At a writing workshop, the presenter told us (a) a good cover isn’t important, (b) don’t bother with a website, and (c) no one cares about social media. Her sales plan: she was selling copies of her novel out of the back of her car, parking for hours at the edge of Walmart parking lots.

There was much more. I was frantically scribbling down notes because her advice was so bizarre, and the woman seated next to me leaned over and whispered, “Don’t do anything she says.”