Are you frustrated at your lack of writing success?
I often hear about this frustration from writers. Some tell me that they’ve been pitching agents for years and have yet to receive an offer for representation, so they’re ready to give up.
Others say that publishing houses aren’t looking for “writers like them.” They’re too old to build a lasting career or too young to have established platforms, so publishers don’t want them.
Still others say that “the market” is just too competitive for them to break through, and they know it because they tried. They indie published or self-published and sold few copies, so they’re ready to throw in the towel.
All of these writers have one thing in common that’s working against them: a closed mind.
I mean no offense. I simply mean that for some writers, there is only one path to success and no other.
They’ve got an image in their mind of what writing success means, and they aren’t willing to change it.
Unfortunately, the ones who get hurt by this point of view are the writers themselves.
If you suspect you may be one of these writers—or if you are simply frustrated at your lack of writing/publishing progress—I’ve got some things for you to think about.
I Too Had a Firm Idea of What “Writing Success” Looked Like
Back in the mid-1990s when I decided I’d like to try writing, I had a definite idea of what writing success would look like.
Like many other writers, I was hooked on the typical stories I had heard about writers like Steven King and Margaret Atwood. These and other writers like them had “hit it big” with their novels and gone on to make a living indulging their imaginations on the page.
As I pounded away at my word processor (my first writing machine), I hoped that maybe one day I could do the same. Maybe one of my novels would be published and go on to sell many copies, and I could then continue to write stories while saying goodbye to my day job and any other tedious money-making activities I was doing at the time.
To make this dream come true, I believed that I had to:
- Write a really good story
- Get a publishing contract with a big publishing house
So I got to work writing and submitting. I did way more of the former than the latter (more about that error in another post), but I submitted enough to gather my fair share of publishing rejections.
I experienced the same frustrations every other writer experiences. Many times I thought I wasn’t a good enough writer to enjoy the success I dreamed about, and I often thought about quitting.
But I did one thing that I encourage all other writers to do: kept my mind open to opportunities.
So when the first one came along, I was prepared for it.
Allow Your Path to Writing Success to Be Unique
My first opportunity was a full-time writing job for a large corporation. After writing on the side for over three years, I saw the ad in the paper.
I jumped at the chance to apply for the job, even though I was afraid I didn’t have the right qualifications. Fortunately, a writing sample was part of the application process, and since I had been focused on improving my writing for three years, I did well on it.
And I got the job.
Now you may be thinking, “But I don’t want to write for a corporation. I want to write novels.”
I thought the same, but I was excited about this opportunity because it meant I would get paid to write. In what capacity didn’t matter to me at the time. It was a start, and I was thrilled.
I worked for that company for a little over three years. During that time, I learned a ton about copywriting, messaging, interviewing, creating ads and presentations, writing scripts, and much more. All of it informed my later writing career.
After all, as writers today, we must market our work. An education in copywriting was the perfect foundation for that.
Nothing you learn about writing is ever wasted.
From that point, I started taking small steps toward the writing career I wanted for myself. The next one: leaving the corporation to create my own freelance writing career.
When Pursuing Writing Success, You Must Educate Yourself
I decided to try freelancing for one reason: I wanted more flexibility in my job so that I could spend more time pursuing my novel-writing dreams.
It worked. My freelance business took off, and for the first time, I was able to work from home and support myself while continuing to pursue my fiction writing. For many more years, I wrote and submitted and wrote and submitted.
I got a few published stories along the way. But I also experienced a LOT of frustration.
Looking back, I can see that I did something right during this time that I’d like to encourage other frustrated writers to do: I pursued my own education.
I figured that if I wasn’t getting the novel-publishing contracts I wanted, it was because I wasn’t a good enough writer…yet.
So I set out to fix that. Here are some of the actions I took:
- Attended writer’s conferences and soaked in all the teachings from the classes.
- Bought and read books on craft, querying and submitting, and story structure.
- Subscribed to writing magazines and studied them carefully every month.
- Tore apart my stories to find out where they weren’t working.
- Hired a book editor and followed her advice.
- Submitted to writing contests that provided writing critiques and learned everything I could from them.
I still worried that I would never be a good enough writer. But I couldn’t give up on this dream I had. At one point, I thought that if I could just get a traditional publishing contract, I could die in peace! It was that important to me.
Keep Pursuing Writing Success and Doors Will Open
I’m sharing my story with you to illustrate one thing: the more you continue to pursue your own writing path, whatever that is, the more doors will open for you.
It’s your responsibility to walk through those doors and welcome those opportunities. As long as you do that, you’ll continue to grow.
And a growing writer is always one that is headed for success.
If You Haven’t Found Writing Success, Give Something Up
When all my years of writing practice and education failed to yield the result I wanted, I did one more thing I encourage writers to do: I gave something up to focus more attention on my writing dream.
I realized that though I had learned a lot, I still hadn’t managed to translate that learning into a publishing contract. I had to find a way to devote more time to this task of getting a novel published. So I gave up something very important to me—my music.
I regularly play in several music groups in my community, including the symphony and pit orchestras. These groups are a joy to be a part of, but they can also take up a lot of time in rehearsals and performances.
I told my conductors I had to take a break, not knowing whether there would be an opening for me to return at a future date.
Then I spent five years away from my music focused on my writing dream. I wrote more, yes, and perhaps more importantly, submitted more. By the end of that five years, I had a publishing contract in my hand.
Yes, it was a traditional publishing contract. But no, it wasn’t from Harper Collins or Penguin or Simon & Schuster. It was a small, indie publisher. But they liked my story and wanted to take the financial risk to publish it, and I was thrilled.
I signed that contract and entered the publishing world for the first time. It was a good experience and opened new doors for me.
Writing Success Doesn’t “Happen”—You Must Build It Brick by Brick
I see some writers shunning small indie publishers because they don’t fit their mindset of the “perfect” publisher.
I think this is a big mistake.
Writers need to realize that 99 percent of the time, they must “build” a writing career. It’s not something that happens because you are chosen by one of the big publishers. It happens after years of hard work and stacking one success on top of the next.
You take an opportunity, make the best of it, learn from it, and move on to the next one. You are much more likely to be selected by one of the big publishing houses (if that’s what you really want) if you have a record of publishing successes under your belt than if you don’t.
I learned enough from that first publishing experience that I was able to take a step up on my second novel. It was picked up by an indie publisher with an even better reputation, and the outcome was much better than it had been with my first one.
Now I have a third novel coming out with yet another publisher and the experience has, once again, been a step up from the previous ones. I’ve self-published non-fiction books too—the result of another opportunity that opened up as I was building my career.
The point is this: If one approach isn’t working for you, try another. If one publisher isn’t interested in you, try another. If you can’t get an agent, pitch to those houses that don’t require an agent. (I haven’t used an agent yet and honestly, I’m glad not to be losing the 15 percent!)
If traditional publishing isn’t working, try self-publishing. If you aren’t selling books one way, try another way.
There is no one definition of writing success. But there is a path to success that is out there waiting for you if you are willing to open your mind enough to see it.
How have you achieved writing success?