The Girl Who Was Scared Of Everything started as a coping strategy. It was an outlet for me to focus my energy into something positive and worthwhile. It was something tangible that made me feel like I was moving forward.
In around November 2019, I showed a few people what I had come up with so far - people like my partner, parents and best friends. When they said they loved it, my natural response was to assume they were being polite, and brush them off.
But over time, as I shared the story and the characters with more people, I began to believe them - people actually liked it.
My partner Lewis gave me the final push to take the story to a publisher and see what they thought. I was absolutely terrified of being rejected, having poured so much of myself into the project - but by some fantastic stroke of luck, I happened upon the most excellent publishing company I could have hoped for (Mary Egan Publishing). They cared about the message on a personal level, and have continued to demonstrate this attitude throughout the process.
As a fairly recent grad, I didn’t quite have the funds needed to publish a book. I ended up raising a large portion of the funds through Kickstarter, thanks to 95 wonderful backers who put their faith in the project. Donations ranged from $2 to $1000, from a range of family, friends, colleagues, acquantances - all the way to total strangers from Australia, Israel, and the US. I was have been overwhelmed with support that, frankly, I still don’t feel I quite deserve!
So here we are now, with 3,000 books and a launch date of 30th July 2020. I’ve been working on this for over 6 months, and it all still feels like a lovely dream I will wake up from at any moment. But incredibly, it’s real.
During my teen years, whenever I was anxious about something, I would usually confide in my mum, who would invariably encourage me to face it.
I would ask “but what if something bad happens?”
She would often reply “well, what if something good happens? What if it goes really well, and you enjoy yourself? What if you have a great time?”
This whole publishing thing is really scary. But I’m having a great time.