Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Beat the Fear of Self-Publishing

  1. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s begin the Fight
  2. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  3. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  4. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: To Dump or not to Dump
  5. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Keep the Faith
  6. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Finding Your Identity
  7. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Just for the love of it
  8. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Step plan for success
  9. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Planning Issue
  10. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Crossroads
  11. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Overwhelming Effect
  12. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Waiting Game
  13. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reflection 2013
  14. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year New Challenges
  15. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Am I a real Writer?
  16. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Taking The Next Step
  17. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Submission Phobia
  18. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: How To Get Ideas
  19. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with Fear
  20. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Only Guarantee
  21. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Doubts of others
  22. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let those positives shine
  23. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: First Draft Blues
  24. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Time-wasting issue
  25. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Embrace the bad ideas
  26. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author?
  27. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Negative Feedback; the double slap
  28. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Pat yourself on the back
  29. Setting Self Doubt On Fire: The Deflated Eureka Moment
  30. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The doomed quest for perfection
  31. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writing Group fears
  32. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Horror Tree Crew tackle Mr Self Doubt
  33. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Read aloud challenge
  34. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Find your inner belief
  35. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: NaNoWriMo and Self-Doubt
  36. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: We are NaNoWriMo winners
  37. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: New Year’s Resolutions for Writers
  38. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The benefits of organizing
  39. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Editing Strain
  40. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Writing Group Experience
  41. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Dealing with second stage fears
  42. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Reading aloud to an audience
  43. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Importance of perseverance
  44. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Self-Doubt or Gut Feeling
  45. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Get ready for NaNoEdMo
  46. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Benefits of Writing Goals
  47. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Rejection Gets Better
  48. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writers, take care of yourself!
  49. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Boost Your Self-Confidence
  50. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Why You Should Go to a Writing Festival
  51. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! A Publisher has Dropped Me
  52. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Setting Self Doubt on Fire Challenge
  53. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How to Prepare for a Book Reading Event
  54. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: It’s NaNoWriMo and NaNoEdMo Time
  55. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Help! I Didn’t Reach My NaNo Goal
  56. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Beat Self-Doubt in 2017
  57. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Female Horror Writer and Proud
  58. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Don’t Let Self-Doubt Make You Miss Deadlines
  59. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Hey! Where’s My Book Reading Audience
  60. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: 5 Tips on How to Ignore the Negative Voices
  61. Video Refresh: Rejection – The Ugly Word
  62. Video Refresh: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Learning to Juggle
  63. Video Refresh: To Dump or not to Dump
  64. Video Refresh: Keep The Faith
  65. Video Refresh: Finding Your Identity
  66. Video Refresh: 5 Step plan for success
  67. Video Refresh: The Planning Issue
  68. Video Refresh: The Crossroads
  69. Video Refresh: The Overwhelming Effect
  70. Video Refresh: The Waiting Game
  71. Video Refresh: Am I A Real Writer?
  72. Video Refresh: Taking The Next Step
  73. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Let’s Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway in 2019
  74. Video Refresh: Submission Phobia
  75. Video Refresh: Dealing With Fear
  76. WIHM: Setting Self Doubt on Fire: The Female Horror Author Reading Challenge
  77. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Writer or Author? Video Refresh
  78. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Beat the Fear of Self-Publishing
  79. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: Do NaNoWriMo Differently This Year
  80. Setting Self Doubt on Fire: How Can Online Groups Help Writers?
  81. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire – AuthorTube – Learn How to Describe Emotion
  82. Setting Self-Doubt on Fire: How to Set Realistic Goals for NaNoWriMo

Hey, everyone, the self-doubt-fighting writer is back! Where have I been? Well, fairies abducted me and brought me to their Pinkfey Kingdom, and because I’m so pinkalicious, they begged me to become their Queen Pinky — the original queen fell down a well and turned into something resembling that chick from the film The Ring.

So for months, I ruled their Pinkfey Kingdom, and… okay, okay, that’s a load of crap. But, the real reason just isn’t as interesting. The truth is I was unwell, but I won’t bore you with all the details here — I explain all on my blog. But now I’m recovering it’s time to return to my self-doubt fighting ways.

So, what do I have for you today? I am going to talk about how you can beat the fear of self-publishing.

Self-doubt makes you feel like you’re not good enough, so the thought of self-publishing your own stories (or poetry) will terrify you — I know it terrifies me. For some of us, the submission process is a test of our abilities. If you make it through and an editor or publisher accepts your work, then your work must be good enough.

With self-publishing, you don’t have that test. And, the only way you know if your work is good enough is if readers read and review your work — yep, scary thought, right? The thought alone will fill your mind with so many questions: Will people hate my story? Did I publish too soon? Will people buy a book from me again? With these questions swirling around your head, self-publishing will no longer look like a good idea.

Well, we can’t have you giving up now. I have recently experienced self-publishing for the first time. And, I put fear aside (it wasn’t easy, but I did it) and allowed the world to judge my baby (I’m referring to my book. I don’t have a real baby). How can you do the same? Well, my fellow self-doubters, I have some tips for you:

  1. Start small. If fear often cripples you, it might not be a good idea to jump into self-publishing a novel-length piece — diving into the deep end might work for some, but others (like me) might benefit more from paddling in the shallow end first.

 

So, if you’re like me, I suggest you try publishing short stories (or flash fictions) on your blog or story sharing websites like Wattpad. Then you can see what people say and take on board any feedback to help future projects. Believe it or not, there are some people out there who will give feedback to help you improve and not to tear you down. Sharing your stories this way might even help you find a readership.

Then from there you can try publishing a short story collection e-book and work your       way up to a novel.

  1. Find beta readers to check your work before you publish it. If you’re part of a writing group, you can ask the members to be your beta readers. This will help you to spot any issues before your book ends up in the hands of your readers. You’ll also get valuable feedback, and any positive feedback will be a boost to your confidence.

 

 

If you’re not part of a writing group, you can find writers online, or you might know people who love reading. What’s important is that you get honest feedback.

 

There’s also an option of hiring an editor to edit your work for you. Having your book professionally edited will be good for your book, but it’s not something that we can all afford to do.

 

  1. Fear of something can often be reduced by gaining knowledge of what you fear. So, find out as much information as possible about the self-publishing process. This will allow you to find out how to avoid mistakes and how to make the process easier. You can also read about other author’s experiences of self-publishing, and this will allow you to see that you’re not alone in your fears.

 

  1. Seek support. Sometimes all you need is someone to listen to your concerns. And once you have got your fears off your chest, you’ll find yourself feeling more positive. So, if you do need to talk, then reach out to your loved ones or a writer buddy, either off or online.

 

  1. Just do it. Like I mentioned in my ‘Let’s Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway in 2019’ post, sometimes the best way to overcome fear is to do what scares you. So edit that book, format it correctly and press on that publish button — of course, don’t forget to give it to your beta readers first.

 

When it came down to publishing my e-book, I kept checking all the details I had entered, even though I knew I had entered everything correctly — I was trying to avoid pushing the publish button. But, I knew I had to just do it. So, I pushed the button and threw my book into the pool of hungry readers. I have to admit it was a huge relief when I finally did it.

So, there are my tips. I hope they help you to beat the fear of self-publishing and share your amazing stories with the world. If you have any tips of your own, please comment below. I’d love to hear how you push fear aside.

For those of you who are interested, my e-book, The Book of Drabbles, is available to download for FREE from Smashwords and any other e-book retailer.

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”– Vincent Van Gogh

 

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