Fear of Failure

I once read an excellent book by James N. Frey called The Mother of all Attitudes. I highly recommend it to all of you out there who are unpublished writers. The most important paragraph in the whole book was about developing an attitude. Frey says you must become "by God possessed,maniacally determined to make it as a writer", that it was when the writer became "afraid they would fail" the fear lead them to develop an attitude.

The approach to publication is exactly that. Your fear of failure. And there's also the fear of achievement as well. I sometimes wonder if I might have a bit of this as well. "What if I do publish this book? Then what?" A slue of things come to mind. Things I would have to do to promote it. You get a book out there, it's not going to magically have some beacon on it to lure readers to it.

I've got my first self-published book, Spell of the Black Unicorn in several so-called publisher's sites, none of which have helped the sales. Author's Den proved to be a hoax, as far as I'm concerned. And a few others didn't help at all. It might be that people aren't aware of it, or that the cover makes them wonder what is this? A children's book? I'm not sure what the problem is. It's an adult light fantasy about a sorceress, Zofia, who is originally from another planet, stuck on Earth trying to hide out from a deranged sorcerer, Vesselvod Blood, who wants the Stone of Irdisi. With the stone he will gain back his powers. Zofia is the keeper of this stone and can't let him have it.

The elements of the book sound typical of most fantasies, but the difference is it's quite zany. I took elements from one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Bewitched and created something that is entertaining, has plenty of witchcraft in it, as well as a bit of sci-fi, and I've a mystery to unravel. And, of course, there is the romance angle of her husband returning to her--not as a sorcerer, but a vampire. This gave me lots of opportunity for the danger, as well as humor to add to this book.

So, the fear factor, what if I fail, is still with me. I've failed with the first book, barely made back the amount I spent of self-publishing, but I guess I didn't know how to promote it.

Maybe I'll do better with this next one, Vampire Ascending, which will also be an eBook.

I recommend Frey's book "The Mother of All Attitudes", for those of you out there struggling, feeling depressed, or wondering if you have a chance at success. You need the attitude that you will, by God, be published. If you don't know my story, keep on hunting around. You'll find in on any of my blogs here at blogspot.

Have a great weekend, everyone!