Dear Struggling Writer,

Does the following ring a bell with you?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, I have good news for you. You're not alone. Even best-selling authors feel that way.

It starts with a queasy feeling in the pit of the stomach. Then the feeling gets a voice.

"Who are you fooling?" it yells.

"You're wasting your time. You'll never make it, and besides, your story sucks!"

What's more, it's lying.

How do I know? Because nobody, not even a disembodied, born-critical inner voice, knows the future.

And you're not alone in hearing that voice. The other day, I read a post in a Facebook group by a best-selling author who said she sometimes sat there with the feeling that her story was bad. Several other successful authors chimed in. They had all experienced that feeling.

It's self-doubt. Lack of confidence. And although we'll never completely get rid of that feeling, there are ways to turn the volume way down on that voice. Because we need to squelch that voice so we can focus on doing what we need to do to succeed: write and publish books.

The best way to do it? To gain confidence.

But how do you do that?

Perhaps well-meaning people have told you to just write. Keep writing. Write faster.

Yes, that works to a certain degree, but what happens when you stop writing? Then your confidence drops again and that might explain the numerous unpublished books on your hard drive.

What else?

I have an idea about that :)

Let’s first talk about the worst thing you could do. You could set yourself up for failure by writing in a genre where readers only want to read established writers. One where readers only buy one book per month.

That would be a bad idea and it would be almost impossible to ever gain back your confidence once your books have failed.

But how about the opposite approach?

What if you could set yourself up for success, repeatedly, by writing in a genre where readers are voracious? Where they can't get enough of new books, and where they happily welcome any new writer that can help satisfy their never-ending thirst for more stories.

That's the kind of genre I would recommend you approach. And I’ll even share the genre with you.

There’s a sub-category to the Romance category called “Clean & Wholesome.”

That sub-category is getting more and more popular, gaining more readers every day, and what’s more… If you write clean and wholesome romance, they will fit into more than just that one sub-category.

Don’t worry about the red light in “Competition.” Readers here are voracious so there are still room for more writers. One writer shared with us that she made around 80% of her royalties through Kindle Unlimited (KU), which shows that readers here read a lot.

They read enough for it to be profitable to pay $10 per month for their KU subscription.

Even new authors get a chance here.

Besides, this is just one of the sub-categories you can add your books to.

Furthermore, K-lytics’ data tells a different and very optimistic story about the competition.

Green lights for this sub-category.

Are people tired of violence, swear words and raw sex? Do they want romance, emotions, loyalty and pure love?

I think so. And I’m not there to argue with them.

You need to write and publish. And then do it again. And again.

I must confess that it made me highly motivated when I read about one woman, Amy, who published her first book in September 2017 and by June 2018, she was making more than $10,000 per month. Just from self-publishing one novel per month.

That is doable. Even if you’ve never written or finished a novel before.

You might need a little warming up at first, but after a short while, you can easily reach the word count goal you need to write and publish a 50,000 word novel a month.

Especially if you get a plan to follow, almost chapter-by-chapter, making it nearly impossible to get stuck. Writer’s block is for people who don’t have a plan, not even in their head. If you have a structure and a blueprint to guide you, all the way from getting the idea to hitting the publish button, you will follow through. You will write and publish your books.

And you’ll gain that important confidence when the results show up.

Amy’s story isn’t the only one. I read more. Stories from people who had begun writing a few months earlier and were already seeing success.

Were they brilliant writers? No. They were good, and they became better with each book, just like many people do with training.

You don’t need to be a genius to do this. You just need a plan. A blueprint.

Like any other sub-genre, this one has rules you must adhere to.

Otherwise... R.I.P. your books. I've seen some pretty nasty reviews for books that didn't follow the unwritten code of conduct.

Once you've learned them, you can quickly adapt your writing style to adhere to the rules and make your readers happy.