One of the things that is extremely challenging to do is to assess just “how good” your writing abilities are. It can be next to impossible, especially since gaging our efforts is a double-edged sword. On the one side, we want to feel good about what we do, because it helps keeps us motivated to write. On the other, we don’t want to over-analyze our writing because we’ll end up putting down our pens and stop writing altogether.

It’s necessary to find a balance between the two extremes for several reasons, but the biggest one is this: If your ego is over-inflated, you can really damage your career. Risks include:

These are just a few of the reasons why you have to manage not only your writing, but the resiliency of your personality and your ego. Remember that you are selling yourself as an independent contractor, and any time you fall into one of the common traps that many authors seem to do–you are limiting the amount of income you could potentially make.