Should I have Given Away my Book for Free?

Mondays are for mistakes!

Today’s mistake continues my failed Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for my book and today’s specific mistake: seller’s anxiety. 


My third mistake was or is something I call seller’s anxiety.  It’s this distorted perspective when it came to people giving me money for something I’ve done or in this case, I hadn’t done but was going to do. I think that’s a struggle for most creatives- and believe me, I am playing fast and loose with the word “creative” when describing myself!
Seller’s anxiety has a hard time answering these questions:

• How do you value a book? 
• How do you value a painting? 
• How do you value a song? A service A product? 

I know the value of something is whatever someone is willing to pay for it.  I get that.  But when my book came out- or when I was raising funds for it- it felt weird to charge people for it.  I’m sure some probably wanted it for free and I also understand that side too as there are times I think I should get something for free. 
Yet there were real bills to pay with the book, or in the kickstarter campaign, real money to raise.  There are publishing services where you pay them to help you publish your book.  They provide copy editing, developmental editing and other services to make sure your book is actually decent.  Those services cost money and so I tried to raise the money to have a better product.  But I was anxious.  I wasn’t confident enough or bold enough.

Next week I’ll share why I had seller’s anxiety.