I Hate Publication Day

It’s UK publication day for Daughter of Genoa. This is a heart book for me, and working on it has been particularly intense. But I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed pretty much every stage of the publication cycle (yes, even edits).

Today, however, I’m stressed and miserable. I deliberately booked my holiday for this week, because I know how pub day goes for me, so I’m being stressed and miserable in a beautiful foreign city. (Later, I plan to eat some arancini and go to the spa.)

Here’s the thing. Lots of authors love pub day. And that’s a totally reasonable response. Whether it’s your first or your twentieth, it’s hugely important when a new book goes out into the world. So if you want to celebrate, you should absolutely revel in it.

But if you want to hide under the bed on pub day and pretend it isn’t happening, you’re not alone.

You don’t need to justify your feelings. You don’t need to do anything but be gentle with yourself and, ideally, engage in some self-care.

Just in case it’s useful, I’m going to offer a few reasons why you might be finding pub day hard, and some strategies that might help you get through it.

In this post, I’m speaking as a traditionally published author, and at least some of my advice is bound to be specific to tradpub. But indie authors might find bits of it valuable, too.

Hiding can be self-care.

Speaking strictly from my own experience, one major factor might be this:

You’re grieving

You’ve spent at least a year, likely more, living with your story and its characters. On pub day, it officially passes out of your grasp and into the wider world.

It’s completely natural to mourn the end of a project that’s been the centre of your creative life. And given the intensity of the writing process, chances are that you’re also depleted and tired (more on that below). For some authors, publication day is the moment all those feelings come crashing in.

How to reframe: The reality is that you finished work on this book a while ago. That “last pass” proofread really was your final opportunity to change anything before the book went to print (and even then it had to be minor, and seriously justified). And don’t forget those ARCs! At least some people out there have already read your story and reacted to it.

Publication day isn’t the day you “lose” your beloved book. It’s just the day you say goodbye.

So if pub day feels funereal, why not lean into that? Cry if you need to. Listen to sad music, or watch a comfort film. You could even have some kind of ritual, if it helps. Your grief is real and valid, so take the day as an opportunity to make space for it and mark your book’s “passing”.

As I mentioned above, it’s also quite likely that …

You’re bloody exhausted

The adrenaline slump is real.

I don’t need to tell you that publishing a book is hard work. It’s also never just one book.

If you’re writing to contract – or you’re actively looking for the next one – you’re probably well into another project by the time pub day rolls around. And you’re likely doing this on top of other, equally demanding commitments, since very few of us earn enough to write for a living. That’s before we add in any personal, family or health challenges you have to face.

Sometimes, pub day is the moment when the exhaustion hits. It’s like running a marathon and then collapsing once you cross the finishing line.

How to reframe: If you feel burned out on pub day, it’s a sign you need to refill the well.

Now, this is incredibly easy to say to someone who has to juggle multiple, high-demand commitments in order to live and keep creating. That’s why I hate when people say it to me. And I’m not going to tell you what to do about it, either.

But I will encourage you to find ways, even small ways, to replenish your energy. That might be about taking a holiday or a duvet day. It might also be about reviewing your schedule and adding an activity that makes you happy, or dropping a commitment that isn’t really worth the bandwidth.

Whatever you do, take those feelings of exhaustion seriously. A medical checkup might also be a good idea, since there are physical factors that can make tiredness worse.

Emotional factors can play in here, too. For example, if …

You feel helpless

On publication day, it seems like everyone around you wants to know “how the book is doing”. And you have absolutely no idea.

Yes, we hear a lot about those instant bestsellers: the books that get so much buzz before publication that the preorders alone boost them into the stratosphere. But the vast majority of books have a much longer “tail”. It takes time for them to build momentum through reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations.

What’s more, Amazon sales rankings (for example) don’t update in real time. It takes a while for those first results to filter through. So even if your book makes a strong start, it’s unlikely you’ll know very much on the day itself.

That’s why, for some of us, pub day feels like a bleak reminder that we have no idea how our book is going to perform – and no real control over its future. It’s easy to start feeling helpless.

How to reframe: Unless you’re one of the very few instant bestsellers, you probably won’t have lots of exciting data to celebrate on pub day. This is especially true if you’re a debut or early-career author, so you haven’t yet built up an audience of readers who will automatically buy your next book.

Publication day isn’t a make-or-break moment. It’s just the first day of your book’s long, long life.

But people outside the industry don’t always understand that. When non-writer relatives, friends or colleagues ask how the book is doing, it’s a good idea to have a stock answer on hand. Oh, it’s much too early to tell. Fingers crossed!

If you’re feeling helpless, it might also be useful to spend at least part of pub day doing something practical, with a clear outcome. Like knitting or gardening, or cooking, or writing a blog post about how much you hate publication day. But remember:

It’s just another day

How much you actually have to do on publication day will depend on your publisher, their expectations, and the strategy you already have in place. You might spend a lot of it online, interacting with your readers on social media. Or you might be totally free to do as you please, within the limits of your day job and other commitments.

Whatever the case, and however you feel about it, pub day is just one moment in the long process of your writing career. It might feel huge, but it really isn’t.

So if you’re finding it all less than thrilling, don’t worry. Do whatever makes you feel better, and keep your eyes on the horizon. Your book’s future is still ahead of you.

And in the meantime, have another cat pic.

Doesn’t that feel better?