Be gut-wrenchingly honest with yourself so the path to your “success” is clear. Creating a tangible published work, free of typos and well edited, is enough for those wishing to leave a mark on the world. For some it is to reach bestselling author status and travel the globe. It means you’ve done your work as an author and created a viable story arc. If it’s too long, the story hasn’t been fleshed out. Pitch your book in a short, concise sentence. James Grippando, The New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five novels gave me this golden nugget. If costs are prohibitive, consider a contact at a local school or university who specializes in writing/editing. If you have the budget, hire an actual book editor. I don’t mean your best friend or mother in-law. I also followed these tips for self-published authors: Choosing to stay the course is hard work. I tell them, very simply: I chose not to give up. They want to know how I rose through the masses. When authors hear my sale numbers, which I share openly when asked, they’re noticeably impressed. I signed up with Amazon’s CreateSpace, and soon I had two commercially successful works in the marketplace, both deemed book club favorites. It was risky and frowned upon, but the tides were shifting, and self-publishing was emerging as a viable means to an end. I then decided it was more important for me to see my work in print than to secure an agent. Beforehand, I queried countless agents with no success. I self-published my first two novels, What We Leave Behind and The Mourning After.
But what is it you really want from your writing? What drives you to sit down at your desk and carve words into readers’ hearts? What does success mean to you? There are books and conferences built around finding and managing success. It’s an interesting, over-explored topic. Then when I became traditionally published, I grappled with the hierarchy of authors.
I felt inadequate (truly) because I was self-published and not traditionally published. I’ve shuddered at the rejection letter from a prospective agent. I’ve had fantasies of glamorous book deals with supplementary film rights. While I’ve been writing books now since 2000, I have spiraled through a range of emotions that accompany writing and submitting. The first misconception of becoming an author is that you have to top a bestseller list to be deemed a success. Rowling? Sure, they’re big names so I’ll throw in other big names, friends and colleagues: Camille de Maio, Julie Buxbaum, Emily Carpenter, and Jamie Brenner to name a few. What if Kathryn Stockett had given up? Or J.K. This is for all the struggling writers out there who are considering giving up.
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