The Weather, the Plumbing, and the Book Deal Never Owed You Anything

Coming Full Circle

A few weeks ago, I told you about Trish handing me a small, foul-mouthed book that turned out to carry more wisdom than half the polished self-help titles on my shelf. I mentioned that author Gary John Bishop’s writing made me laugh at my own thoughts, particularly the ones where I expect the weather to cooperate with my hiking plans, expect my plumbing to behave itself, and expect the electricity to stay on through every storm as though I had signed some binding contract with the Lord above. We have come full circle now, because the seventh and final assertion in the book is the one that explains exactly why those expectations were the problem all along.

I Expect Nothing and Accept Everything

My friends Brad Ball and Joe Marcoux are absolute experts in the sales training industry. They coach entrepreneurs and large company sales teams on how to host respectful, productive, and successful buying conversations with prospective clients. They often say we should have “high intention and low attachment.” In other words, give prospective clients the best possible consideration by over preparing, asking the right questions, helping them uncover urgency and desire (or lack of), and guiding them to a decision: yes or no, without living or dying by the outcome (yes or no). 

Thanks to Brad, Joe, and Bishop, I try to expect nothing and accept everything. Bishop is not asking us to become passive or stop caring about outcomes. He is asking us to release the invisible contract we signed with life, the one in which we assumed things would go a certain way simply because that is how we pictured them going. 

An author may  sign a version of that same invisible contract. He may expect the first draft to come easily because the idea felt so clear in his head. He may expect an agent to respond quickly, a launch to sell steadily, and reviews to arrive kind and plentiful, and when reality hands him something messier than the picture in his mind, he experiences this as a personal failure rather than what it actually is, which is simply how the process goes for almost everyone who has ever finished a book. 

The Writers Who Actually Finish

The writers I watch thrive through our Book Development Cohort, Writers’ Room, and private coaching services are not the ones with the smoothest journeys. They are the ones who stop expecting smooth journeys and start accepting the ones they actually have. Their manuscripts need four rounds of revision instead of one. Their launches grow slowly instead of exploding overnight, and harsh reviews sometimes sit right next to three glowing ones. None of that derails a writer who has released the expectation that publishing should behave itself and arrive on schedule like a well-mannered guest.

My hikes rarely go exactly as planned either. Rain shows up uninvited, trails wash out, Jeff needs me to stay home, or work demands prohibit a day off. I’ve turned around more than once because conditions changed faster than the forecast promised they would, like on Meigs Creek Trail. I took a few yoga buddies, and we met a downpour about 3 miles in. I don’t mind hiking in the rain, but there are around 20 creek crossings on that trail. The crossings make the trail fun, but not when the creek rises in the Smokies and water gets swift. 

Expecting nothing from the mountains does not mean I stop showing up prepared. Actually, no matter what the forecast is, I always pack a raincoat. Showing up ready to meet whatever the trail actually offers, instead of grieving the trail I imagined the night before, is the whole point.

Your book deserves the same posture. Show up prepared, do the work with everything you have, and then accept the actual path your book takes instead of measuring it against the path you pictured. That is where the peace lives, and honestly, that is where most of the good stories come from too. Plus, you will have unexpected and wonderful outcomes if you are open minded and keep a positive attitude.

Your Next Step

This wraps up our walk through all seven of Bishop's core assertions, and I hope somewhere in these seven weeks you found the willingness, the confidence, or the relentlessness you needed to move your own book, business, or legacy forward. If you are ready to take the next real step, a Publishing Pathway Call with one of our Publishing Advisors is a good place to start. Bring coffee, curiosity, and a messy plan. We will help you map the next step.

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

Books live forever!

Jody

P.S. RIGHT after I wrote this while at my cabin, Riverdance, in Townsend, Tennessee, rain pelted our tin roof for an hour. I never mind, because the rain soaks into the trees and plants, and then those trees and plants release organic compounds that mix with sunlight in East Tennessee humidity. The mix forms the “smoke” you see that makes our mountains mystical.