Releasing a book is a daunting experience.
You spend the better part of a year pouring your heart and soul onto the page and get ready to show your friends and family why you’ve been squirreling away with your laptop for hours on end. Only, what if it isn’t as good as you thought it was? What if this is a spectacular flop and you embarrassed yourself?
I just released my debut Novella, Copper Lies, and let me tell you, fear was a real struggle.
I did the writing bit. I even did the editing bit without much stress (that’s a bold-faced lie, by the way. Check out my last blog on how to get over your fear of critique!) I thought, maybe, just maybe, I could step into the marketing phase of this book release without any anxiety whatsoever!
The habits you form in your thought life will go with you—no matter what you’re doing. And this book release was no exception. The closer I got to release day, the worse I felt. I had three distinct fears present as my doom, I mean…book release day approached.
Fear 1: This is going to fail
No matter how much planning I did, how many social media posts I prepared, or how much help I got, this fear was (and sometimes still is) present.
“Your book is going to fail, and this will be the end of your career,” the inner critic whispered. “Shot down before you even flew. How tragic. You are a failure.”
I had a choice—and so do you. I could listen to this voice (agree with it, set the project down and never even try) or I could shut it down. There was one thing I repeated to myself whenever this voice reared it’s ugly head, and maybe it can help you too.
“I’ve put in the work. I’ve done what I can and God is with me. No matter how this book release turns out, my worth and my tasks are in his hand. My identity is NOT ‘failure’ but ‘chosen’.”
Fear 2: Everyone is going to hate this.
The moment I’d assure myself that, no matter the outcome, I wasn’t a failure in God’s eyes, fear two would pop up like a mole, ready to be whacked.
“Your friends and family will read the words you’ve written, and they will be embarrassed by you. Stop while they don’t know how cringe you are.”
This one was harder to ignore. After all, the only way to really reassure myself it wasn’t true was by putting it out there and proving the voice wrong. Low and behold, my inner critic had to eat it’s words!
As book release day came and went, reviews began to pour in. Here are just some of the kind things people have said.
Breanna – “If I could have read this when I was growing up, I would have eaten this up! This book is perfect for girls in their tweens who have been told that they are too much or too loud. This is for those creative people who feel like their work will never be good enough. This book is comforting, funny, action packed, heart warming and tear jerking. I related to the main character and so many others! It’s almost impossible to not see an aspect of yourself in this story. If you are looking for clean fiction for your tween, this is the author to look for.”
Summer – “Copper Lies has a similar whimsy, adventure and intrigue as Anne of Green Gables, with the added bonus of dragons. The writing style is so immersive, you can’t help but fall in love with the characters and story, while forgetting you’re even reading. It’s clean, there’s a sweet romance, and there’s an honesty of being a character with real flaws. Overall, such a lovely read!!”
Corrine – “Steampunk coming-of-age stories aren’t my usual genre, but I enjoyed this one. It brought to my mind the quote, attributed to G.K. Chesterton, “Fairy tales are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated.” And I will add that a teenage orphan has everything necessary to defeat the dragon they were created to face. Excellent job, Alli Prince! Keep writing!”
Not everyone is going to like this story, and that’s okay, because not everyone will hate it either. Some people will like it. Statistically, it’d be pretty cool if everyone in the whole world came together and agreed that your book sucked. That’s world peace right there, so it’s kinda a win.
But my point is this: Not everyone will love it, but not everyone will hate it either.
Fear 3: A meteor shower that rivals the dinosaurs extinction will happen right before we release it—and everyone will die as aliens invade and the zombie apocalypse starts, all at the same time!
Just me? Okay. But my point stands. Sometimes, we have fears that are extremely unrealistic. It’s important to ask yourself, “Is this a realistic fear? Or is my brain running away with my anxiety?”
I found as I dealt with fears 1 and 2, random, unrelated fears began to pop up. Things that didn’t have anything to do with a book release, but instead with future and past projects. With those fears, I found one very helpful question to ask myself.
“Is there anything I can do about this fear in this exact moment of time?”
The answer was usually a solid no. So, it was time to be intentional with my thoughts and actively choose to focus on something else.
Having Fears is Normal
When you do something new that puts you in a vulnerable position, it’s normal to be a little wary of what people may say or how it might go. If you aren’t wary, please share your secrets with me, I’d love to be in that spot mentally. But know that, while it’s normal, it’s so important not to let yourself get carried away with your anxiety. To take a second to recenter yourself with Christ and give him your fears. Don’t let anxiety narrate your life. Instead, invite Jesus into those spaces and ask Him what He thinks.
Comment below, what writing-related fears do YOU have?
Want to make fear 2 eat it’s words? Check out Copper Lies!
One lie can lead to many secrets…
If you make something, and then that something accidentally comes alive and destroys your entire town…would it be fair to say that you destroyed the town, or can we just blame it on the thing?
Lillian Booker is dying to experiment on the strange glowing rocks hidden inside her adoptive father’s workshop—but the professor forbid it before he left on his journey. As Lillian learns all she can about the stones without breaking the professor’s rule, she finds herself stuck between two worlds.
Will she live the life of a brilliant inventor or give up on her dreams and become a respectable lady instead? What will make her happy? Most importantly, which will prove to the professor that he didn’t make a mistake when he chose her?
When Lillian secretly builds a mechanical dragon, one mistake leads to another—the strange glowing stones collide with her creation and the dragon roars to life. Lillian must make a choice…lie and keep her dragon a secret or finally face the truth?
Will any of it matter anyway if the town’s already been destroyed?
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Oof, you called me out on fear #3. *hides* (Great book btw, amiga.)
Haha! Thank you 🙂
I am proud of you! Releasing a book is scary and those fears are something I think every writer deals with. I will tell you for me, something magical happened when I turned thirty. Suddenly all the random things I wouldn’t do in my twenties because I was embarrassed literally became no big deal. Stuff like making phone calls, asking the questions no one wants to ask, approaching random strangers about random things. Life is never easy and things are hard but those little things absolutely do get easier. So keep on keeping on! Also, Neil’s punishment in my book freaked my Dad out a little but he loved the book anyway. So even if you do freak your family and friends a little, it will probably be okay. 😉 Cheering you on!
Thanks, Lindsey! I appreciate your support. 🙂