Jo's Three Step Program

Dear Writers,

Look at that happy face don't you wish it was ours?

First, a Twelve Step Program from an author to whom we can relate:

1. Write the book.

2. Figure out how to publish it.

3. Spend a month planning your launch.

4. Sell 3 copies… then nothing.

5. Beg all your friends to buy it.

6. Click “refresh” on your sales dashboard 1,627,562 times.

7. Still no sales.

8. Freak out.

9. Spend the weekend crying and eating Ben & Jerry’s.

10. Read the internet and sort through all the conflicting publishing advice.

11. Follow the “Top 837 Ways to Market your Book.”

12. Hustle your brains out.

13. Sell five more copies.

14. Despair.

My Twelve Step Program: 

1. Wrote a book

2. Found a darling publisher willing to take a chance on me.

3. Editor/publisher and I edited the manuscript over months of emails.

4. Waited two years until publication.

5. Five copies mailed to me.

6. My hands caressed it's beautiful sensuous cover.

7. Created a website for it. 

8. Announced it to my audience.

9. Sold a few copies

10. Bought more myself than I sold with the intention of selling them myself. However Rule: I could not sell anything unless I was physically present.

11. Missed the deadline for Art in the Vineyard, where they allow authors to sell their wares. The kind enroller gave me a spot at the County Fair. I hauled books to the fair and sat for two days, having fun with the other authors, but sold only one book per day. Who wants to buy a book at the Fair? Well, me. I bought one of the other author's books.

One lady called out to me across the concourse, “How long have you been writing?”

“Since the day before God was born,” I called back. She laughed, and said, “I was there,” and left without coming near me—afraid I might twist her arm to buy a book maybe.

12. My publisher is unhappy with me that I didn’t make us both rich.

The frog calls the rain to settle the dusk for our journey

  Living Off the Grid for One Year

So, we didn't hit a home run the first time at bat, are we going to let that stop us?

Did Jody Foster stop in Silence of the Lambs?

Did Tom Cruse stop in Top Gun?

Remember the movie The Contender where a woman was about to be confirmed as vice President of the United States and was accused of sexual misbehavior? She Refused to defend herself. (Rolling with the final credits came this dedication: "For our daughters."

These people were fictional, but the were written by real people with scruples and a dream of putting their work out there, and they did it.

So can you.

Jo's Three Step Program

I. Idea

2.Believe You can do it.

3. Work like hell to get it done.