I have a lot of friends who are debut authors, and listening to them panic about the things that debut authors panic about makes me nostalgic. You see, with my fourth book coming out, I panic about completely different things. I thought it might be fun to look at the differences between what I panicked about then vs. what I’m panicking about now (or, in some cases, absolutely not panicking about).

And hey — getting this all out here is cheaper than therapy. So let’s jump into it.

1. As a debut author, I was super stressed about hosting exactly the right launch event.

With my fourth book…yeah, I’m not doing that. Maybe I’ll order a pizza. For me. I do like pizza. Nobody else is invited.

2. As a debut, I refreshed amazon rankings every two minutes to see how I was selling.

With my fourth book, I know that they only update that thing like once an hour, so you don’t have to refresh every two minutes. Every ten minutes is fine.

3. As a debut author, I was really worried about reviews because I wanted to know how readers and reviewers saw my work.

With my fourth book, reviews just confuse me. Like when somebody says ‘this is better than his previous work,’ how am I supposed to take that? I feel like this is the literary equivalent of a teacher telling a parent that ‘your kid is definitely better than he was last quarter.’

4. As a debut author, I was really worried that my book wouldn’t sell and my career would be over pretty much before it started.

Totally different with my 4th book. Now I’m worried that my 4th book won’t sell, and my career will be over after 4 books. (Okay, this isn’t true. I have two more books under contract, so it won’t be over until at least 6 books. Still worried though.)

5. As a debut author, I was really worried about finding exactly the right promotional thing that would push my book to the next level.

With my fourth book…LOL. Nothing works. Or, if it does, nobody knows what it is. So I’m just going to do some random stuff and see what happens.

6. As a debut author, I was pretty convinced that people who told me that they liked my book were just being nice to me.

Yeah…that hasn’t changed.

7. As a debut author, I was nervous about following reviewers back on twitter. I thought that if I followed them, maybe they’d be less likely to review my book…maybe I’d look desperate. Or maybe it might be seen as me trying to influence them.

Do you know what book reviewers talk about? Books. You know who really likes books? This guy. I follow who I want. They’ve got a block button if they want to use it, and I know how to respect a soft block.

8. As a debut author, I was really worried about what I did or didn’t talk about in publishing. After all, there are supposedly these big secrets, where if we talk about them, we get shunned.

With my fourth book…yeah, I don’t care. I’ll talk about anything I want to anyone I want. Have for a while now. You know what? Nobody has ever said anything about it to me. There’s been no sit down in the metaphorical publishing steam room to tell me to stop airing family business. And to be clear, I’m not advocating airing your displeasure with every single thing in the business that bothers you. I can’t imagine that would be a good look. But a lot of the things we think that have to be secret? In my mind, we’re over-cautious, especially when it comes to sharing with other authors.

9. As a debut author, I was worried that everything had to be perfect, that any little hiccup could doom me.

With my fourth book? I recently learned that my paperbacks are being delayed due to supply chain issues. My response? Eh. What can you do? I mean…is that a good thing? Probably not. Is it the end of the world? Also probably not. And regardless, it’s nobody’s fault, and there’s nothing I can do to change it, so I’m not going to worry about it.

10. As a debut author, I was really nervous about self-promotion. I thought people would get sick of me. Maybe even unfollow me.

Now? Yeah…my book comes out tomorrow. I’d really like it if you bought it. Here’s a giant picture of it. You can find the buy links here.