FEAR: “I’M AFRAID MY BOOK WILL MAKE ME LOOK STUPID.” ALTERNATE EXPRESSIONS OF THIS FEAR: • “I’m afraid I’m going to look stupid.” • “What if I get all one-star reviews?” • “What if everyone who reads it, hates it?” • “What will people think if there’s a typo?” • “I’m afraid something will be wrong with my book, and I’ll look stupid to everyone I know.” HOW THIS FEAR WILL IMPACT YOUR BOOK The biggest unspoken fear that I believe (virtually) every author has is that they will embarrass themselves. I saved this for last because almost every fear above boils down to this one. This fear is very rational. For many professionals, writing a bad book is actually worse than writing no book at all. This is because for someone with a certain level of status, a bad book will hurt their career. For others, it goes even further. For some, the book is very attached to their identity. They see the book as an extension of themselves, and they are worried that if the book isn’t well received, then it means they will personally look bad. No one wants to look flawed to their peers, especially with something as personal as a book. This fear can get so bad, people will literally forego the tens of thou- sands of dollars they pay us to help them write a book—all because they’re afraid to hit the final “publish my book” button. I’m not exaggerating at all. We have authors who will work for months, do all the difficult editing and revisions, go through the entire publishing process, and then, when there is literally nothing left to do besides give the final approval, will completely ghost on us. They can’t face their fear that the book isn’t good, so they avoid even talking about it. ThE Six fEArS yOU (COUlD) fACE WriTiNg yOUr BOOk · 37