Weird fears that surface right before your book comes out
Worthy of an Edward Gorey Illustration
A few weeks to go, the fears are right on time.
It’s funny how cocky we get about fear. We handle it once and think we’ve got it sorted forever. But, like any emotion, fear cycles back over and over. It’s not something that gets solved.
It shouldn’t surprise me that fear is back at t-minus 25 days and counting til Writing through Fear comes out. I did literally1 write the book on fear and writing. And yet.
Why do we have the hardest time listening to our own advice? Maybe it’s easy for you, but my critic has latched on to my being a teacher as an easy way to control me.
“You don’t need to do all this. You know it. Your’re the teacher.”
And then my ego warms to this message and acts surprised when I get scared that the book is, in fact, coming out.
Please leave a comment if these fears have come calling when you’re about to publish. And for our purposes here, publishing could happen as a book, an article, or even a post or newsletter.
The fears:
I could have done a better job.
I couldn’t have done a better job.
No one will get it.
Everyone will understand it, but they will also hate it.
Pub day will lead to zero readers.
Too many people will read it and then I’ll be stuck dealing with correspondence about this book forever and will never get to write another one.
There will be typos.
People will leave reviews commenting on the typos.
No one will leave a single review.
I will somehow screw up the timeline between now and May 23rd and the book won’t come out.
The book will get deleted everywhere, despite being backed up in numerous places, and all my work will be erased.
Pub day will be totally fine, but totally forgettable.
I will think of an entire brilliant chapter I need to include as soon as everything is finished and sent.
Some ex I don’t want to hear from will use my book coming out as an excuse to get in contact.
That this list of fears isn’t true for anything else.
The beauty of lists.
What I love most about lists is that, once I commit to writing them, the things to write down shrink. Before starting this post, I felt like I had an amorphous cloud of fear hovering about my head about the book.
By the end… I really had to work to get to 15 items. Number 14 is actually a big stretch. I can’t think of anyone I don’t want to be in touch with that I wouldn’t be fine deleting an email from without answering.
If you feel like writing fear will swallow you, write a list of your fears. Partway through, they’ll start to feel silly and indulgent. (Mine certainly did. Of course pub dad will be forgettable. This isn’t my first pub day — I know how it goes.) By the end of your list, I’ll bet you’ll be rolling your eyes.
So then you can keep writing and prep yourself for your work being out in the world.
Will your book be perfect? No, no book is.
Can a book still help someone if it’s imperfect? Absolutely.
I’m so curious… which of these fears can you relate to? And which one do you have that didn’t make the list? Let’s see how many of us match…
A portrait of me trying to avoid just making a list of my fears. Thank you Edward Gorey, for so effectively illustrating my inner monologue’s tone.
It is a huge pet peeve when ‘literally’ gets used where ‘figuratively’ makes more sense. However when literally actually works, I jump on it. It’s the equivalent of a grammatical joyride. I’m so sorry, I just couldn’t stop myself.
Lord save me from #5. I rarely throw parties because I am convinced NO ONE WILL COME. I feel the same way about book signings, etc., which is hilarious, as I as yet have NO BOOK TO SIGN. (Apparently my fears like to get a much bigger running start than do yours, Caroline.) Breathe. It's all gonna be fine.
Congrats on the new book, Caroline! Long time no talk (I was out running errands). May I add a couple of fears I've felt, and which I suspect are universal? The fear of...
16. Not leading with our best material (ie "you don't get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression"). We only get so many bites at the apple, and we only only have so much goodwill to spend.
17. Other people knowing more about the topic of our writing; we thought we'd familiarized ourselves with the canon, but somehow missed something crucial (a recurring nightmare).