If your literary agent said, “It’s my intention to get you a $50,000 to $75,000 advance for your book,” how would you react? I’d hasten to guess you initially might respond, “That’s fabulous! I’d love that.” After all, you have dreamed of being a well-paid author, right?

But what would you say to yourself after that? It’s possible—even likely—that your self-talk might be a bit different.

You might believe your mental conversations would revolve around how wonderful it would be to get a five-figure book deal. This could be especially true if you’ve never received an advance on sales for a book or only received small ones to date. But your self-talk might take on a very different—and negative—tone.

How do I know? Because that’s what happened to me.

My Negative Self-Talk

My agent said those exact words to me. And my response was pretty much the same as what I wrote above—excited and optimistic. Then, my negative self-talk set in.

I’m not the kind of writer who gets a five-figure book deal.

I don’t write the kind of books that get large advances.

She will be disappointed when she realizes that publishers won’t pay that much for my work.

I don’t have the kind of author platform to command that amount of money.

Even though I genuinely want a publisher to pay me a large advance for my book, I don’t believe I deserve it or am worthy of it. (If you don’t know what an advance is, it’s the amount of money you receive from a publisher when they purchase your manuscript or book idea. An advance amount is based on a calculation of projected sales of your book, which is why technically it is called an “advance on sales.”) I’m sure I have more negative thoughts floating around that I’m not even conscious of. Yet, these were the ones that almost immediately bubbled up into my consciousness.

If you are anything like me, you probably have similar thoughts. These might include:

• I’m not worthy.
• I don’t deserve it.
• I’m not good enough.

Those are the most common ones most writers (and people) possess.

How to Override Negative Self-Talk

Your negative self-talk prevents you from achieving your financial goals as a writer. Maybe you’ve heard the adage that thoughts are creative, and what you focus on expands. It’s true.

Your thoughts create your reality. Plus, negative thinking, which is not much different than negative self-talk, creates what you do not want rather than what you do want.

It would be easy to dismiss these negative thoughts, but they won’t go away. Even subconscious thoughts impact your ability to create what you desire—in this case, a five-figure book deal.

You could simply turn your negative self-talk into affirmations. You could repeat positive statements daily, like “I am worthy of a large advance,” “I am the type of writer who gets large advances,” or “I am a well-paid author.” That would definitely help reprogram your brain, creating new neural pathways and ways to speak to yourself.

And reprogramming your brain is exactly what you must do to be a well-paid author. You need to change your mindset or how you see and think about yourself. You also need to improve how you speak to yourself.

Change Your Identity

While affirmations help, the most effective thing you can do to stop the negative self-talk—and the results of that mental chatter—is to become a well-paid author.

How do you do that if you haven’t yet received a big, fat advance or your negative self-talk prevents you from being paid well for your writing? Change your identity—how you see yourself, what you believe about yourself, your characteristics, or who you are “being” as a writer.

You will forever be an underpaid author if you don’t do that. You will struggle to land that large advance because you are being a person who has that experience—and you continue to tell yourself that is who you are.

Again, I tell you this because I know it is true. I know because I’m a Certified High Performance Coach and Transformational Coach as well as an author.

Become a Well-Paid Author

After the conversation with my literary agent, I listened to my self-talk and realized something important. As long as I believed I was not an author who could (for whatever reason) be offered a five-figure advance, I would not get one. I had to change how I saw myself.

More than that, I needed to change how I was “being”…who I was “being.” I needed to choose a new identity as a well-paid author. Only then would I be able to receive that big advance.

Not only did I need to choose this new identity, I had to become that person…fast! Accomplishing that goal is not as difficult as you might think.

Act “As If” You are a Well-Paid Author

Once you choose a new identity, act “as if” you are already that person. Adopt a well-paid author’s habits and mindset (including self-talk) right now.

How would they behave, or what habits would such a writer have that helped them become a well-paid author. What would they do consistently? Adopt those behaviors and habits right now. (Yes, immediately.)

How would a well-paid author think? What self-talk would they engage in, and what would they believe about themselves and their work? Take on that mindset at this very moment. (Don’t wait.)

By doing these things, you aren’t just acting as if you are already a well-paid author. You take on that identity and become a well-paid author.

I also suggest you learn self-hypnosis and use it daily to reprogram your brain to who you have chosen to be. (I teach this to the members of the Inspired Creator Community Even without knowing self-hypnosis, which is easy to learn, you can spend five or ten minutes two or three times per day visualizing yourself as a well-paid author. Imagine what that would be and feel like, the ways in which it would impact how you show up in the world, and the results you could achieve.

Change What You Get Paid

You may believe changing your identity will be difficult or take a long time. That’s not true.

How do I know? I’ve seen my clients and myself change overnight simply by deciding who to be and then showing up as that person.

If you’ve been a sugar eater all your life and you decide to be someone who doesn’t eat sugar, you can be that person the moment you choose to be. Might you have a little bit of sugar withdrawal? Sure. But you could still be someone who doesn’t eat sugar from that moment forward—simply because you shifted your identity.

Do that, and your habits and mindset will shift, too. When you see a candy bowl, you will tell yourself, “I am no longer someone who eats sugar. So, it is no longer my habit to eat candy.”

The same is true of becoming a well-paid author. Decide the is who you are. Then, align your mindset and habits with that identity. Tell yourself, “I am a well-paid author. I habitually get large advances for my book projects; my agent gets me five-figure deals consistently.”

Boom. You have changed your identity.

Do that, and your results change, too. Why? Because you are someone who gets different results.

What results does a well-paid author get? You guessed it…big paychecks.

What negative self-talk is preventing you from becoming a well-paid author? Tell me why in a comment below. And, please share this post with a writer who might benefit from reading it.