So this is what it feels like? The birth of a book! A lot less messy than birthing babies. But still quite emotional, quite satisfying, quite exhausting. Thank goodness the whole giving-it-a-proper-name part is already done. I mean, in the heat of the moment I might have panicked and gone with something like North.
I have been dreaming of this day for a long time now. The cherry on top of the sundae. The tangible manifestation of the work. Almost as if it’s the end of a long journey. And in some ways it is; but in most ways, it is only the beginning because now starts the selling, the marketing, the promoting. The groveling.
Regardless, I feel stupendous, and you don’t often get to use a word like stupendous. And to think I almost (almost) gave up on this whole project. My friend Jennifer Jones Mann wrote a wonderful piece on perfection. It hit home and resonated deeply. Among other gems, she wrote, “Often, we wait for the right time, the perfect situation, the ideal weight or the best of whatever it may be. Some of my greatest accomplishments were when I acknowledged that things were not perfect but moved ahead anyway.” That captures the way I feel about choosing to go ahead and self-publish, to do the work myself, when the “perfect” dream of publishing traditionally didn’t turn out, well, perfectly.
As I get older and as I embrace fully what it is I want to accomplish in life and who it is I want to be, I understand more thoroughly that waiting for the perfect is a waste of precious time.
RELATED POSTS
From Self-Published to PUBLISHED!
You Want My What?
My One-Word New Year’s Resolution
Leave A Comment