Publish or Perish vs the Law of Attraction!

Used to be "Publish or Perish" was a phrase used mainly in university circles, where publishing prestigious  articles and books was key to promotion. Now popular fiction novelists are opting into the hyper-pressure to produce book after book.

Several times over the last few days I've read posts about how we need to be super-productive as writers. Each post has been well-meant and well-written, and according to the Law of Attraction, a little wrong-headed.

Whatever You Push Against Gets Stronger

If you feel that you must produce four novels a year in order to keep up sales, guess what? You WILL need to produce four novels a year. The phrase self-fulfilling prophecy is a pretty accurate description of how the Law of Attraction works!

If your novels sell quickly at first and then sales die off, and that becomes what you expect, that's exactly what will continue to happen. If you give away 90,000 books in order to sell 10,000, you will continue to need to give away massive numbers of your novels. Why? Because you are going to continue to get exactly what you expect to get.

Where the Compulsion to Produce Comes From

Where does the need to write four novels a year come from? Notice, I said need to write, not take huge joy in writing. If you generally find great joy and satisfaction in writing, then you can skip to the next section.

If writing often feels like hard, begrudging work, here's what may be going on emotionally.

Thinking Woman by George Hodan

You may be worrying that readers will forget you.
What the Universe hears: I'm not worthy of being remembered.
What you will get: More opportunities to feel unworthy, because the Universe can only reflect back to you your resonant frequency of unworthiness!

You may become anxious when sales are low.
What the Universe hears: I like feeling anxious.
What you will get: More opportunities to feel anxious, because the Universe can only reflect back to you your resonant frequency of anxiety!

You may feel that marketing your novels is a constant struggle.
What the Universe hears: I like struggling.
What you will get: More difficulties and disappointments, because the Universe can only reflect back to you your resonant frequency of struggling!

You may feel you need more money! (don't we all!)
What the Universe hears: I like feeling needy and lacking.
What you will get: More desire for things you seemingly can't have, because the Universe can only reflect back to you your resonant frequency of lack!

You get the idea.

How to Break Out of the Cycle

Since the Universe can only give you what you line up with emotionally, the first and only step to break free from compulsion and anxiety is to change your present emotional reality. Here are a few suggestions.

Suggestion #1

Relax with your beverage of choice and think back to when you REALLY loved writing. Let yourself experience those emotions over and over.

Woman Drinking Coffee by Petr Kratochvil

Smile! Feel the joy and exhilaration of putting yourself on paper. Stay in that moment of bliss for as long as you can, and imprint the emotion on your consciousness. This is what you want the Universe to bring you more of!

Suggestion #2

Remember the first happy, encouraging feedback you got as a writer. Maybe it was a teacher, or your father, or a friend who loved your ability to spin words into beautiful stories. Stay in the moment and imprint it. You can actively ask the Universe to bring you supportive readers. When you are truly inside the emotion of feeling appreciated, the Universe will bring you more of the same!

Suggestion #3

Feel grateful to every single person who reads and enjoys your work. Every single one! Even better, thank them! When you let go of the thought that there should be more readers, and hold onto the emotion of gratitude for those who appreciate your work, you will find that readers flock to your books. Gratitude springs from abundance, and when you feel abundant, you attract more and more opportunities to feel abundant!

Suggestion #4

Imagine one of these supportive readers telling a friend about your novel. Feel how awesome that feels, and how grateful you are for their support. Sit in the moment until you really feel joyful. Now imagine that that friend tells another friend about your novel. Holy schmoly! Gratitude squared!

Line Of Women In Black by K Whiteford

Now stay with that emotion until you REALLY feel it. Once you've got the emotion, let your mind drift into imagining more and more friends telling their friends about your novel. Oh yes, Universe! Bring me this!

Suggestion #5

Now and only now can you go back to the computer, or desk or couch if you write by hand. Keep the wonder, keep the sense of your work being appreciated person by person, the joy of your words rippling out. If you still feel like writing four novels a year, if that practice embodies your happiness, do it! Not from a sense of fear or need, but for pure joy.

The Universe will bring you more of the emotion you feel now. We always get back what our emotions, consciously or unconsciously, are projecting.

The Law of Attraction can't bring you book sales. If it's money you want, remember that it can come from many different sources. Hold onto the feeling that you are already living and will continue to live an abundant life. Stay inside the joy of writing, and let the Universe take care of the details.

Please share your thoughts on enjoying the process of writing. How do you keep the demons at bay? What suggestions can you add to these five? Have you experienced the Law of Attraction in your life? What was the outcome? As always, I look forward to a lively discussion!

Check out these related posts:

• Can I Use the Law of Attraction to Boost Book Sales?
• Banish the Anxiety — Focus on the Fun!

Banish the Anxiety — Focus on the Fun!

How do we stay in the flow when we’re in the middle of advertising, promoting, and otherwise selling our creative darlings? How can we banish anxiety over the barrage of numbers: views, sales, tweets, friends, follows, et al!?

The solution applies a lot further than publishing. In fact it can help all of us keep having fun, no matter the circumstances.

This comment to my latest post, Starting 2013 Off Right - January of Abundance!, on Melody Fletcher’s Law of Attraction blog, Deliberate Receiving, started me thinking.

A slightly paraphrased version of the original comment

I know we have discussed that it is all about the journey. Yet, it’s imagining and expecting the destination with utmost faith that keeps us going on our journey, right? At least that is what I find. When I get stuck somewhere, it’s usually because I allow the stuff happening around me to depress me, when I shouldn’t. Makes total sense, but it takes practice to get there.

Besides the wonderful creatures you rescue, what else do you do to feel good, to set you up for staying in the flow? I have found that only by feeling good and excited, everything comes into alignment. Then I lose the flow, and have to get back to that frequency. How do you personally get back to having fun?

Paying too Much Attention to the Numbers

I've bumped up against exactly this problem in the last few days, and it took me awhile to feel my way through. What happened was that I started focusing on how many people retweeted my tweets, how many people visited my blog, etc. I wanted tangible results in exactly the form I wanted them to come in. Arggg! Even though the numbers were generally good, I started to get anxious.

Join their Facebook page.

Before, it had felt wonderful visualizing opening a shelter for puppies and old dogs, the main reason I’d like to sell a bunch of books. I imagined the yard, and the cute doggie beds, and all the volunteers. All of it felt fantastic, and in my heart I know it's all just around the corner. Lately, with too much focus on HOW to get there, ie the numbers, the dream started to feel more anxious too.

Getting Back to Having Fun

What brought me out was when I realized that it's names that matter, and not numbers. Each retweet was the action of a person, someone real and alive that was connecting with me! How amazing is that! The whole purpose of all of everything, for me, is connection, connecting with people and connecting with dogs. Whether I help them, or they help me, or we just share space, it's all good!

Savoring the Human Connections

As soon as I felt again the human connection behind all these hours at the computer, everything felt good again. The dream of the shelter is back, clear and strong. The difference is that now I just KNOW it's going to happen, and I don't think about the picky details, like money and land and legalities. When they become relevant, they'll resolve, maybe through my diligent inspired action, maybe through a different agency.

Since working all this through, my energy has stayed consistently high. I can look at the numbers now, laugh a little, get excited when they're really good, and laugh some more when they go down. I've remembered that the numbers don't matter, that every connection is precious, and that makes everything fun again.

How to Recognize Inspired Action

It can be hard to know whether something you want to do is truly inspired action, or whether perhaps you want it because of prior conditioning. I’ve followed a lot of ‘dreams’ that turned out to be me living out someone else’s (generally my Mother’s) dreams. Even here in Mexico, the vision of a dog shelter is evolving by fits and starts.

One way to recognize inspired action may be by looking at how hard you are willing to work for the dream, and by whether that work feels like a chore toward an end, or whether the work itself is truly joyous. Promoting my books is so fun and absorbing, I’d do it even if there were never a penny to be made.

A non-publishing example, brought up by the same reader, is a decision whether to incur university debt. The student wants to keep going. The parents are saying, 'No!' The friends are saying, 'You're crazy!' We all know university debt can become crushing, and I certainly understand parental fears. I have one daughter who loves studying – loves it! She’s finishing a masters degree and moving on to a PhD. Who knows if she’ll ever recoup the money, but she’s doing what she loves most in life. Every course excites her. And she works her butt off!

To me, the deciding factor is the joy. If the dream that gives you greatest joy is to buy your own home, maybe you need to give some thought to working and avoiding debt. If what gives you greatest joy is learning, and you could care less about your accommodations, keep studying!

That's not to say you can't have both the house and the degrees. Of course, you can. But if one is a passion and one is a should, you need to be clear in your heart about which is which. When you know and follow your true joy, emphasis on Your. True. Joy., the Universe will align with you. And, rather than an elusive target, staying in the flow will be a given.

How Do You Keep Having Fun?

How about you? How do you keep from focusing so much on the details, you forget the fun? How do you keep yourself floating when you’re in a sea of scaly, demanding alligators? How do you know when your action is inspired? Please share your thoughts. I look forward to our conversation.

Huge hugs,

Carole