GOING BESTSELLER – ACHIEVEMENT OR FAKERY?
NOVEMBER 2020
Hello, hello my lovely humans. How goes it for you? No, seriously, I want to know. Please, post a comment below or come find me on my social media https://linktr.ee/Skylarjwynter and let me know how you are going. Connection is beautiful and sharing is caring.
BIG NEWS! DRUM ROLL PLEASE…….
This month my beautiful debut book, Pieces of Humanity went to #1 on Amazon making me a bestselling author. Can you even imagine? Me! Bestselling author? Nooooo. Surely not. But YES! YES, it is all true. You can check it out for yourself and even purchase a copy here:
AMAZON US
AMAZON UK
AMAZON AUS
BOOKTOPIA
DAISY LANE PUBLISHING
Now, you may be wondering about the title of this post – Achievement or Fakery. Wonder no more. The term ‘Imposter Syndrome’ is one that is known across the globe and experienced by (I would hazard a guess) all of us as some point in our lives. Even if it is just walking into a room and feeling you do not belong; that the people there are smarter or more successful than you – you have felt it.
Well, when this incredible achievement happened for me, not only was the little voice in my head telling me I was undeserving but a few people on social media thought they would point out all the reasons why my book reaching bestseller status was of no real consequence at all, given poetry is hardly a popular genre (I beg to differ) and therefore one need sell very few copies to rise up through the ranks to bestselling status.
I always find it interesting (after I catch my breath and recover from the hurt) that in a world where humans are hurting and mental health and well-being is a hot topic that some find it necessary to ‘burst the bubble’ or worse, of fellow humans.
How does one deal with this kind of thing? I have no idea. The situation became confusing. I will admit, being so fresh and new to all things social media I had made a rookie mistake of creating one post and sharing it everywhere, but still felt that ‘imposter syndrome’ negative self-talk.
Upon seeing what seemed like negative feedback, I died a million deaths, and was full of shame.Yes, shame is a powerful thing that can impact our behaviour to the extreme, but that is a post for another day.
What did I do? I reached out to people. It was either that or sink to a place that is hard to climb out of and quite frankly I have had enough of sitting in that space. They shared thoughts and perspectives that helped ease the imposter back into her box and I am grateful I have people I can call on to hold space while I fall apart.
I have the power to not let people hurt me. I thanked these humans for their invaluable insight into the world of Amazon and bestseller lists. I thanked them for making me aware of the rules of their groups and I apologised for breaking them and I removed all the posts. Job done.
I am sure for a long time to come, when I think on my achievement, (lets face it I wrote a book, had it picked up by a traditional publishing house, https://www.daisylanepublishing.com/ launched it and sold enough copies, whatever that number is, to end up at #1 on Amazon) it will be tinged with the shame and sense of imposter syndrome that came within the week that followed, but I know there are many readers and writers out there that share that experience and isn’t it nice to know – WE ARE NOT ALONE!
Remember beautiful humans; humans behaving decently, will change the world.
