In early 2008 I began to write a book about anxiety. I mapped it all out on a large white board that I could add ideas to whenever they popped into my head. It was a big task. The map got quite out of hand.
And then I did what I always do with a new project. I created a word document and named it with the project title. I then created a new page for every chapter and then created a table of contents. I have found that by doing this, the project comes to life and all that remains is to populate the pages with content.
So, this is what I did next. Content. The book was written to serve three purposes. The first was to provide people with an explanation of what anxiety disorder is, including what’s going on in the brain of someone with anxiety disorder. The second was to tell my story – the story of how I developed and then completely recovered from anxiety disorder. The third was to review the best available scientific literature on the best treatment for anxiety disorder – and this was the more technical part of the book. It required me to undertake extensive research and I ended up reading and reviewing over 100 scientific papers for this book.
People often ask me how I fit all this stuff into my life. Well, the book was literally squeezed into all the spare moments that I had – either sitting on a bus or sitting in a cafe. Then there were the many late nights. I wrote this book the traditional way – and it took the traditional time to write it – about 12 months.
And then – I let it sit there. And it’s been sitting there finished for a couple of months now. I’ve set up a website at which you can purchase the book – but I haven’t done much promotion as yet. And from talking to many authors, this is a classic tale. As an author, you exert yourself to complete the project and then heave a sigh of relief that it’s complete. But then you realize that writing the book is only just the beginning – because next comes the marketing.
A book that isn’t marketed is a book that doesn’t really exist. And so now I have some time available again, I’m gearing up for the marketing phase of this project.
I decided early on that I would self-publish this book. I also decided that i would make it available primarily online. That’s because as a health professional, I had consulted many patients with anxiety disorder who would never buy a book about anxiety at a book store – because that would be a public admission that they’ve got anxiety. Often, these people hadn’t told anyone that they had anxiety disorder and I was the first person they’d told. I decided to make a book available online – because that’s where people were searching for information.
Why did they tell me? I mean, I’m not a psychologist or counselor. Well, because I’d had anxiety and recovered, and because I’m not embarrassed and can talk quite freely about it, then patients would open up and feel safe to tell me. We’d often end up having a bit of a laugh about anxiety disorder (you’re allowed to laugh about it once you’ve officially had it).
So, Anxious But Happy is about to get some serious marketing. You can check the site out at Anxious But Happy or you can purchase the book right here:
Yes please Nic, I’d like to get hold of this book right now.
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