Afraid to Jump?

Afraid to Publish.

Some people go to art school, make art, and graduate but never show their art; they eventually become ex-artists because they are afraid, so they stop making art entirely. Others get out there, deal with their fears, make art, try to show and sell it, get rejected, and don't quit, no matter how much rejection they face. It's the same with writing; if you've written a book, but you keep editing and editing, and you are now three years or more into editing, it might be time to publish, give the book up as a lost cause, and write a different book or pursue other pursuits.

It took me three years to write my first book, another year working with RAMP, and another year with a publisher. My text was over-edited, but that doesn't mean it didn't have errors. I should have released it earlier because it would have been a better book. Why? Because readers will forgive misplaced commas and grammar. What they won't forgive is a boring book. It had more life in it before the last six months of editing. I self-published my next book, which I wrote in three months. It's a novella, and I published that one too soon. I think I've gotten better at deciding when to pull the trigger. Still, rather than editing a book to death, you're much better off writing another book unless it is just plain bad, then don't release it at all.

What To Do:

• Admit you’re afraid.

And think about why. Is it because you're afraid someone might not like it? Who wants to be rejected? But at the same time, we make our heroes and heroines face their fears, so it's kind of chicken-shit of us to not meet ours. And the truth is someone will eventually not like your book. Read the reviews of any of your favorite authors, and one or two percent or even more of those reviews will be negative, one or two stars. Not everyone is going to like what you do. It is unpleasant to read bad reviews, but you can learn from some of them.

• Accept it…your writing is never going to be perfect.

I'm sorry, but it won't be. There isn't any such thing. Therefore, it's ridiculous to keep editing forever. Even if you manage to get a few sentences perfect, someone else is going to screw it up for you. An editor or a book formatter will put a comma in a place you didn't intend. Down the road, you will find something wrong with the printed copy, I guarantee it. It's enough to make you lose your shit, but you might as well face it now; perfect is a brass ring we reach for but near impossible to attain.

• Let it go.

At some point, you must let the book go and say that's enough. Set a number, three edits, five edits, whatever your number is, and then let your book stand on its own set of pages.

Hitting the button to publish is scary, and if you are waiting for someone to publish it for you, then start querying. I came across an article where the author felt strongly that sending a book out and having it rejected kept things that shouldn't be published from being published. Some people believe that gatekeepers keep the undeserving out, but I don't buy it unless you write for one of the top five publishers. Obviously, readers don't see much difference either if many of the top-selling books continue to come from self-published authors on Amazon. This article in The Guardian made some valid points about the advantages of going with a traditional publisher and the amount of time marketing takes away from self-published authors. It warns that it's worth waiting until you have something worth publishing, but that would apply to self-published authors too. The romance market is a competitive one. What the author, Ros Barber, fails to grasp is that publishers today do not spend as much time marketing for authors anymore, unless you are a best-selling author already. They no longer have the staff. They expect the author to do some of this work themselves now, which could explain why her book made the small amount she reported in her article.

• Write another book.

The best thing you can do is to let go and start writing another book. It’s like breaking up with a lover. It gets you over the first one. We all have to start somewhere. Learn from your first book, let it go and write more books and make each one better.

Practice makes perfect. All you’re doing by holding back publishing is procrastinating and it’s doubtful you are making your book significantly better by editing the same book over and over. You need to get the book out there, let other people read it and find out what works and doesn’t work in your novel. Read the reviews. Take some notes and learn from them.

Keep your focus—write better books.

Other News:

I participated in Shepherd.com's favorite reads of 2023. If you'd like to see what they were and read my review, click above. If you haven't heard of this website, it's a great place to find other readers' recommendations.

I hope Nano is great for everyone participating. I'm at 48,102 words and should reach my 50,000 words and complete Flower Queen by the 30th. Here's the tagline: It began with a dying husband and ended in a dynasty. It took away her husband's pain on his deathbed, kept her from losing the family farm, and gave her the power to build a thriving business, but it was illegal to grow in every state in the country in 1978. It even brings back her first love from high school; the only problem—he works for the FBI. Will their occupations implode their romance, or will the opposite happen? A second chance at love, opposites attract, rags to riches heroine trope story.

Please share how you've gotten over the fear of publishing your books. If you haven't, share under comments or if you are writing something for Nano, please leave a tagline or brief description of the project and tell us how it's going under comments.

Have a great week!