First post of 2017 :).
Hope the year has been good to you so far.
A lot of thoughts have been running through my mind lately. For Ash’s book, the cover is being created as I type, and I’m SO excited. My cover designer said that I should have options to look at next week. Yay!!! Like ADORKABLE, this manuscript/book has been complete for a while, and I love it. No really, I love this book. I love the characters–Ash obviously, but the female MC is awesome. I relate to her on so many levels, and I really hope readers will love them like they did Sally and Becks.
And here’s where the self-doubt comes in.
See whenever I post about how ADORKABLE is doing on Goodreads or Amazon, I’m seriously not bragging. It’s because I still have trouble wrapping my mind around it. Why did all those people read, review, rate the book? I have no idea.
How did they find it?
What made them want to read?
Why did they give it a good rating/review?
Again…how did they even find the book???
My answer to all of these questions is the same: I got lucky.
Or at least that was part of it. As much as I love the book, as much time and effort I put into writing, editing, re-editing, researching, I’m pretty crap at marketing. I have no idea what I’m doing. Even with this post, I don’t know if it’s okay to tell people these things or if I should just keep my fears to myself. But here it goes:
I am afraid that my next book won’t do as well as ADORKABLE. There I said it. I’m afraid that readers who loved my debut won’t like this one–again, a book that I really do love so much. I’m afraid that the people who didn’t like ADORKABLE will read this one, and realize that yep, this is still the same writer whose work I hated the first time–which will undoubtedly be followed by a scathing review.
But I also know that I’m a tough cookie :).
I won’t let these fears hold me back. As I stumble/fumble my way through everything it means to be a self-published author, the one thing I will do is keep trying.
Anyway, I know ADORKABLE‘s success had something to do with luck (maybe everything). But I also know this (and if the majority the post was lemons, here is your lemonade): I worked hard, wrote a book that I loved and somehow, some way, it found its way into the hands and hearts of readers who loved it.
If that’s luck, I’ll take it.
Happy reading,
Cookie O’Gorman