Writing Your Book: 5 Common Fears

At Round Table Companies, we know that writing a book begins with being brave. Why? Because telling your story can be hard.

Believe it or not, there are five common fears of writing a book that nearly every author encounters at one point or another. Let’s examine them.

Whether you are a natural-born procrastinator, or you are trying to squeeze something in with your jammed schedule, the fear of poor timing doesn’t have to hold you back from the storytelling you were meant to do. First, you have to make the decision to be brave and say, “Enough!”

It is universally known that personal stories have the power to transform those who read them, but what if your story is about your brand, or your business? You might fear that writing your book will not have much of an impact on others. The best brand storytelling and business storytelling, though, is personal storytelling. It can transform others in many ways.

Because being vulnerable in storytelling means being authentically you. And sometimes that means uncovering parts of yourself that you may not have known before. This kind of vulnerability paralyzes many authors and keeps them from ever writing their book. However, your personal experiences make for a unique and authentic story that cannot be replicated.

So you’re afraid books are old school. That, in this digital age, a book might limit your paths toward reaching a wide audience. Why write a book when you can start an Instagram or YouTube series? You think: No one wants to sit down and stare at large blocks of text anymore. Thumbs are meant for scrolling, not turning the page! Well this isn’t true.

Perhaps the greatest fear of all is not about finding the best time to write a book or calculating the impact and value of publishing it. The greatest fear of all is believing that you don’t even have the right to write. The fear that you don’t have a story to tell in the first place, that nobody will want to read your book. There is always someone out there who could benefit from your unique experiences.