You'll experience a lot of pain when getting through the process of self-publishing and you might get worried people will laugh at your book. Let me tell you the secrets that will stop you from worrying that people will laugh at your book.
Today's question has three answers and you're going to want to stick around for the third answer. Because I'm going to tell you the key solution to getting out of the embarrassment trap that we're going to discuss today.
So let's get into it. The question that was sent in or rather the problem that many of my students experience is, you're worried people will laugh at your book?
So you're considering you want to put a book on the market. You've written a book or are working on a book but you were thinking "maybe it's not good enough in terms of the quality is too low" or when somebody reads it they're not going to like you or what you're doing.
Then they'll end up laughing at exactly what you're doing and saying "well wasn't that very embarrassing?". And that pain of embarrassment is a motivating factor for many people that motivates them to do absolutely nothing.
That is you have this book that you've written and you want to edit it and edit it, again and again, to make sure that it is perfect. But then it never reaches the market because you're so concerned that somebody's going to laugh at the book that you're putting out there.
Now, this is very very common and that's what we're going to hit in today's article. But before we get into the answers, grab a copy of my free Self-Publishing Checklist. To make sure that you are not skipping any of the important steps that are necessary to win at the self-publishing game.
So let's get into it from my story. Worried people will laugh at your book? When I first started, I was interested in putting a book out there. But then I also was worried that maybe the quality of my book would be so low that people would not be interested in buying it.
Or worse, that they would tell me it's terrible or laughs at what I was putting onto the market. I had to work through this issue which is "what I am going to do?". How perfect does a book need to be to get out onto the market?
Well, I published the book anyway. I did of course edit it and go through some revisions to make sure that it was as good as high of quality as possible. But we published it and the thing is like everything you get mixed reviews that come back, some people are positive and some people are negative.
Virtually, most of them were positive. I didn't see that many negative comments but some negative comments were coming back. Then you have the next part of it which is "how do you deal with that?".
Take A Standpoint
And the thing is an expert commented that if nobody hates what you're putting out onto the market, then it's not of any quality. Because it should draw a line and take a stand for something that some people will rally around you.
Other people will shun you and hate what you're putting out there. Now we're not trying to purposefully draw trolls in towards ourselves. But this is an important issue which is that if you're not taking a standpoint.
For me, one of my standpoints here is self-publishing shouldn't have to be so difficult. That's one of the things that many of my students resonate with. Whereas other people maybe they like the complexities of self-publishing.
They would not be my crowd and they would be negative towards me. Taking this approach to break things down and keeping it simple. That would be an exact example of where you would have, some people who would be drawn in, and other people would be pushed away.
That is completely acceptable, even if they laugh at you it is not a problem. The thing is I look at the negative feedback as positive because they're not necessarily only trolls. Sometimes, people do find issues, spelling issues, or other issues with your books.
Or with other things that you're producing and you realize that you can learn from that. So with the next books that you're coming out, I would not suggest going back and continually improving your old books.
I would rather say better to come up with a new book than to spend all of your time on old books that are already on the market. So, worried people will laugh at your book? Well, those people aren't your target audience.
Check out this related article: You Don't Have The Time To Self-Publish?
If they are going to laugh at your book and so you should not be focusing on them. We're interested in people who are interested in you and what you have to contribute with your book. So those are the people we're going to need to keep our focus on.
The other thing is there are always trolls out there and also people who will get value from your books. So there are two different groups and the trolls were going to hate what you put out there anyway.
The more trolls you have, the more it shows you you're starting to make some traction in the world. People ignore irrelevant people, it's people who are influencers or starting to make traction. They're the ones who start to attract the trolls and that is completely acceptable.
Win Or Lose
So that's another key aspect here and the second group is the most important. Those are the people who get value from the books that you're putting out there. If you didn't do it they would not get that value.
Now you might be thinking, aren't there other books that provide the same value? And the answer is no, you provide a value that nobody else can do. Your voice is your voice only and nobody else can compete with that.
That is something that can't be taken away from you. You have to remember that some people will like it and some people will hate it. But the more we produce, the more people we reach and that will bring more negatives and more positive towards us, that is just part of the game.
Now, the secret answer of today is you need to set reasonable standards for yourself. Winning and losing is 80% ahead game. That is to say, the things that are going inside of your head are the things that are going to determine whether you're going to win or lose.
And if you allow your fear of people laughing at you with your book that you're releasing onto the market to influence what you choose to do with your time and resources, then you're never going to get it out and you're going to lose at this game.
So we have to understand that it is about putting our face out there and exposing ourselves to an audience to the world. And that means the positive and the negative. And if we are getting negatives, it's just a way of telling us "here are some things you can prove".
Or that we've got enough traction that we're drawing some negative attention which is okay. As long as you're not doing something negative to draw that negative attention. The quality of your books even a low-quality book can provide value to people on the market.
That is something that a lot of people just simply do not understand. So are you worried that people will laugh at your book? If you are, write the word "yes" below in the comments.
And if you aren't, write the word "no". That will help me know exactly where you're coming from so I can produce better articles. And check out my other blogs and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.