In a recent post, I explained that fear is behind a lot of unfinished book projects. Fears related to rejection, failure, and money stop many authors from releasing a book.
But all is not lost! Published book authors are just like you. The only difference is that they know that education is the antidote to book publishing fears.
One or more fears could be holding you back, but when you learn more about book publishing, it quashes the fear. Then you can move forward and take the next steps toward realizing your dream of being a published author:
Fear of rejection or failure. You may worry that people won’t like your book. The reality is that rejection is only rejection if you accept it as such. Countless books were rejected by publishers repeatedly. Everyone from JK Rowling to Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield (of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame) were rejected. In fact, Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected 140 times. The authors simply did not accept the rejection. They knew the book could sell and kept going. Once you find out more about how publishing works, you find out that rejection often has absolutely nothing to do with a book’s quality. Once you learn that, you won’t accept rejection.
Fear of being ignored. Another fear is that maybe no one will read your book. Yes, books require marketing, but once you learn more about the book promotion process, you can try out just the tactics that you enjoy. (If you don’t like public speaking, don’t do it!) John Kremer’s classic 1001 Book Marketing Ideas gives you more options than you could try in a lifetime. You don’t have to turn into a loudmouth salesperson to sell books.
Fear of losing money and wasting your time. No one wants to waste time or money, so it’s easy to understand why aspiring authors worry. Any business activity involves risk, but many people have been successfully publishing books for a long time. When you learn from people who have gone before you, you can avoid a lot of potential pitfalls and mistakes.
Fear of the unknown. Obviously you don’t know what you don’t know. Knowledge is power! When you learn more about writing and publishing, it’s not an unknown process anymore. In fact, it starts to be fun.
Like I said last time, every writer experiences one or more of these fears. I’ve written 12 books and gone through phases where I felt anxious or worried. But I spent time educating myself about publishing and that gave me the confidence I needed to forge ahead.