I recently launched a book to meteoric success. It succeeded FAR beyond my expectations not just in earnings, but in the community of readers I’ve built and the huge growth of my list. With 10 years of experience at this, I’ve laid enough groundwork that I can confidently say: as long as I continue to consistently release new work and maintain basic marketing, I’ll have no trouble writing full time and hitting my income goals.

Instead of celebrating, I’m spiraling into anxiety. I have readers passionately trading fan theories over the sequel, and instead of geeking out, I’m terrified that I can’t write a second book that good. I’m going to disappoint them. I keep tying to tell myself “All I have to do is show up” and write my words for the day. Instead, I don’t show up and choose to buffer and agonize.

So my main UM right now is:
C: Writing a sequel
T: I’m going to disappoint my readers
F: Anxious
A: Buffer/Avoid writing
R: Writing isn’t done, book isn’t finished on time and readers are already disappointed over delays

Honesty, I’d rather not think about other readers/writers/people at all when I’m sitting down to do my work, but I constantly go back to thoughts of comparison and not wanting to disappoint others.

How do I get to a place of feeling empowered and doing the work for myself rather than wasting brain space worrying over the opinions of all these third parties?