Disappointment

One of the most difficult things about writing a book - any book - is the fear.

Will readers be disappointed?  Will I deliver content that they want to read?  Will they be satisfied with the price they have paid for the book?  Will they tell their friends it's good...or bad?

I am not alone in feeling this.  I follow a number of authors on line and most of them, in one way or another, have to grapple with this fear of failure.

A work of fiction takes - typically - a year, sometimes longer.  Technical books can take a lot longer.  A friend was involved in writing a textbook for higher mathematics on a rather esoteric aspect of the science and it took them (there were three as I recall) three years from conception to publication.  She got the first actual in print books last month.

An archeologist I follow on Twitter is in the process of writing a book on latest developments in her science and it took her a year to write it with publication date next August (last I heard).

It's been a while since I've purchased a weaving book and when I went looking realized that publishing a book in such a small market means that prices simply have to be higher.  As I've gone through the publishing website crunching numbers I was trying very hard to keep the price as low as possible, but realized that it was going to take forever to pay off the cost of publishing the book. Feedback from people who have commented here and on Facebook has encouraged me to go a little higher.

But every time I notch the price up...the fear returns.  Will I price myself completely out of the market?  Will early purchasers be disappointed?  Will they tell their friends to not bother?  Sell their copies at huge discounts, just to get rid of it?

Ms Editor says she is very near completion of the ready-for-review version of the ms.  We have asked three people to read it and - if they feel it worth it - provide a cover blurb.  Another has agreed to read and provide an introduction.

My friends have kept me going forward on this project, helped me push through the fear.

And you, gentle readers, have responded to the survey in a way that a) warms my heart and b) ramps up the fear.  Will you all be disappointed?  Or will you find it helpful?  Only time will tell...