The Fear Of Failure

Who's ever had a fear? Come on, you know you've had some kind of fear in your lifetime. We all do, but how do you handle that fear. When I started writing many, many years ago, the biggest problem was I had a fear of publishing. Why? Well, think about it, it's putting yourself out there. You're putting your name out there, your reputation and sometimes your creativity. Ok, so I have fears. I've had so many writers message me about this. They've written one or more manuscripts, but they fear publishing it. I always tell them to go with their heart. If they get some people to read their work and they like it, then go for it. Here's a list of reasons I feared publishing and sometimes still have a couple: 1. I feared what others would think. (I've gotten over that. Now I just don't worry about it as much. I've learned to just write what I love and put it out there.) 2. I feared putting my name on something that would go all over the world. Actually it's been a blast. Have only had a couple of weird encounters, but mostly have gotten over this one. 3. Crazily enough, a fear I still have every time I hit publish is that I've accidently downloaded the wrong file and it will be the character list or outline and not the manuscript. I did actually put the wrong cover on CreateSpace one time, but when I did the file check I discovered it and made the correction. That was a close one. 4. Reviews. You may think this is the same as #1, but it's not. This is the fear of the dreaded bad review that just makes you feel so deflated. But I've learned to deal with those also. I've only had a couple of bad reviews and fortunately if anyone reads the review they'll realize that in some instances the person didn't read the book to begin with. One bad review was because the characters names were the same as one of my older books. Really! One fan said a negative review of one of my books actually caused her to get the book and she loved it. Funny how things work out. 5. The fear of complete failure. It's so real in every author's mind when they publish their work. What if nobody buys my book? I had that fear at first, but as the sales went up I realized that maybe that wasn't a fear worth having. I'm not a bestselling author, but I'm pleased with the sales I've had. Since I've only been publishing for a little over a year, I can't complain. Well, what's your fear when publishing, writing or even blogging? As always, good writing and May God Bless You...