The Hardest Time is Now
Wow… so you may have heard, I have TWO books coming out this fall. One of them is already ready for preorder on a bazillion sites, too! Whoa.
In the midst of all this chaos, I keep thinking about how much there still is to do. The flurry of places to update, check out, contact, look into…
Then, in the process of all this is this odd realization that I have a fear of success — but only because it could be followed by failure. I mean, what if I do all this work only to find out NO ONE likes my books?! (I think I’m kinda channeling George McFly from Back to the Future.) Or worse yet, what if they REALLY like them, and I can’t keep up with the new workload? I mean, c’mon! I’m a mom, for godsake! How much time do they think I have?! LOL!
The thing I’ve realized though, is this fear is ridiculous and it’s been keeping me from fulfilling my dream of becoming a NYT or USA Today Bestselling author. So, I’m letting it go so I can embrace and attract to me what I want. Not what I don’t want.
In this process, I’ve been doing a lot of work I didn’t do for Pendomus’ launch. I’m reaching out to others more than ever, trying to learn from their experience. I’m reaching out to bloggers myself to create my own tours (this is mostly born out of lack of money, but it’s also been extremely nice to be in touch personally with the people who will be reviewing my books). I’ve got book sales pages going up. I have a free book to entice readers into the series (hint, hint), and I’ve been eyeing ads in BookBub, BookBuzz, Author Marketing Club, and ReadFree.ly… Not to mention branching into the realm of Facebook groups and trying to put myself out there more. It’s weird, but I also have a difficult time reaching out to people who are doing the same or similar kind of writing I do because… *gulp* What if I suck compared to them? Yup, pushing through that fear, too. Did I mention I’ve even reached out to 3 of the local news outlets nearby and plan to expand my reach soon to further away cities. I even have an official, in-a-bookstore BOOK SIGNING set for Black Friday Weekend! Whuuuuuuut?!
While I work my ass off on a daily basis, the one thing I keep reminding myself is…The hardest time is now.
While I can’t say I’m technically a newbie, I kinda am, too. I’ve been around the writing, book publishing, marketing block for a long time… But I’ve never pushed myself. Not like this. So my list is a meager, yet robust band of 63 people — YOU GUYS ROCK!! So while it might be small for now, it’s also grown since I really began focusing on list building and growing my actual email list audience. In fact, when I started in early July, it was only 19 “official” people! So, progress!
I know one day I will look back and think about this time when things were hard because I was starting from scratch, and laugh. I’ll probably wonder why I ever worried.
Every author — even super stellar NYT Bestselling authors had to be newbies once. If they can do it, I can do it. As Jillian Michaels always says, “Why choose failure when success is an option?”
I’m gonna success the hell outta this.
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Carissa Andrews is a Multipassionate MN Entrepreneur, Sci-fi Author, freelance writer, graphic designer and artist, unapologetic progressive, Lightworker, truthsayer, and occasional badass.
Her YA science fiction novel Pendomus, is available now through Amazon and wherever books are sold. It’s also FREE for signing up for her email list! Polarities, Book 2 of the Pendomus Chronicles, and Revolutions, Book 3 of the Pendomus Chronicles are coming out Fall 2017! Click here to see your preorder options!
