Redefining What Success Looks Like
We don't all have to want the same thing or take the same steps to get there
🚨 Don’t forget the new pre-order giveaway I’m hosting for The Hunting Moon. You can instantly gain access to my Beginner’s Guide to Revising a Novel course and a live workshop too—all you have to do is submit your receipt.
1. Latest News from the Desk of Sooz
I have a bunch of newsletters coming soon—a mix of paid and free. In other words, Cricket has been home a lot with her asthma, which means I’ve not had as much mental space for drafting…but I’ve been able to write newsletters and promote The Hunting Moons.
ALSO, it’s almost time for the Mighty Pens! I’m so excited to be working with We Need Diverse Books this NaNoWriMo, so join us to write and raise money! We’ve got amazing prizes for our participants, like critiques, signed books, phone calls, and more from bestselling authors, agents, and editors!
2. A Word About NaNoWriMo
I am a huge supporter of NaNoWriMo and have been ever since 2010, when I wrote my debut novel Something Strange & Deadly. I truly think NaNoWriMo can be one of THE greatest tools for newer writers looking to simply finish something. And almost every writer I know has participated in NaNoWriMo at some point in their life.
Most people don’t realize, though, that NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit that needs donations to survive. And this year, during NaNo’s 25th anniversary, they need money now more than ever.
So please, please consider donating $5 (or more!) to the organization! Help NaNo nurture young writers and reach classrooms. Help them maintain all the events that so many of you love and utilize each November.
I owe so much to the community and excitement of NaNoWriMo. The Mighty Pens wouldn’t exist without it! So let’s all help NaNo keep going in the same way that they keep us going each November.
3. For the DenNerds: Join the Newest #ChooseWithSooz!
If you haven’t seen what I’m doing on Instagram, then pop over and vote in the latest polls!
ALSO, The Hunting Moon is almost here!
Please consider pre-ordering, if you haven’t already. It’ll help me maintain that longevity I talk so much about below. Plus, you can get an enamel pin if you submit your receipt here — AND early access to my Revisions Course + a Live Workshop if you submit your receipt here!
4. For the Daydreamers: Redefining What Success Looks Like
Tell me if this sounds familiar: you get online to update or check something quickly. While completing said task, you happen to see a Big Announcement from a friend/acquaintance/colleague. But rather than make you happy on their behalf—or perhaps in addition to happiness on their behalf—a voice in your brain mutters, Why them and not me? Why don’t I have what they have?
Obviously, this internal response can happen with any good news or big announcement, but for the sake of this post, I want to look at that feeling—at that, Why them and not me? question—in the context of our careers as authors.
Why did they get an agent or sell a book or go viral on TikTok? Why did they get the movie deal and the first class flights and the perfect hair?
Why not me?
To me, one of the most poisonous outcomes of social media and online shopping has been a flattening of life’s glorious variety. People will argue with me, and that’s fine. Sure, you can buy some awesome niche stuff on Etsy (says the girl with too many Dishonored fandom t-shirts). You can also buy a lot of mass produced, low quality shit.
And just get on Amazon! Ye gads, try comparing products in…let’s say foam rollers. You’ll soon see that a few items have all of the reviews. I mean thousands of reviews. While all the other comparable, possibly better products have only tens of reviews.
But that lower number of reviews turns off buyers—and turns off the algorithm too—so the “popular” foam roller continues to earn all the sales. Which in turn means it get more reviews and more favor in the algorithm.
We see a similar “diversity collapse” happen in ecology all the time. For an easy example, look at monoculture farming. An entire field of one species is way more susceptible to disease or weather or pests than an assortment of different plants with different tolerances. All it takes is one influx of boll weevils, and suddenly the whole industry of cotton disappears.
In other words, single-species ecosystems are fragile. Many-species ecosystems are resilient.
Oh my god, Sooz, get to the point already. What does any of this have to do with success?
What I’m trying to say is that I think we’ve all collectively fixated on one vision of success. We’ve stopped imagining how varied success can actually be. In other words, I think social media, online reviews, TikTok, and fomo have turned us all into a single-species ecosystem.
Obviously not everyone buys into this. Obviously, there are many authors and aspiring authors out there who have defined their own metric for success, and they don’t care what a TikTok algorithm feeds them.
But as someone who sold her first book to a traditional publisher thirteen years ago—at the height of YA’s power—I can tell you that I have seen firsthand as fewer and fewer people come into this business understanding that “success” doesn’t require a bestseller tag or signings or tons of push from your publisher.
Most books will never get those things, but that doesn’t mean the authors automatically fade into the abyss and never reach readers again.
Look, I need to say right away that I am not talking about “just accepting what you have and being grateful.” I did an entire newsletter on why “just be grateful” is an insidious part of our culture meant to dismiss valid concerns and keep people boxed in.
What I am instead saying here is that we need to diversify our visions of success. We need to step away from social media and ask what it actually means to be successful in the publishing world—and we need to then ask ourselves what we actually freaking want.
Having a publisher pay to tour you? That is so rare, y’all.
Having a publisher fly you first class somewhere?! Lol. That just doesn’t happen unless you are making the publisher enough money to justify such an expense.
Selling your book for a ton of money? Rare.
Optioning your book’s rights for film? Rare.
Having a show or film made from your book? That is kyawthuite rare.1
Look: I get that hype breeds more hype, and it’s not glamorous for me to say, I wake at 5AM to write before my toddler gets up, and today she’s home sick snotting on me while I write this newsletter. I eat whatever I have time for breakfast, and because both of my dogs require oodles of medicine and care to stay alive, I never get to leave my house anymore.
No one wants to read that, and I don’t blame them. An incontinent dog whose poop keeps getting eaten my Roomba isn’t exciting (🥲). We want the highlight reel and the fantasy. It’s way more fun to dream about what life might be like if I had all the time in the world and all the money to support my dreams. But then…when I get online and see all the perfect hair and movie deals, it’s also impossible for me not to compare my poop-filled reality to that fantasy.
The same thing applies to the actual creative process. Some writers make it look so easy to write a book, but here I am toiling away and barely writing a book a year. Am I doing this wrong? Am I failure because it’s hard for me?
Why them and not me? Why don’t I have what they have?
The reality is that I am successful and I am creatively productive. By all metrics, I truly am. My success and creativity just dosn’t look like what the internet is selling.
Again, I cannot reiterate enough that I am not saying “just be grateful.” What I am saying is that it’s okay to reimagine what you want in your career.
Most authors will never communicate with their publicist. Most authors will never make enough money from their books to write full time. Most (all?) authors will feel constantly frustrated at how the industry operates as corporate businesses. Most authors will wish they were selling more copies, no matter how well they sell. And most authors will find the writing really hard and the exact opposite of effortless.
That doesn’t mean success isn’t on the table for us. In fact, there are definitely meaningful, actionable steps we can take to get closer to our visions of success.
I have an exercise I want you to do: I want you to look at the career for an author you really admire. I mean, someone whose books you love and whose work has changed your life. If they are a jet-setting Mega Best Seller and that is what you want for yourself, awesome. Truly: awesome. Keep aiming there, and don’t give up.
Seriously: don’t give up. Your odds of success increase with every book you write, so just keep writing!
But I’ll wager a bunch of you will find authors who don’t fit this flattened mold we’ve been fed everyday online. The author you choose won’t flying private jets to fancy conferences. They won’t have perfect hair. They won’t be selling millions of copies and living on bestseller lists week in and week out. They’re just authors. They’re just people changing the world one book at a time.2
I said in my last newsletter that:
I think those of us who can sit with our discomfort the longest—those of us who don’t get turned off by the challenges and frustrations, but rather bask in it like the really unpleasant grease bath that it is…
Well, we’re the ones who will last the longest in this business and in this art.
I stand by that. Not just for publishing, but for all of life. If we can make ourselves into a diverse ecosystem able to withstand whatever comes our way, we will discover that longevity is a beautiful thing.
In fact, to me, that’s what success looks like: longevity.
That’s it. I want to be here in a decade and another decade after that. I want to be sharing my stories with the world until my brain can’t produce stories anymore.
Every author I name when I say “this is a career I admire” has been publishing since the 90s. Some have even been going since the 80s or 70s! That is amazing. It means their words were having an impact the entirety of my life—and of course, their words have had huge impacts on me.
Okay, Sooz, if longevity is your metric for success, then what must you do to reach it? Put your money where your mouth is and show us the actionable steps.
You got it.
I must be able to pivot. Dips in sales are inevitable. Sometimes long, long periods of failure will happen. So what must I do to weather those financial storms?
I have to have a diverse income portfolio. That means I can’t rely on a single publisher or single sort of product. In other words, things like this paid Substack or my upcoming Academy can supplement my book income when it simply isn’t enough.
I must also constantly be looking at other ways to publish stories. I’ve mentioned many times before that I was going to go indie a decade ago when my first series failed. I did all the research and prep for that! Then Tor Teen just happened to offer on my complicated fantasy book Truthwitch—something I thought would never happen. So I shifted away from indie and stuck with traditional. However, I have never unplugged from the indie world. I read books, follow blogs, lurk on Discords, and stay aware of what’s working over there. This way, if I ever need to quickly pivot, I have the necessary tools.3
I must focus on my fandom more than my sales. Yes, those two things can trend together…but you can also have a ton of fans without ever selling a book. That means that, as long as my #1 is working well (and I have an income), I can constantly nurture my readers with unpaid content.
This is not something that will always be financially feasible, but it matters to me to see my pool of awesome readers grow far more than it matters to me to make heaps of money. And think about it, to achieve longevity, what do I need? Committed readers, and that means nurturing those who do follow me as much as I can.
Hell, I released a free book on Wattled back in 2018! And now that free book is going to be a published book in 2025. So in that particular instance, giving unpaid content to my readers has also ultimately paid me. (Even though that was, of course, never my aim!)
I must keep writing. Seems obvious, I know, but it’s all too easy to lose sight of this in the traditional world. To let the pressures of the publishing corporations ruin our writing. Trust me, I know the pressures better than anyone. Recall who gave herself shingles after nearly dying in childbirth…all to finish a book. Yeah, this girl. But at the end of the day, more books are what will allow me to stay afloat.
Each new release is another chance at finding loyal readers and expanding my fandom. Maybe you didn’t like The Luminaries, but hey, you might love the Witchlands! Or hey, Witchlands might not be for you, but have you tried The Executioners Three?4
Also, writing is what makes me happy. Sharing stories is what makes me happy. I might need breaks and time away, but I will never ever quit. And as long as I keep writing and loving the words…well, that looks pretty damned successful to me.
My vision for success won’t look like yours.
The steps I take for my success won’t look like what you decide to do.
And that’s good. Diversity, remember? Let’s keep the boll weevils off our farm!
I urge you to look beyond what the internet is telling you success looks like and to instead define success for yourself. For some, you will want that glam lifestyle. And hell yeah! Get it, get it! And also…make a list of actionable steps to reach those heights.
For others, you might want to quit writing entirely! AND THAT IS ALSO GOOD. Sometimes we go into writing and publishing only to discover, nah. It’s not for us. I give you my blessings to leave, friend. Or to maybe leave for now and revisit in a decade.
Maybe you want longevity like I do. Or maybe you want enough just money to pay your mortgage. Or maybe you want huge signing lines. Or maybe, maybe, maybe…
What author has a career you admire? What can you do to get yourself there?
Do not flatten, friends. Diversify. Explore. Imagine a hundred different ways you can be successful and joyful and sustainable. There is no one way to do this; there is only the way you can do this and only the success you want for yourself.
5. Upcoming Events
I’ve got tour dates!! You can register for all the events here (except YALLFest), and I hope I see some of you on the road!
Anderson's Bookshop Naperville
Monday, November 6, 2023
7:00 PMwith Greta Kelly
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
6:30 PMwith Megan Whalen Turner
Barnes and Noble Neshaminy Mall
Thursday, November 9, 2023
6:30 PM
Friday & Saturday, November 10-11, 2023
Full schedule to come!
Monday, November 13, 2023
7:00 PMwith Mark Oshiro
See you again soon, Misfits & Daydreamers!
💚 - Sooz
I would like you to know I had never heard of this mineral before writing this post. Learn something new, am I right?
And I’d just like to mention that even those people who seem to have it all (how is their hair so perfect?) also have plenty of challenges, frustrations, and poop-in-the-Roomba situations.
So many authors are hybrid now! And they’re making great money doing it. It’s such a viable path forward!
You might notice I have not mentioned my debut series! That’s because the rights for Something Strange & Deadly have now OFFICIALLY reverted back to me! Which means they’re not available anywhere to buy. But don’t worry! I have plans for them! 😉
As a creative in general, I find we often struggle with this and social media is a big factor of networking and comparison to ourselves. It's a tough algorithm to ride and I've been struggling with it for years. But I along with my amazing circle often remind me that as long as I still love what I do, and it pushes me to get better, grow at my own pace and not give up then that's all that matters.
Also, SS&D news is the cherry on top I needed this week! I'm so happy you got it back, can't wait for what's to come!!
Nodded my head through so much of this, friend. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic. 🖤