Common Author Freakouts, Part 6: Immediately After You Say "Yes" to a Book Deal

The initial flood of joy might disappear fast; it might never arrive at all. But nothing is wrong with you, and nothing is wrong with the choice you made.

I told you the Common Author Freakouts series was over. I lied! I forgot that I had told not one but several authors that I would devote a post to the phenomenon known¹ as the Post-Book Deal Anxiety Tsunami, or “PBDAT” for short.² So here you go! Encore!

PBDATs are common, scary, and confusing.

If one is going to happen, it’ll generally do so 1-5 days after…