Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. This seems to be the overall theme of my life whenever I aim to accomplish anything. What I am trying to accomplish gets achieved, sure, but along the way I am absolutely battered with unexpected bumps, bruises, and kicks to the head.

For instance, my book launch party for my debut novel is just a complete mess right now. Not only did I end up publishing my novel on the day Easter falls on this year, but even with my launch party being a week out, I won’t have any of the paperback copies available for people. Amazon decided to wait until nine days after I placed the order to tell me my payment didn’t go through, and now the books will be arriving on the 8th instead of the 6th (the date of the party).

*internal screaming*

While I didn’t expect self-publishing my first novel to go off without a hitch, I didn’t expect everything to just fall apart. Again, everything is still TECHNICALLY going to happen, but lord a’mercy, it is not gonna look pretty.

At times like this, I have to think about the reality of what the results will be from this mishaps. It will be a bummer not to sell and sign copies to people who attend the event, but I can always sign their copies later. When the books finally arrive, I can sign them and send them to whoever signs up to receive one. It’s not ideal, it’s not the “right” way to do a book launch, but I’ll still get to celebrate the launching of my book with all my guests.

Now I’ll know for future book lauches to 1) check to see if any holidays fall on the publishing date and 2) order my books weeks in advanced to make sure any delays don’t completely derail my plans. There a lot of tough lessons to learn on this journey of becoming a successful author, but at least I know I can learn them well.