Shawn L. Bird

Charlotte Boyett-Compo, author of the Wind Legends series among other things, (www.windlegends.org) shared this brilliant bit of extended metaphor about publishing at Linked In the other day:

There is a round brass ring. From that ring are dangling Seven Keys.

All Seven Keys are needed to spring the Publishing Lock.

The keys diminish in size from Key One to Key Seven.

The largest key is Key One and it is named Desire.

Key Two is Determination.

Key Three is Perseverance.

Key Four is Endurance.

Key Five is Patience.

Key Six is Luck.

Key Seven is Talent.

If you use all seven Keys and the lock refuses to open, one of those seven Keys simply isn’t strong enough to make things tumble into place for you. Perhaps the Key to your future lies on another brass ring.

That’s quite profound, isn’t it?  Even with my limited experience here at the beginning of the journey I know there is a lot of truth here!  It is hard work to get your work out there.  Big or small, the publisher requires authors to be skilled in story and active in the promotion and marketing of their work.  Every writer has to develop his/her talent and keep plugging away at the craft in order to have any success at all.  It’s a hard reality I think.  Sometimes you have the luck, and sometimes you don’t.  Sometimes you just don’t have the ability to stick it out.  Sometimes you don’t have that special spark of talent that makes your work worth the effort.