A new emotion prickled through my veins. I looked down and studied my hands. They were trembling. I’d never experienced a sensation like this before. Recalling memories of past raids, I realized I’d at least seen this in others. Fear. This was fear. 

“Hei!” My brother calls from the edge of the forest as he jogs toward me.

I quickly bend over and pick up the pile of sticks I’d been collecting. Anything to put these pathetic hands to work. By the time he reached me I had the bundle secured. All it took was one look in his eye for me to tell that I couldn’t hide my anxieties. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

Knowing that a lie would not come out convincing enough I spilled my heart, “What if I didn’t go with you on the raid tomorrow?” 

He tilted his head, “Why wouldn’t you want to go?”

“It’s a big risk. Taking on such a large village.”

“The fact that it’s a risk only adds to the fun.”

“I’ve only been training for a few months. What if I’m not ready?”

He shakes his head, “Is that what this is about?”

“I’m the youngest going. Only been on a couple small raids.”

“Okay.” He shrugs and starts walking away.

“Wait? Where are you going?”

“To tell Hersir that you won’t be joining us.”

My mouth dropped, “What? I didn’t say I wasn’t going. I was just thinking about not going.”

“You said it yourself, ‘it’s a big risk.’ If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to go. More spoils for me.”

“I mean I want to go, I’m just…” I caught myself before I said it.

At this he stopped and looked back at me. “Scared?”

I hang my head in shame, I was a viking. Vikings weren’t supposed to be afraid of anything. Especially failure or death.

With a warm smile, my brother put a hand on my arm, “Look, fear is natural. It is not something we can control, and it is certainly not something we can avoid in this life. Join us or stay, the decision is yours, but don’t let fear be the reason you don’t take a risk.”

---

Taking risks was part of the everyday norm for vikings. Going on raids, defending their homelands, and challenging others was who they were. They were fighters through and through. Adventure was in their blood. Avoiding something because of fear would have been like a wolf afraid to take down a deer. It would go against their natural instincts.

I believe we have that same adrenaline addiction that the vikings had. Sure, they satisfied their hunger for adventure and glory by voyaging across the sea to challenge others, but we have the same desire they did. The difference being that we feed that desperation a little differently, hopefully with less bloodshed.

The thing about vikings is that they had clear goals. They wanted wealth and power. They weren’t afraid to take risks in an effort to achieve those goals. For over 250 years, vikings put it all on the line for their dreams. Sometimes it feels like in one raid, a viking took more risks than we do in our entire lives. And what did their risks cost versus ours? Well they had the potential to lose their limbs, family, friends, freedom, and even their lives on these raids. We oftentimes merely risk rejection.

No traditional publishing house will give your book a shot but you’re too afraid to risk self-publishing? So what do you do? Rather than risk rejection from readers, you lock the book away, never to see the light of day, never to have the chance to inspire someone else. You spent so much time perfecting that novel but when a few fancy publishers politely tell you no, you abandon your masterpiece. You think that the publishers must know something you don’t. 

Do you want to know what the publishers know? The market. That’s all. They look at the statistics, the numbers. And if they say no, it is often because your book doesn’t look good against their numbers. That is the difference between you and the publishers though… 

They see numbers… They see book sales and dollar signs. Now there is nothing wrong with the way publishers see things. They are a business and businesses need to make money. If they went and published every great story that came across their desk, they would go bankrupt and then there would be no publishers to inspire little girls and boys to dream big. 

But you? You see readers. You see readers as individuals. I will never forget the first reader who sent me a message. She was reading my first indie book that I had published on Amazon. I had sent proposal after proposal to every publishing house I could think of. All of them rejected it. At first I didn’t understand. The story I’d written was important. I felt that the world needed it. I had been so focused on getting it “out into the world” that I had lost sight of the individual reader. 

But when that reader messaged me, my perspective changed. Suddenly I realized that there was of course a place for traditional publishing, but there was also a place for indie authors. That one reader was important to me. And my one book was important to her. So when you feel the harsh and crippling sensation of fear start to overcome you on your author journey, remember the vikings and their risk taking mentality. But more importantly, remember your future readers. If you won’t take the risk for yourself… Take the risk for your readers.