“Everyone knows the story”

Jim Bishop wrote a book called The Day Lincoln was Shot.

It was rejected 22 times before it was ever published and became a national best seller.

Bishop had one of those rejection letters from Random House framed on his wall. It said,

“Dear Jim, everyone knows the story.”

Of course, we all do. But that wasn’t the point. The point wasn’t to be original.

What Bishop did was bring the story to life—shine a light on details that readers didn’t know, tell a story in a way that would resonate with his tribe.

Just because everyone has heard the story before, doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity to tell it better.