• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • about
  • design by insight
  • the growly books
  • self-publishing
  • connect

erin ulrich

writer. #genesiswp recommended developer. works best with coffee in hand.

day 31: for when you want to quit

December 13, 2012

31 days of self publishing - erinulrich.com

Miss a day? Visit the main post for links to each day.

In the midst of writing Self-Publish, I wanted to quit. Most writers would likely tell you it’s happened to them. And it’s probably happened to you. You reach a breaking point, and it feels like you just can’t finish what you’ve started.

It happened to me at the most illogical time. The writing was almost done. I had one chapter to go. One chapter. It’s funny looking back. I honestly felt like I just couldn’t finish. Two things propelled me forward:

  • I had a co-author to think about. I couldn’t let her down.
  • We had already announced the book’s release date. It would be horribly embarrassing to cancel the book entirely given that people actually knew about it.

So I finished the chapter. And we released the book on schedule.

Why on earth would I contemplate quitting after putting so much work into it?

Fear that it wasn’t good enough. Desire for more time to perfect what we had worked so hard to pen. A thousand little ideas—nagging pricks that we could have done this or that differently.

You will probably always wish your book was better. You could always revise and rewrite it again. But at some point, you have to call it complete.

So pour yourself into the writing process and give it your best shot. Have the book edited by someone who knows what they’re doing. Make it look nice with a great cover design and good layout. Then let it fly.

Because if you wait until you don’t have any of these feelings, you’ll likely never release your book.

It may not be perfect (and your next book will hopefully be even better). But it’s your book, and you’ve done your very best. And that, my friend, is a great accomplishment!

Thank you for joining me for 31 days of self-publishing! I hope you’ve enjoyed the series and that it has helped answer some of your questions. If you have any questions I haven’t answered, please let me know and I’ll consider them for future posts.

Filed Under: self-publishing

Want to receive blog posts via email?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Robert Atkin says

    December 13, 2012 at 8:42 am

    Hi Erin

    Thank you for the series. It’s been very helpful.

    Happy Christmas

    Robert

    • Erin says

      December 13, 2012 at 10:09 am

      You’re welcome! I’m glad it’s been helpful. Happy Christmas to you too.

  2. Chad Allen says

    December 13, 2012 at 10:37 am

    Enjoyed the series, Erin. Inspiring! Thank you.

    • Erin says

      December 14, 2012 at 7:46 am

      Thanks, Chad!

Trackbacks

  1. find a writing buddy - Erin Ulrich says:
    January 16, 2013 at 7:38 am

    […] shared before about how I wanted to quit while writing my book. It’s a common feeling. If you read that post, you may remember that […]

Footer

Connect

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No feed found.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to create a feed.

© copyright 2009-2021 erin ulrich • site by design by insight (that's me!)