My Son Owns Forty Lures and Knows Which Three Matter Right Now

My son Houston has a tackle box filled with options, like spinners, jigs, dry flies, wet flies, poppers, something called a Ned rig that I still do not fully understand, and enough lures in enough colors to outfit half of East Tennessee. He doesn’t collect all this tackle because he needs forty options at once. He just knows that trout in a cold, clear mountain stream in October want something entirely different than smallmouth in a warm, murky river in July, and the water temperature that morning decides which three lures will work.

I wrote recently that you do not need to know your exact destination before you ask for directions. I want to build on that a little today, because knowing you need help is only half the equation. The other half is figuring out which kind of help actually matches the water you are fishing in right now, and that part trips up a lot of good writers.

I hear some version of this constantly on Publishing Pathway Calls. 

A writer signs up for an intensive coaching program when what she actually needed was a two-hour class explaining how publishing even works. Another writer buys a course on marketing when his manuscript is not even finished yet, and marketing without a book to sell is a lure with no hook. Another, an entrepreneur, buys an overpromising public relations package when his book is saturated with AI-written content that will cost him credibility. He skips what he really needs—content editing—and starts promoting a book that will actually hurt his goals because it will cost him reader trust. The tools are not the problem. The mismatch is the problem.

Here is how I think about it. If you genuinely do not understand your options yet, the traditional path, the hybrid path, the self-publishing path, what level of editing makes sense now, how you should illustrate/design your book, and what each one actually costs you, you need information and someone to help you decide what is appropriate and what is next. 

There are many steps on the path from book idea to published, profitable book. No commitment is small. Each step requires a decision. 

None of these steps or decisions are bigger or smaller commitments than the others. They are just different lures for different water, and the writer who tries to fish October trout with a July smallmouth lure usually walks away frustrated and blames the whole river, when the truth is the tackle just did not match the conditions.

Wherever you are on the path to publishing, my team has a resource, workshop, or service for you. We’ve helped close to 500 writers across the country in the last decade, and I have, I think, heard every question and solved every problem at this point. 

Reply to this email with whichever line (or lines) below match you right now. 

Just copy and paste into a reply email to me. 

"I am still deciding, and I need information about my options."

"I have an idea, but no real plan or structure to build it into a book."

"I have some momentum already, and I need accountability to keep going."

"I do not want to write this myself, and I want someone to write it for me."

"My book is finished, but I know it needs work."

“My book is finished and published, and I’d like to talk about how to increase sales.”

“I am working on a new project and need guidance on the next best step.”

“I’m all good for now.”

Books live forever!

Jody