Episode Description:
In this episode of "What If? For Authors," Claire Taylor tackles the anxiety-inducing topic of book launches. Drawing from her experience as an Enneagram coach and her own author journey, Claire explores the fear of a book launch failing and how it affects different Enneagram types. Whether you're launching your first book or your tenth, this episode provides a compassionate and realistic approach to managing your expectations and emotions.
Key Takeaways:
A book launch's success or failure doesn't define your book's long-term potential.
Understanding your Enneagram type can provide valuable insights into how you handle book launches and their outcomes.
Develop self-compassion and curiosity when setting expectations for your book launch.
Conditions outside your control can affect your launch; recognize and respect these factors.
Celebrate your accomplishments and take care of your well-being on launch day.
Why Listen? If you find yourself anxious about book launches or feeling overwhelmed by their potential outcomes, this episode offers a thoughtful and empathetic perspective.
Links Mentioned:
Sustain Your Author Career - Available June 13th
Join the Conversation: Have a question or fear you'd like me to explore? Reach out to me at contact@ffs.media.
Access the transcript for this episode here.
Happy Writing!
Transcript:
Claire: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of What If for Authors. I'm so glad you're here. My name's Claire Taylor and I'm an Enneagram certified coach for authors as well as a humor and mystery writer. My new book for authors, Sustain Your Author Career, is available on all your favorite and most hated retailers June 13th.
So depending on when I end up releasing this episode, which I don't know yet, it might already be waiting for you to purchase and read. I would say that I'm much less of a smartass in it, but the depth of information in it is pretty good. So if you're listening to these episodes and want to go a little deeper, That book is the place to go.
Or you can read my other book, Reclaim Your Author Career. They've both proven pretty useful to authors, apparently. On to the actual content of the show. What's today's anxiety, you may be wondering? Unless you read the episode title where it spells it out. , well today we're going to ask the [00:01:00] question, What if my book launch is a dud?
In other words, what if you pour your heart and soul and a dump truck of cash into a book release To launch it up to the charts and then the book simply flops. It doesn't do what you wanted it to do. It fails to meet your expectations. This fear is so important to look at because it can keep authors from even trying , around their releases. Maybe they hit publish, don't bother telling more than a few people. And then deep down, wonder why their career isn't where they wanted it to be. Or on the flip side, they put a lot into launch and then it doesn't make them immediately rich and famous.
And they emotionally crash and burn as a result. I've seen both. , and I've actually lived both ways to some extent, so this is a no shame zone. As with any of these patterns that I point out in these episodes, if you spot it in yourself, that's not a call to feel ashamed, but rather a summons [00:02:00] to curiosity.
Where did you pick up that pattern? Where did it work well enough to protect you that you decided to keep it going? And do you still want it? Because if you don't still want to keep it around, you do actually have options here. You can start the work of trying new things and developing new neural pathways instead. Yay! Neuroplasticity for the win. So our patterns aren't us. We exist beneath these patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, which is great news because it means we can throw out any of those patterns that are keeping us stuck.
Bye bye. I know that this can work and that we can do this because I do this, uh, all the time now. I didn't for a very long time and life started sucking and feeling very cramped and so then I figured out that this was a thing I could do and I started doing it. So now I'm constantly noticing patterns of thinking, feeling, and doing on the daily, like [00:03:00] oh shit, that's unfortunate.
I don't think doing that aligns with my values. I should probably knock that off. And then over time, I figure out how to knock it off. It's great. And that's obviously an oversimplification because there's a lot of work that goes into quote, knocking off unquote, a single unwanted pattern, but it's possible.
And I found quite worth the trouble. And you probably already know what I mean, because you've noticed a pattern and decided to knock it off and interrupt it over time. We all do this occasionally. We just learn how to be a little bit more intentional with it. Okay, so launches. When I think of book launches, I think of dreams, desires, great expectations, without any burning wedding dresses.
, When discussing launches, I see a few themes emerge that lead me straight back to, you guessed it, [00:04:00] the Enneagram. First, I see a discussion of core desires coming up, that's kind of where my mind goes. I also see things like identity coming into play, idealized self, as well as that unholy chasm between expectations and reality.
I also see things like idealized self, as well as that unholy chasm between expectations and reality.
I wanted to spell one big myth though, which is that a book's launch is indicative of its earning potential over time. So I've launched books to absolute crickets before that eventually found their readers and continued selling well over a period of time. My Jessica Christ series fell into that category.
So the launch, , did almost nothing. I did everything I knew at the time, , to tell people about it and build that buzz, but it released and the sales sort of trickled, but it wasn't, it wasn't great. Then another author told his readers about it and another and then I ran some promos on it And then I figured out [00:05:00] how to use ads Anyway over the course of maybe six months the book gained momentum That this would be the first book and then the first I think four books were out by the end of the six months That's when it really all of it took off So the books gained momentum Until I started having some pretty solid sales months from books that I had been told there would be no broad audience for.
Now granted this was back in 2016 2017 and things worked very differently than in a lot of ways, , particularly in indie publishing. And Yeah, the sales for that series have since fallen off for I think a lot of small reasons adding up, but most importantly, I don't advertise those books as much anymore because other series of mine get a better ROI on ads.
So I put my money toward the thing that gives me more money. But my point is the same. It wasn't the launch that created the success for that series. [00:06:00] Meanwhile, , I have certain series where I can get a really good launch out of a book and then I just can't keep the sales up over the following months.
It drops off pretty quickly, , no matter what I've tried. And maybe I haven't tried everything because we know that, of course, I haven't tried everything. But from what I've tried, the effort I've put into it, Behind it, this is just a thing that kind of keeps happening with, , books in this particular series.
So, a strong launch doesn't tell you much about the earning potential of a book over the long term, just like a weak one doesn't. And of course this is anecdotal, and I only talk about my stuff to illustrate the point, but this is also the case over larger sets of data I've seen and with authors I've worked with, so there is a broader sampling I'm speaking from.
If your book launch is a dud, if it falls flat, uh, being disappointed about that, I think it makes sense. It's a very normal response. But if you notice yourself projecting that [00:07:00] disappointment onto the future of the book, like thinking, oh, it'll never earn back the expenses, then maybe interrupt those thoughts.
Try to keep the disappointment limited to the present circumstance, and don't project it into the future to also dash hope. Dashing hope can be very demotivating. And then you've created a self fulfilling prophecy for yourself, right? Because you don't believe that the book has earning potential. And that leads you to not take the necessary action to nudge it toward making money.
Now, what I've talked about up till now is mostly for indie authors. I understand that if a traditionally published book launches to crickets, that can actually mean that the future of the book is pretty much squashed because the publisher won't continue to put any money into marketing it. You may also not be offered another contract with them after a dud of a launch, even if the failure to launch was all the [00:08:00] publisher's fault from not marketing the book effectively.
Even still, if that's the case, all is not lost. So some of the very practical things you can do, check the contract to see when you can buy or request your rights back for the book, , then plan on doing that at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, you can always write another book. If no publisher will take it, they've seen that, oh, they released this book with this publisher and it didn't do anything, well, welcome to the wild world of indie publishing.
We are so glad you're here. Enjoy control over your own marketing destiny. So, on a surface level, there are plenty of options to move forward after a book launch. It doesn't meet expectations. You have many options and paths forward. And yet, it may not feel that way. So, why not? That would be the inner work that I won't shut up about.
That's why not. , [00:09:00] having options and feeling like you have options. are two different things. It can be really helpful when you feel like you don't have any options to remember this. So maybe you repeat to yourself, right now I don't see any good options.
I have faith that the options are there, but I may need help seeing them. Then if you can, Ask yourself who might help you see them, right? We do a lot of this work all on our own, internally, no one else can do the internal work. But we need support from other people to do it. So it's okay if you can't see the options, as long as you feel like you have someone you could ask to help you see some options.
And then you're open to listening to them. Okay, so as authors who are humans, We have this tendency to put a lot of stock into particular [00:10:00] moments. We build up these expectations that the outcome of this or that will pass a verdict on whether we're worthy, loved, competent, supported, or even good. Did you Enneagram sleuths catch that?
I was just listing off core desires of the types. Worthy, loved, competent, supported, good, right? These aren't all of them, but these are some of them. So, book launches tend to be just such moments where we wait with bated breath to see if we are the thing that we really want to be. So we attach our sense of self to the success of the launch.
And that's maybe not the wisest approach because it hands over how we feel about ourselves to external results that are influenced not only by us, but by an unnameable number of external [00:11:00] conditions.
I'm not going to say that the effort we put into our book launch makes no difference. It does, but it's not as simple as effort in equals success out. And I say that knowing that the idea is really going to bother Enneagram 1s, 3s, and 5s especially, who are all competency types, which means that they deal with conflict, by simply trying to be better at what they do.
But we all want to believe we're in control of our destiny, no matter what type. And I get that, trust me. I. Get. That. I did not go softly into the night when it comes to accepting how little control I have over the external world. , as a one I'm an autonomy type. So my deep hope is that if I just live perfectly enough, the world around me will bend to my will.
So there is a dark side to the belief that we have control over the results of our efforts. [00:12:00] And that is that when those results don't turn out the way we want, a failed book launch for instance, we blame ourselves first. So our inability to control the world around us then tells us something mean or rude about who we are and what we're capable of accomplishing.
Or rather, that's how we interpret it. It doesn't inherently tell us that. So if you have total control over results, then it follows that you must also assume total responsibility for any poor results. On the flip side, if we presume to have no influence over external events. We may give up completely and that's not great for your career trajectory either.
So there's a middle approach here, but it takes practice because it requires us holding some tensions, some internal tensions and polarities to be able to proceed with this middle approach. we can't fall too [00:13:00] far one way or the other. Even when the siren song of believing we have total control reaches our ears, or that ghostly voice that whispers to us to just give up because nothing we do matters.
We've got to find the little middle point between those two poles. Now, this middle approach looks like understanding that our actions may influence external conditions. Influence, not control, influence external conditions. But we can't know to what extent that they will. That may look like if I ask other authors in my genre to email their readers about my book release, it will influence some ideal readers to check out my book.
But I don't know how many, and there's always a chance that the other author will forget to send it out. So anyway, you can use that kind of influence a bunch of times over to increase the odds That you will sell books. [00:14:00] But you have to accept that your influence will not necessarily lead to a specific result you're hoping for.
One of the greatest tools we have as authors is curiosity. So if you find yourself in a place of certainty about results. Like thinking this will definitely work, then that's a good opportunity to pause and try and switch your internal dialogue from that to, I wonder what this will do. So no two launches are ever the same.
And just because a tactic was effective last time you launched a book does not mean it'll work again. You're not entitled to the same results. And that sucks. But it's true. That's reality. So even if a tactic led to, let's say, 500 sales the last three times you used it during a launch, that doesn't mean that you can count on it with certainty again.
So what I suggest is that We practice saying, I wonder [00:15:00] how effective it will be this time. And then we inspect the results afterwards, like a scientist. We can do a post mortem.
So this mindset will do a lot to keep you from being blindsided by your own lofty launch expectations if, and probably when, they're not met. So you don't have a set expectation, so you can't be let down. You're still committed to trying, because you'd like to sell copies of your book, of course. But you're going about it with curiosity rather than certainty, and that makes such a difference.
It doesn't do the whole job though, because even if you're practicing that approach, there's a good chance that deep in your heart, you're still wishing for a miracle. Maybe you're even expecting it. Maybe you feel like you're due a miracle after all the time you've spent in this career, getting less than ideal results from launches.
I get that. And I find that speaking to that part of us that hopes so [00:16:00] dearly, speaking to it as we would a small child who we love, Not one of those shitty kids who can't stand speaking to that part of ourselves with the compassion that we would use for a child We love that goes a long way toward understanding what's going on.
So you might say yes I know it would feel very good to sell a thousand copies on the first day Wouldn't that be fun? Even if that doesn't happen You've done great work and you have a lot to be proud of. So that sort of thing, right? Like we're talking to a kid here and I know this is going to sound obnoxious.
What I'm about to tell you, but trust me that it does help with your nervous system regulation. And we need a lot of nervous system regulation around launches. So when you're talking to this. part of yourself that is hoping for a miracle, , Place your hands over your heart. I know place flat palms over your heart, close your eyes, as you speak to this part [00:17:00] of you.
You may feel goofy, but do it for the sake of that little kid. Okay, so yes, that's inner child work to some extent. It's like inner child work Light really, and listen, we get there eventually with this Enneagram stuff because these patterns are picked up early in life and when we adopt a belief about ourselves or the way the world works, when we're like five, our understanding of that belief often doesn't develop beyond the unrefined understanding of a five year old. So we have to meet it where it is. So if you talk to that belief like an adult, that's not going to work. You got to talk to it like it's a five year old if that's how old you were when you learned it.
For instance, uh, one I hear a lot from people is that you can't rely on anyone to help you out. It's all on you. First of all, that's so heartbreaking. And most people learn this when they were very little, maybe their parents didn't show up to help or were absent or [00:18:00] incapacitated and , the kid had to make their own meals or get themself to the bus stop or make sure daddy made it to bed every night and so on, which is.
Tragic, tragic, right? If someone learned that belief at eight years old, me showing them statistics, otherwise that, that disprove their belief that you can't count on anyone else. That ain't going to do a lot of good because eight year olds are notoriously shit at understanding statistics. Anyway, that's where some of the work of assessing and removing patterns of thinking, feeling, and doing can get kind of tricky. So if you want to dip your toes into inner child work and you haven't before, I do recommend the book The Child in You by Stephanie Stahl. She has some useful exercises to get you started and can kind of walk you through the basic concepts of this work.
So outside of the inner child work, you can also direct your attention to the Enneagram's idealized self for each type. And you can read more about this in depth in Dr. Jerome Wagner's book, [00:19:00] nine lenses on the world. But basically there is this thing that we want to be able to feel about ourselves. We spend a lot of time trying to convince ourselves that we are that thing.
And our sense that we are not that thing drives a lot of decisions. For example, if you are an Enneagram two. You're doing a lot of work to believe that you're helpful and giving because the idealized self you want to touch is that you are a helpful and giving person. Meanwhile, a five wants to feel like they're wise and perceptive.
So they spend a lot of time trying to convince themselves and the world that they are. We're each so desperate to protect our idealized self, in fact, that we do a lot of work to distance ourselves from every part of us that doesn't fit this ideal. So if you're a 3 whose self looks like, I'm efficient and successful, then every part of you that [00:20:00] disagrees with that or contradicts it, Your failures, your lack of motivation, and so forth, will be shoved into a closet and locked away from sight.
This is being locked away from sight of not just others, but yourself. So opening that closet and looking around is what we call shadow work. Those are the blind spots. Anyway, we sort of look all over the place for evidence that we are our idealized self, and some situations seem especially ripe for finding that proof.
Here it comes, bringing it back around because for authors, book launches are one of these places. Book launches are these easily isolated moments with measurable results. So they feel perfect for confirming or You know, less flattering, denying that we've met our type's ideal. If we let this happen without interfering, if we allow ourselves to attach that significance to the moment of a book [00:21:00] launch, then a book launch becomes so much more than a book launch to us.
It becomes a big old verdict. It becomes an existential matter to us that we meet or exceed our expectations. It doesn't have to though, nor do we really want it to. Right? . So again, we have a choice about this, but the first step to making that choice is learning to pause and notice when we're doing the thing we don't want to be doing.
So if you're coming up on a book release at some point in the planning and then probably again, after the release, consider asking yourself the question I'm about to list off to you that's associated with your types idealized self. Okay. So just ask this ones ask, how am I hoping that the results of this will confirm my rightness and goodness?
Twos ask, how am I hoping that the results of this will [00:22:00] confirm that I'm giving and helpful? Threes ask, how am I hoping that the results of this will confirm that I'm successful and efficient? Fours ask, how am I hoping that the results of this will confirm that I am special and conform to elite standards?
Fives ask, How am I hoping that the results of this will confirm that I am perceptive and wise? Sixes ask, How am I hoping that the results of this will confirm that I am loyal and do what I ought to do? Sevens ask, How am I hoping that the results of this will confirm that I am okay? Eights ask, How am I hoping that the results of this will confirm that I am powerful and can do what I intend to do?
Nines asks, how am I hoping that the result of this will confirm that I am settled? And then maybe follow up the answer you get with, [00:23:00] could I be that thing anyway? Could I also be okay? With not being that thing? The last two questions might take a bit of inner deconstruction and possibly coaching before you hit on a definite yes, but go ahead and ask them anyway.
So
I will give you a little bit of a spoiler here. That yes, you will be okay no matter the results, but to get to the point where you feel that you'll be okay despite the results, that's a different matter. But if you want to, for now, you can just trust me that you'll be fine. So sometimes a book launch is just a book launch, but sometimes it's a verdict on who we are.
Or at least it feels that way, and that's where we get into the tricky stuff. But once we deconstruct some of our fixed beliefs about it, and stop taking it as a judgment of who we are, we can pretty easily answer the question of, what my launch is a [00:24:00] dud with, Then it's a dud and I'll be fine. I'm not out of good options yet, even if I can't see them without help.
I'll leave you with this final piece of hard earned wisdom by the time you make it to release day. See if you can have already scheduled everything that absolutely needs to be scheduled. It doesn't have to be all the things.
Just what is required. See if you can have done what needs to be done. If you're an indie, that's uploading the manuscript. That sort of thing. And see if you can do that so that you leave yourself very little to do on the day of the release. Then, during that time, go celebrate the release of a new book.
Take yourself out to coffee. Go have a nice lunch or dinner. Go see a movie. Or even just go for a long walk and sort of revel in your accomplishment. You wrote a book. You published it. There were undoubtedly times [00:25:00] during the creation of it where you struggled, but you pushed through. You did what most people only ever talk about doing.
And then you have the courage to push it out into the world. So what a strange and wonderful thing to be a storyteller. We get to string words together and then we get paid for it. What a silly and delightful hobby. or career. So not only do you get to do it, but You've done it. You wrote the book and now it's out there and people can pay you money to enjoy it.
The results of the launch don't change any of that. That has already happened once you hit publish. So what I recommend is to go celebrate..
So that's it for this episode of the What If For Authors podcast. If you want to reach out to me, email me at contact@ffs.media. And I hope you'll join me on the next episode where I [00:26:00] show you that there's probably no reason to worry at all.