How to Stop Overthinking and Start Publishing
Why you should let yourself be a beginner and begin badly
A peculiarity of writing for a living is that success can make you more reluctant to take risks.
When you’re starting out, you have little to lose. Your first book is probably a mess, nobody knows who you are, and no one expects much from you.
But after you’ve published a few books, built an audience, and earned some street cred, the prospect of starting over can feel intimidating.
You can recognize good writing. You’ve learned to spot rookie mistakes. And you know how much you still don’t know.
So the prospect of launching a new series, experimenting with crowdfunding, or starting a YouTube channel gives you pause.
Maybe you brute-force past the inertia and start doing research. After all, you keep telling yourself, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. But not you; you’re going in prepared.
And six months later, you’re still preparing.
Therein lies the problem: You can’t get good at a skill you’ve never let yourself be bad at.
KNOWING TOO MUCH
A first-time novelist can write a terrible first chapter without recognizing all its faults. An experienced author live streaming for the first time enjoys no such blissful ignorance.
And because he can recognize, if not yet replicate, professional presentation, he compares his first attempt with a bigger YouTuber’s 100th.
That comparison is guaranteed not to flatter.
An established novelist branching out into a new genre faces the same problem. Different fiction conventions make different demands on the author, requiring that he flex underused muscles.
Yes, prior achievements may shorten the learning curve. But they won’t eliminate it.
The temptation is to put off trying until you’ve gained enough knowledge to perform at the level you’re accustomed to. Yet much of the knowledge you need can only be acquired by making the attempt.
And, sometimes, failing.
YOUR FIRST ATTEMPT IS FOR LEARNING
Lets imagine you’re planning your first crowdfunding campaign. You study several other creators’ successful campaigns from reward tiers to shipping costs.
Not even a year of intensively studying other campaigns will show you how your audience will respond to yours.
Maybe you get a ton of follows that convert poorly to actual pledges. Then, those who do pledge want signed hardcovers more than the paperback you’re featuring.
You had no way of knowing until you took the plunge and hit launch.
After that, even a disappointing campaign can ferret out weaknesses in your positioning, presentation, or promotion that no amount of speculation would have revealed.
That’s not to say you should go out and fail on purpose. Preparation has its place. And that place is to reduce your risk by the greatest extent possible with a reasonable amount of time and effort.
As a rule of thumb, if a new endeavor could make you, and you’ve de-risked enough that failure won’t break you; do it.
START SMALL ENOUGH TO FINISH
Here’s how I’d deal with the urge to overprepare for a new publishing venture: