Do you need to be successful to write a book or you can become a success if you write one? I pressed the Publish Button anyway and this is what happened.

The tea kettle whistled at the backdrop and got me back to the present with a jolt.

I still had the pen in my hands and I was lost in thoughts about my decision to write a book.

After blogging for several years now, I felt like now I can write one. But here’s the thing — I was not a famous and recognized writer yet! I am still not one as I write this story!

How many people will read my book and how many would like it after reading it? Do I even have what it takes to connect with people through my writings?

Do people even read those millions of books on the Amazon Book Shelves online, or they just exist there, in that virtual realm, waiting for a chance to be read?

Do I really have that story that will compel people to read.

And as I kept thinking, the manuscript that took me only 100 days to write, stayed in the shelf with dust accumulating on it.

For 3 years, I watched the color of the paper change from white to yellow, the story becoming fresh to stale, and my dream to become an author degrade from being a ‘source of inspiration’ to being a ‘source of disdain’.

And on that September of 2018, I said to myself one fine morning — how do I even know my story is worth reading if it is not read by at least one person other than myself.

What is better? To write a book, that some people would say, they didn’t like or to have a book read by no one at all?

If at least one person were to read my book and tell me that its worth reading, isn’t it worth knowing that they at at least invested their time to read it and let me know that I need to become better?

So, on 13th Sep 2018, I finally pressed the Publish button and released my writing into the universe — Uttarakhand Diaries — The Unspoken Tales From the Mountains.

I published it and I forgot it. Literally just “shut eyes like the cat, and forget it” kind of forget it. I didn’t want to picture the idea of a critical comment on my book.

In April 2023, this is what happened.

The book not only hit the №1 Bestseller but also went on to be one in two categories and inching close to №1 in the third.

It continued to be in the Top 100 books in its category for 5 straight years back-to back competing being on the first two pages all the while and also is one my most bought books so far, almost every single month.

It also went on to be on the Amazon Prime Reading List of books in May 2022 and Nov 2022.

Now the only thing I wonder is — What if, I never pressed the Publish button and let my book unfold?

It would have still continued to be in my shelf, becoming yellower with every passing day, the ink on the pages slowly getting wiped out from the paper like a faded memory in time.

Sometimes, it is not the dream that dies. Sometimes, we allow it to die on our own.

So, if you have that book in your drawer, and still figuring out a way to make it to the Publish button, it is time for your story to unfold.

Do not let it go unheard.

Now a days, the tea kettle still whistles behind my back while I write.

But now, I worry about how soon, I would hit the Publish button, because if you have a story, the world can only know if you bring it out to the world, and no way else.