Note I do not say this was an easy or smooth book launch–just that it was painless. 😉 I’m actually sitting down to write this blog post fresh from dealing with Amazon’s author support associates, who insist that my book editions are published and linked seamlessly . . . on their Australian site. Their American site–you know, my main market–is another matter. But instead of making me pull my hair out, the experience so far has made me laugh.

Why?

Well, let’s back up a minute. In March, I wrote about book release burnout and how I handle it. Back then, I was dealing with the release of Worthy in Love (my seventh book, but first dedicated romance), and I did . . . okay. 🙂 At the time I tried hard to follow my own advice, which was to treat myself, work on a different project for a while, and release all those pesky book-related anxieties. To be honest, I was a ball of stress and Valentine’s chocolates leading up to that book launch; in a way, the anticipation was much worse than the down time afterward.

I bring that up because I think it highlights an important difference. Last week I released Cinders to Dust, which is the latest in my main mystery series. In part because it’s my primary series, I was far less worried about it than I’d been about Worthy in Love. That, I think, is the first key to a painless book launch: the initial approach. It’s like a roller coaster. You can either cringe and cling to the rails as the coaster goes up that first ascent and nears the drop, or you can sit back and think, I’ve basically done this before. My seatbelt’s on, I’ll be fine.

Now, if you like roller coasters, maybe that tip sounds obvious to you. But I have a healthy fear of all carnival rides (except that one where you sit in a swing and it twirls around quite peacefully), so this has been a revelation. If book burnout and painful book launches are due in part to all the expectations and worries, just don’t let those worries get to you in the first place.

But that sounds a little like saying “just don’t be scared,” right? Cute, but practically impossible. I didn’t set out with the launch of Cinders intending to “not be scared” or “be less stressed.” My lack of worry was a symptom, not a cause. And now that I look back, I think the root cause was my focus on myself.

Let’s look at that for a minute. Because that also sounds silly, doesn’t it? Especially if, like me, you’ve spent most of your life focusing on others and thinking that’s the only right thing to do. We assume self-centered=bad. But self-centered thoughts are sneaky. Fears like the ones I described in that blog post in March–fears that become needs like “this social media post about my launch should be popular” or “this upload must to go through successfully”–seem focused on outside things, like followers or book distributors. But they’re actually very egotistical. The reason I felt those fears and needs so desperately was that, deep down, I’d identified the success of the book launch with my own worth. If it wasn’t super popular or perfectly smooth, then I’d done something wrong, and therefore I was bad. Me, me, me. Stress, stress, stress.

After all, who else does an indie author have to blame? And of course the fallout of all that anxiety about my very self would be difficult!

That was my seventh book launch, and the ones before it, too: tying the weight of the book launch to my self-worth without fully realizing it, and then struggling to let things go afterward. So how was Cinders different, especially since I said I was still thinking about myself?

This time I was consciously thinking of myself. Instead of being mess of subconscious anxieties about others’ thoughts and me doing something wrong, my brain was saying, hey, that book was hard to write. Now it’s done and all we have to do is publish! How do I feel? Do I have the energy to do a full Instagram campaign? I could just take part in an existing IG challenge; that’s enough to get word out, especially since the algorithm’s been weird lately. I’ve had better response in the past from my newsletter subscribers; let’s focus on doing fun things with them instead. Let’s hang out for an afternoon. After all, it’s unlikely that distributor will approve everything on the first try; I know that. I’ve done this before . . .

Notice that the expectations were lower (read: realistic, not super-human) and the focus was more on what I’d accomplished than what might soon go wrong. Basically, instead of cringing and making myself into a stress ball and eventually bouncing right out of the roller coaster and falling into burnout, I sat back and just slid right into launch day.

And did everything go perfectly? Absolutely not. (The fact that I’m dealing with Amazon support is proof enough, haha.) And do I care? Sure, I do. It is annoying that IngramSpark hasn’t finished uploading my paperback to Amazon US, and it’s even more annoying that I can’t just go behind the scenes and do it for them. But that’s the point. This delay is just a fluke in their systems, or perhaps a stroke of lightning from the software gods saying “hey! don’t take us for granted.” And whether strange luck or divine spite, it is still not my fault.

Let’s go back to the stressy, burnouty launch example above. All my anxieties eventually came down to me and my worth, right? So essentially, somewhere in the dark corners of my brain, I spent the entire launch looking for ways I was at fault. And what I’ve realized while launching Cinders and actively paying attention to myself is that that’s what hurts. Looking for your mistakes, in fact assuming that you will do or have done something wrong, that you’ll fail–that is what makes book launches painful.

Put another way, IngramSpark was never out to get me, but I certainly was.

I’ll be the first to admit this is heavy stuff. None of this came out of a sudden revelation or decision to “change my mind.” Each book launch has been part of a journey for me–a behind-the-scenes journey of coming to terms with, and accepting, myself. I will say that I think there’s a reason Cinders was the launch where I realized I couldn’t blame myself for not achieving super-human results or astounding everyone with my work. Cinders to Dust is my cozy mystery-take on Cinderella; and if Cinderella isn’t a story about a girl who is over-identified with her work for others, then I don’t know anything. 🙂

The main takeaway here, the best piece of advice I can give you to achieve that painless book launch, is to pay attention to how you feel then act accordingly. Seems contradictory if you’re trying to avoid pain, but bear with me! If it’s before launch day and you’re scared of burnout, take time to examine–and adjust–your expectations. Give yourself some grace. If it’s after launch day and you’re in the midst of burnout, try taking a look at what actually happened. Look at your launch the way you’d look at a friend’s book launch. Can you see how some of the things you blame yourself for are not things you’d blame a friend for? Alternatively, if you’re just tired and feeling a void where your book once was, then get some rest and do something fun. 🙂 In the end, it all comes down to you.

And there is nothing wrong with that. After all, there isn’t anyone else around to be the author you want to be, is there? 😉

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