What Does Writing Success Look Like?

My debut novel, Hall of Bones, was released on 25th November 2020, so I’ve just celebrated my first anniversary as a published writer.  I’ll admit this milestone snuck up on me and caught me by surprise.  The past year has been extremely strange with the pandemic, as well as very busy both in terms of my day job and second career as an author.  Realising Hall of Bones was one year old got me thinking about whether I’d achieved all the objectives I set myself when I decided to publish my books.

Looking back, I thought I knew what I was doing but I made plenty of mistakes.  Getting that first book out there was a mad scramble, where I learned so much.  There was a website to build, social media accounts to create, a cover artist to find and commission (so much fun), book formatting to finalise (so much pain), pricing decisions to make, adverts and posters to design, book bloggers to nudge and cajole into providing reviews.  Yes, reflecting on all of that, it was a really busy time.

None of it was writing but all of it was vital if I was going to take my career as an author seriously.  Does it make me successful?  I guess that depends on how you measure such things but it certainly made me accessible.  I discovered a world of authors, readers, reviewers and agents – all fizzing with positive energy and creativity.  Just being around such people is uplifting and it helps keep you focussed and on track when things aren’t going your way.

People reaching out and telling you they love your writing is an amazing high.  Harsh comments sting but they’re tempered by the vast majority of reviews being so incredibly positive.  Sometimes it can feel like they’re talking about someone else (they can’t mean me, surely?).  I try and bat those thoughts away, because I recognise them as yet another sinister form of imposter syndrome.  If anything is going to get in the way of success, it’s listening to those voices as they whisper how you’re not good enough … unoriginal … not a real writer.

I remind myself I’m an author now, with two books published (plus Hall of Bones is in the running for an award, as I explained in October’s blog post).  Imposter syndrome is deadly and although I do slip up, I’m trying to become stronger at concentrating on what I want to do.  No one needs permission to write or be creative in other ways.  So many of the limits we encounter on that creative journey are the ones we impose on ourselves.

I began writing sixteen years ago, although I only really found my voice and became good at what I do five years later.  I had to learn to listen to feedback, constructive criticism and good advice.  Most importantly, I had to read around my genre and learn what other writers in my field were doing.  This wasn’t about copying those other authors.  It’s about understanding what makes a good fantasy novel, looking at structure, how it’s written, the way the characters were established and fleshed out.  You have to take those aspects of the craft and meld it with your own, indefinable, voice as a writer.  During those first five years I learned the technique but hadn’t found my author voice.  It was only when I began Hall of Bones in 2011 that things started to change and my voice came to the fore.

All these things are the crucial building blocks for success.  Imagine trying to scale Everest in nothing but flipflops and a skimpy pair of Speedos.  It wouldn’t end well and the same applies to writing.  You have to develop stamina alongside your craft to put together a novel.  You have to be willing to edit and hone that thing until you’re sick of the sight of it and then do it all over again.  Have you started writing?  Fantastic – keep going!  Have you finished a novel and enjoyed that dizzying rush?  Brilliant.  That, right there, is an achievement no one can ever take away from you.  Successful authors are nothing if not persistent and you’ve just shown you possess that crucial trait as you type THE END at the bottom of your manuscript.

Back in 2020 when Hall of Bones came out that, for me, was the success.  I’d finished my novel and produced something I was proud of.  Being able to independently publish my work meant it was now out there for anyone to read and enjoy.  This is an exciting time to be a writer, with so many more routes to the market compared with 20 or even 10 years ago.  I sat back and enjoyed the moment, knowing I’d achieved something I’d been working towards for a long time.  It felt good.  I felt successful.

However, it wasn’t long before the thought of ‘what now?’ crept into my mind.  I’d published the first book in a four-part series, and that feeling of success was replaced by an urge to keep going.  I soon realised people wouldn’t buy into a book in huge numbers if the rest of the series wasn’t there.  So I focussed on the next book, Sundered Souls, and came to the realisation that whilst I’d scaled the mountain, that peak merely revealed a further chain of summits beyond, all of which I’d have to tackle and ascend, one at a time.  Hall of Bones was proof I could do this.  Now I needed to reapply myself and repeat that feat three more times to give my small but growing audience their reward for that initial, speculative, investment in some random bloke called Tim Hardie.

I set to work and applied what I’d learned along the way.  Producing a follow up, Sundered Souls, in 2021 was important to me.  I knew with my work and family commitments I wouldn’t be able to put out multiple books every year.  However, I could stick to a traditional publishing schedule and still release a book every 12 months.  By now, my objectives had changed from getting one book out there to releasing the series, and I’m currently on track to publish the third book in 2022 and the final instalment in 2023.

The past 12 months have shown me that although completing a novel is a huge achievement, there’s always more to do if you want to pursue this as a serious career.  When this blog is written there’s another short story to write, so I don’t fall behind with releasing those.  Then it’s back to the next round of edits on Lost Gods, which I want to have done by the New Year.  Writing success, whatever that might mean to you, is never instant, even if from the outside it looks like it was.  Any successful author with a recognisable profile got there through solid, hard graft and they deserve their place.  They’ve earned it.

I’m still at the start of this phase of my writing career and I now understand the single biggest challenge is for new authors to be discovered by readers and establish that fanbase.  You have to keep working on that, alongside creating content people want to read.  Writing good quality books and stories is really the only measure of success that matters.  Without that you have nothing to offer and the other stuff I’ve mentioned won’t be able to make up for such a deficiency.

However, from that point on it’s all about hard work and, crucially, word of mouth.  If I say my book is good what does that really tell you?  Of course I think I’ve written a good book – no one sits down of an evening with the intent of writing a bad one.  What really matters, though, is what other people think of it.  If you want to help your favourite author to be more successful then buying their book is obviously great.  However, far more important is telling other people about it.  I can’t do that for you – only you can spread the word.  When you do, be it on a blog, Amazon, Goodreads or with your friends down the pub (I’ve sold a few books after a Mojito or two) your words are incredibly effective.  It’s readers who hold all the power in this situation.  If you take the time and trouble to leave a review, you’re paving the way for that writer’s success.  You’re helping them build on all that hard work, which resulted in their book finding its way into your hands in the first place.  That’s something to think about, next time you finish a good novel.