Holy sh*t, people are reading my book

So, my publisher (St. Martin’s Press) is doing a giveaway of advanced copies of PEOPLE WHO KNEW ME on Goodreads. There are a couple days left, FYI. This is the second Goodreads giveaway. They did one a little while back and readers are starting to post… GULP … reviews.

A while back, Stephen Colbert interviewed Jesse Eisenberg on his foray into writing and, on the topic of publishing and putting his book out there, Eisenberg said, “I have the competing feelings of ‘I want everybody to read this’ and then…’I hope no one ever reads this.'”

I totally understand this sentiment.

Sharing my work is both exciting and terrifying. Exciting for obvious reasons, terrifying because I am not sure what people will think. I shouldn’t care what people think, right? Alas, I am not that evolved as a human yet. I’m also not evolved enough to avoid reading reviews completely. I’m a new writer and, yes, I’m curious what people think of my writing. I bow down to those who can resist the temptation to read their reviews. At some point, I will need to learn this skill. It’s probably necessary for sanity.

Thankfully, the few Goodreads reviews I’ve gotten so far have been very positive. A few snippets:

“The narrator’s story grabbed me immediately. The story is told from alternating time perspectives, starting with the events that caused the narrator to fake her death and then again starting her new life with her new identity. The characters in this book are developed very well and are very realistic. The life issues that this book deals with are extremely relevant. The author’s writing style is very thoughtful. She makes many random observations about people’s traits and life in general that cause me, the reader, to pay attention to every sentence she writes.”

“Well written story with vibrant characters, interesting premise with believable outcome.”

“I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway. I really liked it. I could not have handled her life as Emily did, but it was very thought provoking. So many ‘what ifs’.”

(Note: These reviews are not written by my friends or my mom. I swear.)

I should probably celebrate these kind words and call it a day on reading reviews. I know the Internet is full of mean people with snarky thoughts. I need to brace myself. I’m comforted that there are at least a few people who think my book is good, worth reading. That gives me warm fuzzies. There have been many times when I thought my books wouldn’t be read by anyone except my husband and my mom, so this whole process is rather surreal and makes me feel very shy and self-conscious. My editor says, “This is not the time to be shy.” Gulp, again. This is going to be a wild ride.