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Filling the Post-Publish Void

I didn't expect this.

It's been five weeks since I clicked "Publish" on Driven to Wonder.

That quick twitch of a finger was the culmination of three years spent thinking, researching, writing, fact-checking, permission-getting, photo editing, designing, copy-editing, planning, obsessing, and fearing.

Publishing is a High

Seeing my title listed with other books on Amazon was exhilarating. Announcing the book on social media felt like introducing a third child into the world.

The response has been rewarding. Comments, likes, and reviews are all positive (all five stars so far!) I've done a number of interviews for magazines and podcasts and there are more coming. Friends and family members have been anxious to get signed copies.

For a completely self-published book I couldn't ask for anything more. In five weeks it's already sold more copies than other self-published authors report.

And it's not like the project was done with that single click. Since then, I've published a Kindle version, put together a media kit, dressed up the Amazon sales page, and approached other media outlets about possible interviews.

But Also a Low

But at the same time I've been...listless? Unmotivated? Bored? Tired?

MsBoyink gave me a welder for Christmas and it hasn't been out of the box. It's sitting next to the Jeep parts I ordered months ago and haven't touched. My workbench is shiny and clean with all the tools in their places.

I keep wandering into the kitchen, looking for food I'm not hungry for. Or I scan my piles of sculpture-fodder, hoping some piece or part sparks the next project. Or I look out at the weeds in my landscaping and the bare spots in the lawn I never got around to seeding.

Then I'm back scrolling through social media feeds or checking Amazon for new reviews or #1 New Release badges.

Maybe it's just allergies, the summer doldrums, or cabin fever from too many days of it hot and muggy weather.

Or is it?

Post Publication Depression

A quick google search suggests that post-publication depression is a thing.

Monica Marlow describes the feeling as "an odd combination of melancholy and listlessness, a howl released into the night sky except echoing inward."

Commenters on her article agree with her, saying they unexpectedly felt let down, lonely, dismissed, unsupported, and irrelevant after publishing their books.

In old cartoons, characters like Donald Duck would often get conflicting advice from an angel and a devil:

The Artist and the Businessman

Instead of an angel and devil, I had an artist and a businessman.

The businessman had realistic and pragmatic expectations. He knew the statistics - millions of new books appear on the market each year and most of them don't sell well. He didn't expect the book would make any best-seller list, deserve a call from Oprah, or make the shelves of the local Sams Club or Target.

But the artist is a dreamer. He saw a market ripe for RV-related content. He saw similar books looking successful. He had a vision for this book and kept slogging away, doing the next right thing each day.

The businessman is still busy marketing the book. But the artist is twiddling his thumbs, wondering what to do now.

A Blog as Cure?

And, as it turns out, you're reading it.

I'm not sure I have another book in me. Part of me says I need to live a few more years in order to have enough new to write about.

Yet, I couldn't shake the urge for a place to write things that were longer than social media posts. And the most common advice for curing post-publish depression is to simply keep writing.

So it's back to old-school blogging.

Which is also unexpected.