Fear of publishing is real

You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind. -Dale Carnegie

I’m sure a famous writer and lecturer such as Dale knows what he’s talking about, but I’m still having a hard time with a certain “fear of publishing”. I’ve looked it up several times now on a list of phobias – I can’t find it. It must exist. I have it! I have found agateophobia – fear of insanity; could be a related disorder. Also on the list: allodoxaphobia – fear of opinions, arithmophobia- fear of numbers and atychiphobia- fear of failure. That’s just the A’s, folks. This could go on forever. Yet nothing on the fear of hitting the Save and Publish button in Amazon KDP or Submit for Review in CreateSpace.

Now as to what’s holding me back: why fear? My mouse has hovered over Save and Publish twice today. It’s visited the Amazon KDP Bookshelf several times this week, and not just because I was checking sales. How else can I explain why I have a book that’s ready to go, post-beta reads and edits, yet I refuse to make it available? At first I rationalized it as, “The release date isn’t until November. Takes Amazon and the other online retailers a few days to make the title available. Why can’t you just wait?” Yes, I have conversations like that in my head. It helps that I know some psychologists.

Potential sources of fear? No clue. I’m not afraid it isn’t a good story. My trusted beta readers have assured me it was worth their time. Nor do I worry about the opinions it will generate. I’ve stopped reading reviews for a bit now. People will either like or hate it but that won’t change the story.  Strangely enough, I have been telling anyone who would listen, “I’ve spent more years than I wanted to on this book and its prequel. Time to let it go!” Somehow, I just can’t seem to do that.

Just a note to the psychologists I’ve mentioned above: fear of publishing is real. You might want to assign a named phobia to it. At this rate, I’ll be checking into your office SOON. Actually, I know some folks with upcoming release dates, so I might be referring a few friends.