One of whom is in the same place I am with publishing her debut novel with a small press, and another who is in a writing group with me. I talked to two friends during the day on Wednesday. “I’m never going to have so many people invested in any of the worlds that I’ve created.” “I’m never going to be able to write anything like this,” I thought to myself. The series is so engrossing and the book so engaging that I don’t want to put it down. I tried to force myself through the motions of the day, and I did get some things done, but my mood only soured further when I picked up a book from a series I’d been reading to give my brain a break.

I cannot wait until my cover is officially released and I can start throwing it up. Having already been in a frustrated mindset, I finished that article thinking, “What is the point of submitting to agents? What is the point of continuing to try and figure out marketing?” I think what sent me over the edge yesterday was an article I read that was literally titled something like, “No One Is Going To Read Your Book.” It broke down the publishing landscape in stark and dispiriting terms. These are all relatively minor frustrations. I’ve been working on posting consistently, but it’s one more thing to cram into my day. I don’t have the physical book to market yet and social media algorithms constantly change. To me this is the most nebulous and frustrating part of the process. In addition to that, I’m trying to ‘build an audience’ for Ghost Tamer and muddle through social media marketing. These are things that I want to address right now. These are not things that I need to address right now. I have another piece I’m trying to decide what to do with, and then a new one just calling to me. I have one that I had planned to start sending out on submission with agents at the start of the month. This is my first book, I want it to be as good as possible, right? But man, am I tired of looking at it. I believe I’ve made all the changes that I need to, but I have to go back over the whole thing to be sure. I’m in the middle of my final edits for Ghost Tamer before it goes to production and I honestly just want to be done with it.

Ghost Tamer by Meredith R. Lyons