Shameless Plug and Public Humiliation

My DH's book is doing well, at least in reviews.  He links to some others in his blog.

It's wonderful to see what people think about his work.  I'm sure it would be a lot less wonderful if people gave low star reviews.  I've often contemplated what it would be like to get panned or a snarky review in a major newspaper or high traffic blog.  At least on Amazon you're a shade on the invisible side.  Unless someone is looking for you or happens to do a search that will pull your book up (much more likely for non-fiction than fiction) and you turn up within the first few pages, you're not going to be on very many peoples' radar.  If your book isn't very well received, this is a blessing.  And books that aren't very well received are self-sorting.  Unless the publisher does a huge amount of publicity, if you crash and burn it'll be into a very small, relatively private region of hell.  But oh, what a special, ugly hell it still can be.  So I'm glad folks enjoy the book and find the information valuable.  And my advice is, if you want to be a writer, be prepared for the possibility that you may end up in the public eye in a big or small way that won't do anything good for your ego, not to mention it won't earn you much money.  

There are no guarantees in publishing.  It can be a lose lose.  As long as you accept that possibility and, if you end up there, plan to learn from the experience and write even better (under a new name, of course) then your persistence and attitude will eventually, hopefully, pay off.  You can make that experience work for you and hopefully you'll convince a publisher to take one more chance on you.  Your writing career can live to tell the tale.  This is easiest to do if you both believe in what you're trying to teach or express and if you allow for the possibility that you're wrong (or just a little off) or that you can't express yourself as well as you thought (or you couldn't reach through to a high enough percentage of the people who read your work.)

If, however, you expect success and giddy reviews and a fanfare, you may be setting yourself up for more than a disappointment.  Know yourself, know the emotional risks.  Walking with those unrealistic expectations in your eyes may prevent you from seeing the approaching cliff.  Believe me, it's better to climb down than fall off.  You may still end up in that special, little hell just for you, but it's easier to work your way out if you're not broken into lots of tiny little smoldering pieces.