You Don’t Need a Signal to Know Which Way Is North

On most trails in the Smokies, my phone loses signal completely, with no bars, no maps, and no blue dot telling me where I am in relation to anything. The first time I got confused on the trail, I really missed wifi, but I’ve learned how to mark my turns at trail intersections, read a map, read a compass, and plan hikes. I’m not dependent on technology and can actually enjoy being “off the grid.” I never need to know where I am in relation to my car (though the car is a happy sight after 8 miles of hiking). I only need to know which direction to walk. The Appalachian Trail has white blazes, and some parks offer colored blazes to help hikers, but in the Smokies, you just have to know where you are going.

Often, writers reach out to me because they don’t really know what they need. As the saying goes, they don’t know what they don’t know. What’s good is that they are asking for tools and guidance.

Here is what I have learned after fifteen years of talking to aspiring authors in classrooms, at coffee shops, and on Zoom calls with people I have never met in person. Almost nobody who contacts our team is standing there with a fully formed plan. Most of them are somewhere in the fog, holding an idea, a half-finished manuscript, a stack of questions about AI, or a project they cannot seem to finish, and they assume that reaching out means they need to already know which direction they are supposed to be walking.

That assumption keeps a lot of good books sitting exactly where they are: not written, not published. 

You do not need a wifi signal to know which way is north. You need a compass, and a compass only has to tell you your next direction, not your entire route. 

Some writers who come through our programs need information, because they genuinely do not understand how publishing works or what options cost. 

Some need a plan, because they have an idea but no structure to build it on. 

Some already have a plan and need accountability to keep walking it. 

Some have a finished manuscript and are finally ready for the publishing conversation itself.

None of those are more advanced than the others. They are just different points on the same trail, and the compass works the same way no matter where you are standing when you pull it out.

Over the next couple of weeks, I want to show you what that compass actually looks like in practice, because Crippled Beagle Publishing and Story Mountain Media have built several different ways to get you moving depending on where you are. 

Some of it happens here in Knoxville. A good bit of it happens live on Zoom, so if you are reading this, stay with me, because most of what is coming does not require you to live anywhere near Tennessee.

For now, just sit with this idea. You are allowed to ask for directions before you know your exact destination. 

If you aren’t sure where you currently stand on the map from idea to published, and profitable, use this resource: https://www.crippledbeaglepublishing.com/publishingprocess

Books live forever!

Jody