How I'm dealing with Publishing Anxiety

And yes, there is medication involved.

As you may know, my debut romance novel Match Me If You Can comes out with Penguin Random House on June 4. Less than two months!!!

So naturally, my nervous system has broken down and is in need of urgent maintenance.

I don’t understand why anxious, impatient control freaks (like me) end up in publishing, given how much panic it induces in even the most emotionally stable people.

But for some reason, here we are—and here I am.

Anyway, as soon as the calendar’s pages flipped to April, I became a mess. Gut issues. Anxiety attacks. Panic-induced crying. Because it felt so…real all of a sudden.

All I could think was: my debut novel—the sixth one I’ve written, but the first to be published—comes out in two months. I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know how many people have preordered. I don’t know if it’ll do well. I don’t know if my posting on Instagram is moving the needle. I don’t know how to give myself space to breathe instead of trying to control every uncontrollable variable.

I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.

Thankfully, I spoke to my psychiatrist, who prescribed a small but helpful dose of anxiety medication. And with my therapist’s help, I’ve come up with a Plan of Action to keep myself calm, composed, and maybe even optimistic about release day.

Swati’s Plan of Action™️ for Publishing Anxiety

Focus on the What-Is, not the What-Ifs

Sure, I can think all I want about the negative possibilities—what if readers hate my book, what if sales aren’t good enough to guarantee a book 3 release, what if I lose this one shot at author life before it even begins?—but that neither helps my anxiety nor benefits my book’s chances of doing well.

Instead, can I focus on the What-Is aspects of this anxiety-inducing journey? Reviews so far for Match Me If You Can have been overwhelmingly positive. My Instagram posts have decent engagement. I’ve gotten amazing blurbs from established romance authors. My publishing team at Dell/Random House are absolutely rocking it with their marketing and publicity efforts.

Just repeating these What-Is facts in my head helps in calming me down and reminding me that some things, if not all, ARE in my favor.

Continue doing things that give me a false sense of control

This may not apply to you, but because I’m a control freak, going with the flow, being in my ‘feminine energy,’ and detaching from the outcome + trusting the process sounds like an absolute nightmare. So I’ll keep at my social media efforts, whether they’re actually making a difference with preorders or not. At least I’m building an Instagram audience, finding new readers, and making full use of my Canva subscription. Right? Right????

Remind myself that this ISN’T my last chance, and I’ve already come so far

I have another book coming out with my publisher next year! I can’t say much about it just yet, but it’s proof that I have more chances to prove myself and find my footing in publishing. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon—and I won’t let imagined or presumed fears stop me from growing as a published author.

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Well, this is my Plan of Action™️ for Publishing Anxiety. If you’re also an author struggling through publishing, I hope this helps—and if you have any bonus tips for this anxiety girlie, please let me know by either commenting below or hitting ‘reply’ depending on how you’re reading this post.

Be sure to preorder Match Me If You Can and submit your preorder receipts using this link. There’s also a Goodreads giveaway happening through April 30—click here to enter!

Until next time,

Love hard & dream big 💛