News Flash! Most authors are embarrassed by their first book. I certainly was, and as sure as the sun rises every morning, you will be too. The positive spin of this non-ego stroking exercise is that you will learn loads from the failings of your first book, and your next book will dramatically improve.

For more years than I care to admit, I worked in sales and marketing. During that time, I developed an extensive number of products for the retail market. Many of my products found their way to store shelves, but the percentage of those that failed—miserably, I may add—exceeded my successes. That’s not to say that the unsuccessful products weren’t good, it was just missing something. It may have been competing with a similar product that was marketed better. It may not have sold because of price or, or, or…

Bottom line is that there’s always a reason why it didn’t succeed. The key is to find out why and improve the next idea. Only by putting the product on store shelves, and getting criticism from paying customers was I able to learn how to develop a better product.

So, go ahead and publish that first book. Put it out there, and accept criticism as a learning tool. Accept that not everyone is going to like it and that in the age of anonymity criticism comes easy for people to dish out.

The smart writer or marketer, which is essentially what you become when you publish your work, turns their failures into a fact-gathering mission. They don’t allow their wounded ego to deter them from becoming a better writer.

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