Butterflies in the stomach. My publisher is sending out what they call the Mondo Press Kits with advance review copies of my book, cupcake magnets and marketing material to about 60 people today, including THE Seth Godin, who not only has stopped by this blog a couple of times but who also contributed to the book and is generally an awesome, authentic guy.

It’s amazing that bestselling authors like Seth Godin, Chris Brogan and Dan Pink plus 57 more people will soon hold my work in their hands, and more amazing that they even agreed to review it.

But it’s that word that’s killing me: review. They are going to judge the book by its cover, its contents, its layout — everything. They’re going to catch typos (we spelled “charitable” wrong on Seth Godin’s page, and he caught it in the screenshot. Horrors!), examine my headshot (why is she with a piggy bank and a cupcake?), question my choice of tools…. whatever. Or they may flip through in a second, find it uninteresting and ignore it.

For whatever reason, I chose two professions with major exposure… author and speaker. An author prints thousands of copies of his heart and soul and spreads it around the world, completely open to criticism and perhaps praise. And a speaker puts herself on display in front of dozens or hundreds or thousands, has the job of entertaining people for an hour or so, then frequently gets immediate feedback in the form of evaluations about how she did. In both cases, there’s no shrinking away from how people feel about you. You’re putting yourself out there for them to tell you.

When I worked at McDonald’s in high school, the only person who really criticized your work was your manager during a quarterly review. I remember one time they said I was really good with the French fry machine but my uniform was too dingy so I wouldn’t get the full 15-cent raise I was due. I went home crying, and I started drycleaning my polyester uniform once every two weeks to keep it more spiffy. I ended up winning an award for my French fry prowess, but I still worried about the uniform.

After a presentation when I get my evaluations, I frequently read comments like, “Bring Beth back!” and “Most practical session I’ve been to in years!” But there’s always someone who writes something like, “Nice chick, but she talks about her ex-boyfriends too much” or “Session wasn’t what I expected.” And instead of focusing on the good stuff, I read and re-read the bad — obsess over them, even.

So now the books are out of my hands, and I’m inviting true scrutiny. There’s a chance that I won’t get unending praise from all 60 people. But perhaps a few people may really like the book, and a couple of people won’t. I have to remember to look at the big picture and not get hung up on a couple of bad reviews. And I also have to remember that Seth and Brian and Dan and the other 57 people are not judging me… they’re judging a book. And I am much more than this one book.

Yesterday was my monthly hair appointment, and my stylist says, “So, how did that Big Thing you were worried about turn out?” My mind started jumping about… What Big Thing was on my mind last month? A speaking gig? The book? A charity event?

I couldn’t for the life of me remember what I had been stressed about the last time I sat in her chair, in part because I’m worried about a whole host of other upcoming Things this month. There’s the book launch, the logo change, the potential speaking gigs I need to nail down.

Oh, and then there’s this little change I’ve made lately — I’m officially shutting down my copywriting biz and formally making the switch to being an author/speaker. Oh yeah. This is a Big Thing.*

When my stylist asked me about the Big Thing, I had two revelations:

1. Whatever I had been stressed about had come and gone, and the sun was still rising in the mornings and setting in the evenings. If you’re like me, you tend to see a Big Thing as almost insurmountable. It will come and consume you, and when it looms, it’s giant and all encompassing and it’s all you think about. But when it passes, it is over, and you forget about it.
2. My business life is a roller coaster with one Big Thing after another. This is an exhausting way to live. I get bunched up about the enormity of upcoming events and tasks without stopping to breathe, without stopping to plan. What if I planned ahead a little more to see those Big Things coming then recognized the tasks that would make those Big Things less big? I’d probably sleep better, stress less and be more pleasant to be around.

People tend to think other people think like they do and process information in the same way. So, in my opinion, all you guys are living on the same roller coasters with Big Thing obsessions and post-event forgetfulness. But I bet that’s not true. How do you handle the changes in your professional life? Do you live from peak to peak or coast along on a straight road, understanding that the Big Things you pass will come and go? What wisdom can you pass along to those of us who are getting a little dizzy from the ups and downs?

*More on the new career: I have been wanting to launch the author/speaker stuff for a while, but making a living as a copywriter was eating up my work energy. So I took the leap by taking a part-time temporary job with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which forces me to wind down my copywriting and let it go. When the part-time job ends, the book should be in full swing, and the transition should be complete. Mixed feelings. Tough transitions. And a few tears and sleepless nights. But change is good. Here’s the new site for the new career: AskBethZ.com.

I love all my little free tech tools and gadgets, but things break. I have a pro version of Xobni that isn’t hooking up with my account, so it only shows the free version. My Live Mesh file system is blocked by an antivirus program on my laptop, so the files don’t update. And I have a tangled mess of keyboards and mice on my desk because I bought some fancy-schmancy systems that use  bluetooth, and then the bluetooth got hosed up.

So I have all these little efficient things in place that are no longer efficient. This has produced a series of complicated little workarounds that are just downright annoying and time consuming. I’m using a wired keyboard and mouse, and I have to plug them into a USB hub that I use for a thousand things. So I’m forever unplugging one and replugging. And don’t get me started on the printer issues. Because we lost the wireless set up for one of our printers, I pretty much have to go to Kinkos to print something in color from the house.

I’d bet money that you have situations like this in your business…. little roadblocks that you’ve learned to work around instead of fixing. It would probably take half an hour to fix the Live Mesh thing, but instead I take an extra 5 minutes to wrangle files from computer to computer each time I need to sync something. If you add up the time I’m spending, it would be 30 minutes several times over.

Broken technology and little roadblocks are annoying, time-wasting and inefficient. So why don’t we feel like we can take the time to fix this stuff? When I go to print something, I sigh and get grumpy. I do my little workaround and promise myself I’ll fix the problem “soon.” Yet “soon” doesn’t come, and I keep cussing and dealing.

What’s on your business get-around-to-it list? I propose we all set aside Thursday, May 26, as Fix-It Day. Add a comment with a list of the little things you need to fix, and we’ll all commit to setting aside time May 26 (or before) to resolving those little irritations.

Who’s with me?

Now that I’ve held an actual advance copy of the book in my actual hands, it’s time to start sharing!

We’re giving away 10 copies of the book on Goodreads, complete with a cupcake magnet and other goodies!

Enter to win the chance to be one of the first reviewers: bit.ly/U2Fgoodreadsgive