Moving through my fear of self-promotion

I’ve spent the last 2+ years (mostly) joyfully working on my book. But now that I’m getting closer to my planned release date, I’ve been noticing a growing bubble of anxiety in the pit of my stomach. I love my book and I believe in my book, so I want people to give my book a chance. That means I’ll need to get the word out there and the thought of promoting my own work makes me want to barf.

If you’ve chatted with me recently, you’ve already heard my anxiety bubble up to the surface. It’s pretty much all I can think about these days, so I release my fears in tiny spurts here and there. I’m scared. I feel squirmy and resistant. At the same time, I also know that no one actually cares what I do in terms of book promotion (i.e., no one’s ever thinking about me as much as I am). I recognize that my ego and inner critic are at work here.

One of the ways I’m trying to move through my fear is by creating a book promotion bingo card. My friend Katelyn sparked this idea when she wrote about her own therapy bingo card. I thought this would be a fun way to motivate me to do some of the self-promotion activities I’ve been dreading.

When I thanked Katelyn in person for sharing her idea, she recommended that I create two separate bingo cards—one for pre-launch and one for post-launch. I thought that was a fantastic suggestion, so here’s my bingo card of pre-launch book promotion activities! I kept these activities small, achievable, and relatively easy, because I’m all about using baby steps to build confidence.

As you can see, I’ve already completed some of the activities, which feels sosososososo good. It just so happens that all the completed items are clustered in the same area so I nearly have a row (not planned as I nerdily randomized the items). I’m aiming to complete 80% of the card, which works out to 20 activities including the free square. No prize except moving through my fear.