Building resilience during both the highs and lows of a literary career is crucial. While this sounds easier said than done, the Writers’ League of Texas (WLT) session titled “Secrets to a Long, Unshakable Career in Publishing,” with Cate Berry, provided actionable tips to navigate through them. This session wasn’t part of the WLT Agent Symposium, but it was included in my membership.

Here are my five takeaways:

1. Treat yourself like your own best friend. Consider how you treat your best friend and what they provide you, then start treating yourself with the same honesty and kindness towards your writing.
2. Be prepared for potential rejections or issues (like poor book sales) and create a contingency plan outlining how you will move forward.
3. Similar to Elizabeth Gilbert’s method of writing letters to love, write letters to your “art” to get in touch with your intuition and find answers to problems you are having.
4. According to the author Arthur C. Brooks, 50% of your happiness is dictated by your genetics and only 10% is based on your external circumstances (luck/things that happen to you). Which means, 40% is in your control.
5. Make a list of your core values and then align them with the publishing industry’s values, so that you can meet your needs in the most authentic way.

Bonus Takeaway: Just show up, you already did the work.