.
Our actions follow our thoughts by perhaps not being as proactive on social media. We don’t solicit for guest blog spots or make connections with our fellow writers like we should. We hold back.
When we do, our sales reflect this reality. And it all started with a thought.
That’s why it’s so important for writers to support themselves with good prosperity practices. A prosperity practice is a series of actions and thoughts that an individual does to support him or her with goals. It can be very powerful and can take whatever form that the person needs. Through a prosperity practice the thoughts that occasionally (they don’t ever really go away) plague us about our writing, the not good enough, won’t sell, won’t get on the lists, can be managed and dealt with without having them overwhelm our lives and our careers.
Our thoughts really can affect our sales because they affect what we do in the course of writing, selling, and marketing our books. Take some time to think about, or maybe even write down, some of the thoughts you have around your writing. Let them be as uplifting to you as your books are to your readers!
May the muse be with you.
Bio:
Want to learn more about prosperity practices? Join Mary in March for Prosperity Practices For Writers, a six week class 
beginning March 21. Learn about personal prosperity practices and how you can integrate them into your writing and your life to help support and energize you toward your financial goals! To register visit http://musecharmer.com/prosperity-practices/. There are deep discounts if you register before January 20.
Mary Calesto lives in the Ozarks with her partner and a menagerie of animals, including two spoiled horses, an opinionated parrot, a wiggly puppy, an office bunny, and the not-so-itty-bitty kitty committee. She has written romance for over ten years under a few different pen names. These days, she spends time with her own writing and also uses her lengthy experience in publishing to coach authors as The Muse Charmer www.musecharmer.com . Her goal is to show authors the tools they need to reach their goals by working on the inner writer through a variety of techniques, plus help the outer writer with solid industry and craft advice.
Mona Karel Author 