Three days to go. The trinity is a powerful concept in religion, narrative, and speech. All of these revel in three-fold resonance.

Churchill’s “Blood, Sweat, Toil and Tears” is more often remembered as “Blood, Sweat and Tears”. Why? People are just more likely to remember slogans if there are three components.

The old Australian “Slip, slop, slap” campaign for increasing sun awareness and reducing burn damage and skin cancer was incredibly effective. If you find a random Australian and say (or sing) “Slip, slop,…” then there is an almost irresistible urge to close the trinity with “Slap”. Now they’ve added other words: seek something, slip a wallaby a fiver or something like that and… I’ve forgotten.

They made the message less memorable, which makes it less effective. “Slip, slop, slap” was not, quelle surprise, the complete summary of the actions required to reduce skin cancer but it was better than confusing people. Threes are effective.

Three days left; time is short. Three simple messages:

1. Self-publishing gets you read sooner.
2. Good works exist outside of traditional publishing.
3. You can do it.