I have to be honest, life as a self-published author is pretty scary.
Allowing other people to read my writing feels a little like letting them read my thoughts. After all, the storyline, the characters, not to mention those totally random conversations, all originated inside my head.
But the moment I hit publish, I made all of that accessible to anyone. And that’s one hell of a scary prospect because now anyone is well within their right to publicly voice their opinion on my writing. And I’m more than a little apprehensive about what they are going to say.
If you’ve gone the traditional route, you can at least be secure in the knowledge that an agent or publisher—someone in the know—thought your novel was worthy of being published. But as a self-published author, you’re often relying on the feedback and opinions of friends and family. And what if (in their effort to spare your feelings) they haven’t been entirely honest? What if they’ve omitted to mention that your writing sucks?
Well… I guess you effectively become the literary equivalent of one of those awful X-factor auditions. You know, the ones that make you cringe, the ones that leave you wondering why nobody ever told the poor, hapless soul they sound like a strangled cat before they got to the point of embarrassing themselves in front of millions of TV viewers.
But if that is the case, and it does all go tits up, I guess there’s one consolation… Olivia will be taking the fall on my behalf!