Tag Archives: authors

I attended the Atlanta Writers Conference this weekend and learned interesting tidbits about the publishing industry and enjoyed hearing about other writer’s projects.

Raymond L. Atkins, an author and guest speaker at the conference, told about how he handled a situation where the publisher selected a cover image that he felt didn’t fit the plot of his novel. The publishing house wanted to market the book as a mystery, when the author knew his book was a romance.

The chosen cover featured an ominous barn. The author was puzzled because there was no such building in his book.

The publisher said they knew that, and wanted him to add a barn to the story.

The author didn’t really want to, but according to his signed contract, the matter was out of his hands and at the discretion of the publisher. So he added the darn barn.

Two pages later, that barn burned down.

To me, this was a great example of “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”

As caregivers, we may find ourselves following advice we question but feel powerless to challenge. But we always have power over our own actions and our attitude.

Don’t be afraid to burn barns, figuratively speaking, of course!