How do you define success as a writer?
The longer we engage in the writing profession, the more we need to revise how we define writing success for ourselves.
Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash
When I interview writers for my podcast, Living the Writing Life, the last questions I ask are always the same: How do you define writing success for yourself and what makes you feel successful as a writer?
Lately, with the release of my tenth book and third novel, MOVING MAGGIE, I’ve been asking myself that same question—the same one that I have asked myself for years (okay, decades!) since I started writing professionally in the 1980s.
Back then, I was freelancing for local newspapers, and success to me meant that my editor didn’t toss the typed-up pages back on my desk with some version of “Do better!” scrawled across them in red pen. (Yes, those were the days when we typed our work, not submitted it as a Word document!)
And success also meant that when checks were issued, I got one for the words I had written that finally, after much revising, made their way into that week’s edition.
I wrote the piece, I revised the piece, it was printed and I got paid. Success.
When I expanded to writing for magazines, there were two more steps added to the beginning of the above formula: I pitched an article idea and my pitch was accepted. Again, success.
Yes, I was always gratified when the acceptance came and thrilled when I saw my words in print, but it was still very much a transactional arrangement, especially because the parameters (word count, deadline, number of sources) were defined by someone else.
The same was true when I started doing copywriting for ad agencies and companies. They told me what they wanted, I wrote it and I got paid the agreed-upon sum. Success was defined by satisfying my client’s expectations and receiving money in exchange.
This changed when I started submitting my short stories. To begin with, I had to make everything up: the characters and the plot. There were no rules on word count, since I didn’t know until I hit the end how many words it would take to get there, although when it came to submitting, there were specific word counts to keep in mind.
But that was for later. First, I had to see if I could do it, if I could write a piece of fiction that made sense, that had people in it that I cared about, that when I got to the end, the ending fit. When I pulled that off, then I considered it a success.
If by some miracle the story got published (and I submitted far more than ever were accepted!), that was almost a bonus, the icing on my literary cake. (We won’t talk about getting paid since most of the pubs I submitted to didn’t have the budget to pay for accepted pieces.)
Once I started writing and indie-publishing my novels, however, success became a moving target. I found myself challenged by the multiple ways the public and I defined success, all of which were predicated on the answers to these questions.
Was I happy with how the story turned out: the characters, the plot, the narrative arc?
Did professional reviewers review the book and if so, did they praise it?
Did the book sell, thereby earning me royalties?
Did readers like it enough to post a review on Amazon?
Did the book earn any awards?
Did my book signings result in sales, or did I leave the store with as many books as I came with? (While I always sold some books, I never sold all my copies. Maybe I should bring fewer to my events, so I can post on social media: “My book signing was such a success that I ran out of copies to sign!”)
More questions (either from fellow writers or people who don’t write books)
From writers: Did I earn enough from my sales to equal the cost of producing the books? (If the book was traditionally published, the version would be “Did I sell enough books to earn out my advance?” assuming, of course, that an advance was given.)
From readers: Is my book a best-seller? (Spoiler alert: none of my ten books have hit best-seller status.)
And back to me: Given the cost in time and money that comes with writing and indie-publishing my novels, is it worth it? Or is this a vanity exercise, just so I can say “Hey, you can go to the Barnes & Noble site and buy my book!
Finally, the big question: am I a successful writer?
Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
That last question gets to the heart of the matter, and even after all these years, the answer can change from the affirmative to the negative very quickly.
When I finish the draft of a novel and am happy with how it reads at that moment, I feel like I have succeeded. Not so much, though, when my editor sends it back with recommendations on where and how to make it better.
When I talk to customers about my books and they decide to buy one, bingo! Success! When I’m at a joint author event, and the author next to me is swamped with fans and I am most assuredly not, definitely not success.
I am constantly redefining what constitutes writing success for me, based on how I feel about a particular piece, whether any of my books have earned me royalties, and what readers and reviewers say about them.
I am constantly redefining what constitutes writing success for me, based on how I feel about a particular piece, whether any of my books have earned me royalties, and what readers and reviewers say about them.
But in the end, it all comes back to this for me: would I still keep on writing fiction, even if no one bought my books or read my stories? Is it that important, that necessary, for me to do this act, engage in this endeavor, spend hours with people who don’t exist outside of my own mind?
The answer is the same as it has been for all these years: yes. And so, since my commitment to writing hasn’t wavered, and since that commitment drives me to produce pieces that may or may not sell, that people may or may not read, then I believe I am a success.
Because to me, success—in life as well as in a chosen profession—is determined by consistently honoring one’s dedication to a goal. And since for me, writing is that goal, then success is to never stop writing.
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