Trust the Process
About a year in a half ago, my fifteen year old cocker spaniel, Nadia, passed away. It wasn’t my intention to get another dog right away. But, the fates had other plans, and through a series of events, my name ended up on a list for one of six cocker spaniel pups. Four of the pups were going to be agility dogs, and two were available. I would get one of the two available dogs. I said that I’d really like a female dog.
A week before the pups were ready, I got my e-mail. “Hi Mindy. Your pup is all ready to go to his new home. He is black and tan.”
I reread the e-mail. HE. HE. I didn’t want a HE dog. And not only was he a HE dog, but he’d also been nicknamed “Little tude” (Little Attitude). I was getting a HE dog that was a trouble maker. This was not what I’d planned.
The weekend I received the breeder’s e-mail, I was in Cannon Beach with my brother and his girlfriend. I had a melt down on the beach. I sobbed. I cried. People must have thought I was in serious trauma. It was a gorgeous spring weekend. I was at the beach. And I was crying hysterically.
“Don’t get it,” My brother said.
“No, no,” I sobbed. “I think I’m supposed to have this dog.”
Through tears, I sent the e-mail accepting the dog, and a week later went to pick him up.
A year later, all my thoughts about HE dogs named “tude” have been changed. Stormy is the best dog I’ve ever had and we’re currently in a Pup Prentice Program training to be a Reading Dog Team. (More on this in another post).
But, I was reflecting on this “Trust the Process” and how it relates to writing.
Stormy came to me at the same time as I sold my YA, WEAVING MAGIC. I’d always thought STAINED GLASS SUMMER and WEAVING MAGIC would go the traditional path of publishing. I’d get an agent. I’d sell to esteemed publishers such as Candlewick or Houghton Mifflin. It didn’t happen that way. Instead, I met with walls in the traditional publishing path for both of these two stories. So, I tried something different and sold to e-pubs. I trusted the process.
But, the lessons in trusting the process didn’t stop when a book is sold. I’m finding that trust the process continues through promotion and the selling of the book. Marketing an e-pub book has different angles than marketing a traditionally published book—and some doors fly open and others slam in my face.
Last night, as I was setting up a Facebook Ad to run for WEAVING MAGIC, I had the choice of linking to Amazon, or my website, or I could simply link back to the Facebook Page for WEAVING MAGIC and people could “like” the page.
I linked back to the Facebook Page for WEAVING MAGIC. Regardless of how a story is published, there comes a time when the author needs to step out of the way and see if her book will find an audience with the teens themselves, and this is done not by insisting that they buy it, but by inviting them to form a community around the book. It is trusting the process.
