What does fertilizer have to do with publishing? Everything. 

As a lifelong athlete, I am a big fan of quotes. Before the big games, I read inspirational quotes to get in the right mindset. Now as a coach, I display quotes that I hope will inspire my teams. This is one of my favorites. 

<a href="http://rachelstoneswrites.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/failure-fertilizer-quote1.jpg"><img src="http://rachelstoneswrites.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/failure-fertilizer-quote1.jpg" alt="failure-fertilizer-quote" width="300" height="80" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-86" /></a>

My players giggled at first, but started to really think and realized it is true. Losing makes you hungry for a win. You go back to practice more determined. You study your competition, identify your own mistakes, and go after it again. 

I read a fantastic post about Kate Messner's presentation at the 2014 SCBWI conference in New York. She said, "Never underestimate the power of failure." I couldn't agree more. 

There is a lot of fertilizer in the business. So I'm going to convert that into a lot of power. Thanks, Kate! 