Unpublished but not Forgotten

In order to relaunch my series, I had to delete my products on a certain unnamed massive retailer where I publish my books. The actual process was easy. Just straightforward clicks.

But it took my three days to do it.

The moment I hit that final “unpublish” button, I would lose my reviews. Granted, I didn’t have loads of them to begin with, but every word of that feedback was precious.

Reviews matter for sales and algorithms and all the marketing things I’m still working on, but that’s not why I value them so much. Nor is it the reward of positive reinforcement.

Every person who picked up my book and left a review took minutes out of their day to share their opinion about my story. My characters. My writing. Things that have occupied my time and brain power for years.

With how much I consume every day—news, social media, content, and my favorite, snacks—I hardly ever take the time to leave feedback about products I love or detest.

It was always a surprising joy to see that a reader took the time to review one of my books. I felt relief that my story was worthy and deep curiosity about what parts stuck with that person. At my heart, I’m just a nerd excited to share my nerd-world with other nerds.

Clicking that last button would delete all those words readers shared with me.

So I procrastinated the necessary unpublishing. As I said, three whole days. I did keep screenshots of those reviews, but no one else can see them anymore.

When I looked at my newly blank dashboard, though, I wasn’t sad. In those three days, I realized that if those reviews made me so, so happy, then the next ones would, too.

One of my favorite lessons is that nothing gold can stay. My life has proved it true time and time again. All good things come to an end. It sometimes feels like it happens more and more the older I get… but that’s the key to it, isn’t it?

No matter how much I lose or let go, my life is still full of the best and brightest of things.

Turns out, there is always room for more of the golden good stuff—reviews and otherwise.