day 31: for when you want to quit

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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.