Release day is quite possibly the most nerve wracking moment in any author’s career. No matter how many times you go through it, the nerves are a buzzing as your novel starts to go live across the world. As an author you’ve spent hours, days, months, possibly even years finalizing and tweaking your story, pouring your soul into the words on the page. When it’s finally published and out of your hands, you’re sharing part of yourself with the world at large and waiting on their reaction and reception is one of the most gruelling moments of your life. Sitting there, staring at your computer screen, waiting to see the initial sale numbers, watching the online rankings is almost a must. Waiting for reviews to start coming in is even worse. Not only are people buying your ‘baby’ but they’re telling you what they think of your work.
But release day count down is important on the reader’s side of the scale as well. I may be an author, but I’m also an avid reader. I stalk my favorite authors and know when their next releases are all coming out. I pre-order many of them, or show up at my local bookstore on release day to be one of the first to get my hands on a physical copy. I curse delays in release (even though I know that authors have lives too, and sometimes the unavoidable happens) and when I finally get my hands on that long awaited new novel, I binge read it that very same day.
Release days are exhilarating from both sides of the scale. As an author I’m lucky to experience it all, but in the back of my mind, I always wonder, do people look at my work the same way that I do with the authors I enjoy? What do you think?