Imposter Syndrome and Children's Books

I've been working on this book for months. My imposter syndrome about it has been absolutely horrendous. I struggle with feeling like a fraud or that the work isn't actually that great and shouldn't be published. 

I came across this article by Melody J. Wilding, which you can read here. Wilding references the work of Dr. Valerie Young, who breaks imposter syndrome down into different types. Examples given for both the Perfectionist and the Expert resonated with me. I can see how those tendencies and feelings have applied to my work with this children's book. 

I've talked about imposter syndrome before in blog posts. But, it's something I feel ALL THE TIME. I've had a tremendous amount of anxiety about editing and moving forward with my illustrated bat book. I've had a lot of shifting feelings about it too. I was so excited when I started working on this book - and that excitement really motivated me. But then, the high of completing the project started to wear off and I began to think that it wasn't really that great. My beta readers all gave me positive and constructive feedback (which I was grateful for). I keep picking it apart, trying to fix every little flaw. 

One of my friends, a librarian, told me to stop it. To just complete the project and move forward. She told me that I'd be shocked at some of the children's books that move through the circulation desk (they aren't that great). I try not to compare what I do to what other people do. I'm in several different writing groups and I know how much work goes into different projects (and I know how critical people in those groups can be). I try to compare my work to my work. Is this better than other projects I've worked on? Is it on par with them? Is this something I can be proud of? 

The answer to all of these questions is "yes." This book is a little different - it doesn't have brightly colored images on each page (well, detailed images). It focuses more on facts and biology than it does on artwork (unlike Animal Friends of West Texas). But, it also shares information about an animal that I've always loved and have always found to be very interesting. It's a passion project. Maybe that's why I want it to do well - it's something I deeply care about. 

​So, today I hit "submit" and my proof is on its way to be printed and sent to me. And you know what? We'll go from there.