(Bonus points if you sang that title, because that song—specifically the Pitch Perfect mash-up—has been stuck in my head for days.)
While I have plenty more writing-related newsletters in the works, I promised myself that they wouldn’t all center around writing advice. So, since I always appreciate it when authors give a peek behind the curtain, that’s what I’m going to attempt to do this month.
Spoiler alert: The inside of my head right now is mostly just a swirling vortex of to-do lists set to a sped-up version of the Parks and Rec theme song.
With my book coming out in November (official release date and cover reveal coming soon!), right now is when all the behind-the-scenes work gets intense. Because this is my first book—and I decided to do everything the hard way in order to (hopefully) set myself up for future success—this is the point in the process when I’m establishing accounts and applying for a vendors license and researching tax implications and ordering proofs that could arrive in anywhere from two days to four weeks. Maybe someday, once I’ve got my head wrapped around all of this, I’ll make a checklist for other first-time writers, but for now I’m not at all confident I’d be giving good advice. Or even making coherent sentences.
The biggest problem I’ve found is that this process is not just a to-do list, but a flow chart: I can’t do this until I’ve done that, I can’t do that until my cover designer does this, I can’t give my designer this information until I’ve registered for that account, but I can’t register for that account until I have a finished and formatted manuscript, etc etc ad nauseam. I never thought that writing the book would be the easiest part of this whole process.
Don’t get me wrong, writing the book wasn’t easy. I just didn’t have a deadline, so it didn’t matter how long I took. I could stop if I felt like it, or I could rewrite everything at any point. Now that this is becoming real, now that I’m committing to decisions and getting ready to release my baby to the world, I’m stressed, y’all. I’m worried that I’ll miss something or mess something up on the back end and I’ll be saddled with fees or miss my release date. I’m worried that once the book is out in the world, no one will read it or buy it. I’m worried people will buy it and then they’ll hate it. I’m worried about copyright infringement and AI nonsense and bad-faith actors in the world. I’m worried that I’ll actually find success and not know what to do with it. The list goes on.
On top of just book things, my nine-to-five has entered a busy and stressful season (because of course that would happen at the same time), my friends are getting married and I’m in the wedding, and all the rest of my friends are packing end-of-summer shenanigans into the next four weekends. It’s a good problem to have, and I am both happy and lucky, but my little anxious introvert soul is feeling the compounding stress. I’ve been going on lots of nature walks just to stay sane.
I don’t say this to talk anyone out of publishing, because I’m confident that once I get past all the admin, it will be a worthwhile and fulfilling thing that I’m doing. But optimism only carries you so far, and the reality is that doing the whole publishing process yourself is a certified pain in the butt. The only things getting me through are the unfailing support of the people I love and the knowledge that in a little over two months, I will be holding my book in my hands, and other people will be reading it and enjoying it and giving it to the people they love.
So yeah, no real advice today, just an update and a reminder to give your friends a hug and to take a second to enjoy your own accomplishments. It’s easy to get sucked up into the stress and forget to see how far you’ve come. No matter what you’re working on or where in the process you are, take a breath, take a minute, and look at how far you’ve come. Then pat yourself on the back and get yourself a little treat for it, because you deserve it.
Stay excellent,
Kristen Sommers
XOXO
Kristen Sommers 