Author’s Nightmare

I wake up from a dream about holding my first published book and breathe a huge sigh of relief. Thank goodness it was just a dream! My subconscious is completely weird. For one thing, I’m holding the book and making all kinds of edits to it–needed edits–then realize I’m screwed because this is the real thing, the published book. The cover gives me a co-author. Now, I co-authored a book with my critique partner years ago, but my CP has a normal, English-sounding name, not a name out of the Prague telephone book, all consonants and diacritical marks. To top it all off, my author bio was for someone else. So not only is the story bad and the book’s parentage in question, no reader who likes it will have any idea what I’m actually like.

Please tell me real publishing is not at all like this…