The Art of Not Comparing Myself to Others

I recently launched my book Angel from the Rust. And people I know have been asking me, “How is the book doing?”

I’ve been saying, “I think it’s going good.” (Which is grammatically incorrect. It should be, “It’s going well.” But we digress…)

This begs the question: What is considered a “good” book launch?

I’ve searched the Internet and have yet to find a clear answer. So what I’ve caught myself doing is comparing myself to other authors and seeing how I measure up (how many sales made, how many reviews received, etc.).

It’s easy for us to compare ourselves to others. I think of self-published author Ryan Cahill who published a whole trilogy of books (the last book being over a thousand pages) and two novellas—in just these last two years! And at thousands of reviews, readers are raving about his books. (I have yet to read his stuff, but his Bound and Broken trilogy is on my TBR list.)

Then I look at what I’ve accomplished these last two years. I finished production on one book and started drafts on another. Pretty slow in comparison.

I’m tempted to be hard on myself and scold myself for not working hard enough.

But then I take a deep breath and remember I’m a full-time teacher with three young kids. I’m impressed with Cahill and happy for him on his accomplishment. But it would be impossible for me to do what he did. Not if I want to be a good husband, father, and teacher.

So I have to learn to be happy with my progress.

What’s in the works?

Now that the book launch is complete, I’ve been able to get back into the swing of writing. I want to assure you that I’m working as hard as I can to get you the next book: Desert of the Beast, Book 2 of the Earth Medieval.

I get up at 4am every workday to get writing done and find what moments I can throughout the day to add to my story. The first draft of Desert of the Beast is done, and I’m 35K words into the second draft. My goal is to have the complete work published by January next year. Here’s to hitting that goal!