The Dove chocolate muse visited the other day and said, “trust your instincts.”  It sounded like good advice so I kept it, and now I’ll share.  This works in a lot of areas in our lives, especially writing.

If the contest you’re thinking about entering requires a huge read fee and no reward or critique, then it may not be legitimate, so research it thoroughly.  If the ePublisher you’re thinking about using has only been around a few months, you might want to rethink using them for another that has some time and experience in the business.  If an agent seems interested in your work, talk to the people they represent and see what their experience has been. If you think you might want to self-publish, but don’t know which publisher to use – do your homework.

Our gut can be a good monitor, but doing the research will give you the information you need to make an informed decision.  I trust my gut, but I also do a lot of investigation before I make a decision regarding my writing and publishing.  If my instinct is to wait or find out more before I decide, then I listen to it.

My grandfather loved that cliche… “if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.”  He was a big believer in hard work making your luck, and I do, too. Good luck, writing friends.

BD