5 Lessons in Measuring Your Success as an Author

It’s easy to get discouraged when measuring your writing success against others’. How do you keep your dream afloat when it seems like everyone is ahead? Today, writer and publisher Nicolette Stephens shares five lessons she’s learned over the last few years:

In the two years I’ve been involved in publishing, I’ve learnt a lot about myself, publishing, and the human beings who inhabit the writing world (hint: they’re not that frightening). I jumped head first into the writing world with a lot of big ideas, and very little experience. 

I’d like to share some of the lessons I would give myself if I had a time machine to go back to 2016:

1. You’ll never feel “ready” to pursue your dreams—you just need to go for it!

Whatever your chosen career, it’s hard to build the courage to just “take the leap” regardless of the setbacks. Hard, but not impossible. There are a ton of successful people out there, and every single one of them will tell you that before they were successful, they were only dreamers. 

What set them apart was that they did the work to become doers. 

It’s easy and safe to settle into a comfortable relationship with your dreams—one in which there is no fear of failure. But at some point, success becomes a choice between working to make your dreams into the best reality they can be, or letting them remain ethereal.

2. Your success cannot be measured against someone else’s.

There is a strange, yet popular belief that being a successful author/publisher means making a lot of money and becoming a household name. It’s easy to place authors like J.K. Rowling and Stephen King on a pedestal and compare one’s literary achievements to theirs—only to find them incomparable.

Nonetheless, I can almost guarantee that if you spoke to any of them (or their representatives), they would tell you they aren’t really sure what the magic formula is aside from consistent, hard work. 

They’d also tell you that they just wanted to do what they love, every day, for the rest of their lives. Decide what you love doing, and make that your definition of success. Don’t allow anyone else to impose their beliefs of success on you.

3. Your vision will change and you will always want to know more.

In the course of defining what “success” means to you, you may face doubt. You may come close to giving up, constantly question whether or not it’s worth it, and change your mind about what you truly want. This can come every day. Sometimes more than five times a day.

More often than not, you just need food. Sometimes, a good cry does wonders. Other times, you may need to take a break, gather some more info, and refine your vision. 

No matter what the case, it’s okay to change your mind. But there’s one caveat: do so not because you’re scared or the work is hard, but because you have something new you want to add.

4. When necessary, defer to the experts.

Let’s face it: we can’t be good at everything. Sometimes we finish writing our story, only to find we lack the energy, expertise, or perspective to edit it all by ourselves.

It can be difficult and costly to hire editors, cover designers, or marketers. But there’s a reason: expert help is expensive because people have invested their time and effort to become experienced at what they do, and that’s how they make a living.

It’s important to recognise what you can and cannot do yourself, and create a budget for the things that require expert assistance. It is also possible to find expert help without completely killing your budget.

5. You will create things you’re not 100% proud of.

This is, perhaps, the hardest lesson to learn. As you grow and improve your craft, you will look back at your earlier creations, and probably wonder: what was I thinking?

This is good. It means you’ve learned and implemented lessons along the way. You’ve grown, both as an author and as a person.

Treasure those early creations because they, more than anything else, will become your personal measure of success. Own it!

Nicolette is the owner of Chasing Dreams Publishing. A one-woman outfit, she hopes to inspire, motivate, and guide authors to chase their dreams of telling stories. Chasing Dreams recently released Jozi Flash 2017, an anthology of 80 flash fiction stories by ten South African authors, across eight genres. It includes original artwork by Cape Town artist, Nico Venter, and is; in Nicolette’s view, the start of great things to come. She lives in Johannesburg with cats, dogs and a bird. Visit her website, Chasing Dreams Publishing, where you can download the Jozi Flash 2017 anthology, or follow her on Twitter @Rhapsody2312.