The Trail Does Not Come With a Guarantee, and Neither Does Your Book

Bear Territory, No Map, No Guarantee

I set out for a familiar trail last month along Cades Cove Loop in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and about two miles in, a sign informed me I was walking through active bear territory. I kept walking anyway, because turning back would have meant giving up a trail I wanted to check off my list for over a year. I did the other half of it in 2025. 

I Embrace the Uncertainty

In the book Unf*ck Yourself, author Gary John Bishop's fourth assertion asks something similar of you. 

Embrace uncertainty. 

Bishop is not asking you to grit your teeth through something hard or pretend to feel calm when you are stresed. He is asking you to embrace a task or adventure or experience the way you would embrace an unfamiliar trail, fully aware that you cannot control the weather, the wildlife, or how your knees will feel by mile six.

Writers want a guarantee before they commit to a book, and I understand the impulse completely. Nobody wants to spend a year writing a manuscript that might not sell, might get rejected by readers, or might sit quietly on a shelf while someone else's book climbs the charts. That desire for certainty feels responsible, even wise, but it also keeps a lot of good books from ever being written, because certainty is not something publishing offers anyone, no matter how talented, wealthy, or well connected you are.

What the Finishers Have in Common

Here is what I have learned from watching hundreds of authors go through our programs at Crippled Beagle Publishing and Story Mountain Media. The people who finish are not the ones who found a way to eliminate uncertainty from the process. They are the ones who made peace with having no control over outcomees. They wrote the chapter without knowing if an editor would love it. They queried the agent without knowing if a rejection was coming. They hit publish without knowing how readers would respond. They invested in their books and in themselves not knowing if there would be any return. They did all of this while Mr. Uncertainty rode along beside them the entire way, uninvited, yes, but in charge? Nope. 

I never saw a bear that day, though I stayed alert the whole hike and talked aloud, to myself, than usual. When I finished, I enjoyed a stunning view from a grassy overlook.

Oddly, once I was in my car at the Missionary Baptist Church, I entered Rich Mountain Road to head back to my cabin and immediately saw a black bear. 

(Photo taken from my car 7/2026 on Rich Mountain Road in Cades Cove, GSMNP. I think this bear is a yearling.)

Your book has a version of that overlook waiting too, but you only get to see the view, the finished book, by walking the trail without a guarantee, one uncertain chapter at a time.

Your Next Step

If uncertainty has been the thing keeping your book on the shelf in your mind instead of on a shelf in someone's home, a Publishing Pathway Call with one of our Publishing Advisors can help you take the next uncertain step anyway. We cannot promise you the outcome, but we can walk the trail with you.

Schedule your Publishing Pathway Call here: https://calendly.com/d/cwzb-ggb-pmx/publishing-pathway-call 

Books live forever!

Jody