Where are you? Check your goal and where you are now. Then CELEBRATE Even if you went backwards 😆 And I'd love to see pictures of your celebration/dream board! I'm at 315 preorders, so not at 2000 YET but I am celebrating that I do have more preorders than when I started AND I'm celebrating all the steps I took to move forward. I can only control my mindset and my actions, and I am doing that, so I'm celebrating the messy middle! I'm still visualizing 2,000 pre-orders, and following the nudges to move forward (I set up more newsletter swaps for the pre-order, I'm testing blurbs and playing with hooks, also re-editing the book with @Stasia Black's most excellent line edits. I'm going to schedule more newsletters to go out through the end of the month. I'm booking more promo for other books in the series. I am putting them on sale with updated back matter that points to the pre-order. I also increased ad budget to those. And I am expecting a miracle! But that's how it works--you imagine your goal become reality, take all the baby steps you can, but also expect to get lucky. LOL It only takes one viral reel to get the attention of bigger influencers who might fall in love with your books forever. It only takes one ad to catch the imagination of a bookstore owner who wants to showcase your work. When I was a baby author, I did one promo and got a raving fan who buys absolutely everything I sell, likes and comments on every post I post, and sends my kids care packages 4 to 8 times a year!!!! Seriously, between her and my family, my husband and I rarely buy the kids clothes. Expect the magic! Picture of my new candle/perfume splurge!

Millionaire cheese board And I finally traded myself to a Diptyque candle

Ideas for rewiring your mindset - Imagine the worst and sit with the feeling - Then imagine the worst and everything turns out perfectly - nervous system through baby steps and repetition - Calm your nervous system through pleasure (celebrating!)

One of the first steps to learning to write better hooks is to build a swipe file of hooks that grabbed you. This new beta site seems like a faster way to do it. I found it through Author Scale. https://booktoktrends.com/ That's my first impression anyway. Let me know your thoughts!

I didn't sleep well last night so today I've felt pretty meh...which immediately tailspins my thoughts. "You're going to fail" "you're a failure" - I mostly kept these thoughts at bay with my morning cup of serotonin (coffee) long enough to get words, but in the afternoon the energy slump brought them back. It is entirely possible for me not to get 2000 preorders by the end of the month. But getting even 1 more would be awesome. And although the goal is a stretch, I bet I can get 2000 total by launch, which is Dec 26th. *exhausted cheer* But that's all logical thought. And my fear/feelings aren't logical. They are coming because, frankly, I didn't eat enough before 1 pm. I swear I'm back to kindergarten with self care: - did I eat something? - drink water? - take my meds? - go outside/get some sun? - connect with a loved one? - go to the bathroom (my bladder gets ignored when I hyper-focus)? It's quite possible you also need to drink something not caffeinated or eat something that's not a simple carb. But you also might have a habit of these "I can't do it/I'm a failure" thoughts. I find it useful to write them down and become the observer right away. This switches the mind from stress (amygdala) to critical thinking (pre-frontal cortex) and possibilities come flooding in. But I also need to eat protein! And just shrug off everything until I've had some good sleep. Posting in case this is helpful. Also, I know that if I focus on the ditch, I will steer into the ditch, so I'm going to keep thinking about 2k preorders and how it will look and feel. And complete one task on my tactics list (give my assistant new back matter for book 1 in the series, back matter that points to the new book) Hope to see you for the tactics call Monday! Also, the recording from yesterday is up and it's 9 hours long! 😆 JK. And did you see we're going to have an Author Gala/Month end celebration on the 30th? Halloween costumes expected but not required. PJs are costumes too. ;)