Sometimes the Luck Works

NOTE: I originally wrote this article in 2005 for my Joe Indie blog, so it focuses on indie game development. Much of what it says, though, can be easily applied to writing and indie publishing.
 
In his 2003 book, Sometimes the Magic Works, in a chapter titled "Luck", Terry Brooks described how his first novel, The Sword of Shannara, was picked up and marketed by Ballantine Books:
 
"The perception in publishing at the time [1974] was that fantasy did not sell, that its readership was small and not broad based, and that the potential for expansion was limited. Yes, J. R. R. Tolkien had sold hundreds of thousands of copies of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. But that was because he was J. R. R. Tolkien, and no one else was. Fantasy, as a form of category fiction, was too esoteric to be widely marketable.


"Lester [del Ray] believed that this was horse pucky. He believed the market was huge, the readership vast and hungry, and the potential for sales enormous.


"He decided to use The Sword of Shannara to prove his point." [p. 15]
 
I won't go into the details of how well Lester del Ray proved that point. I read The Sword of Shannara too much past the age of 17 to ever think it was a great book, but it's entertaining, and there can be little argument that it helped create the market for fantasy fiction in the 1970′s and helped it grow in the 1980′s and 1990′s.
 
What's the lesson to be learned?
 
To the inobservant and lazy, the most obvious lesson is: Convince someone you're the next Tolkien and cash in.
 
Except that Brooks didn't convince anyone he was the next Tolkien. He was the lucky author who had written a Tolkien-esque book and happened to have submitted it at the right time to the right publisher when someone working there was looking for exactly that kind of book. No cookie for you.
 
And no cookies for anyone who points out the early days of fantasy fiction are over and there are no more chances to be lucky in that manner. Or that it's harder than ever to launch a career writing fantasy fiction. Both are incorrect.
 
The lesson is that sometimes we all get lucky. We're in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. The bitch is that you can't know when that's going to happen. All you can do is: keep doing your best and never give up.
 
Without the near-immediate success of The Sword of Shannara, Brooks might not have written so many Shannara books, but (a) I have no doubt the first book would have been published anyway; and (b) since he would've continued writing (it was what he wanted to do) he would've had other books published and likely have had growing success with each book. That is, after all, the standard road to success as a writer. And as an actor, filmmaker, restaurant chef, and even game developer.
 
When a success story like that of Terry Brooks (or Pretty Good Solitaire, or Snood, or WinZip, or Firefox) comes along, there are always people who deride the simplicity or obviousness of the book/game/product. "Damn. I could do better than that," they say. Often, rather than doing better, though, they do the same damn thing.
 
And even if they manage to do better, they're still following someone else's path to success. Someone else's well-trodden, paved-over road to success, I mean. Because they weren't the only one who thought they could do better and/or duplicate the success by duplicating the product.
 
The most common result, of course, is frustration: with being noticed in a crowded marketplace and/or the ever shrinking profit margins that come from having to compete on price. They get fed up with it, declare the whole thing to be a bust and go back to what they were doing before they got "suckered in" to this whole useless endeavor. It's not what they really wanted to do, anyway. Just something they thought they could do and make some easy money. AKA: Probably the worst reason to ever do anything.
 
On the other hand, to pull another example from creative writing, copying the style and subject matter of authors you like is considered part of learning the craft. It's an inevitable part of the process, and the only way anyone develops their own "voice" as a writer. In a similar vein, Robert Rodriquez, the filmmaker, likes to say that all filmmakers have a dozen or so "bad movies" in them, and should try get past those as quickly as possible.
 
The only way we're going to get past the copying and the "bad movies", though, and have a shot  at the luck beyond, is to suck it up and prepare ourselves for the lack of success that is going to dog us in the meantime.
 
And how does anyone manage to make it through that long, painful, frustrating apprenticeship?
 
Because it's what they want to do.
 
Question: Who in their right mind is going to keep designing and developing games when:

players say the games aren't that great?
sales grow slowly–or don't grow at all?
they put years of effort into creating something that hardly breaks even?
time after time, the best they can do just doesn't seem to be good enough?

 
Answer: Only someone who really, Really REALLY wants to design and develop games.
 
(And probably someone who has a separate job that pays their expenses and leaves them enough free time to pursue their non-profitable interest; but I've covered that before in The Indie Alternative Part 1 and Part 2).
 
If you like making games, and its what you want to do, you'll keep it up, whether you "make it" or not. You might get discouraged every so often, and maybe take some time off to do something else for a while. But if it's in your blood, if it's something that you just can't help wanting to do, and can't help doing, you'll come back to it. And you'll get better each time you do, because you're learning from your mistakes, honing your skills, and accumulating experience in design and in life.
 
Maybe you'll never make it big, or earn enough to retire off of because your games just never clicked with the gameplaying public. That can happen. Life offers none of us any guarantees.
 
So what? Making a living doing what you love is a perk, a bonus, not a reason to love it. How many people can honestly say that they are spending their time doing what it is they really want to do? Are you one of them? And if not, why? It is, after all, your own choice.
 
I'll end with a couple of quotes.
 
"Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use."
– Earl Nightingale
 
"…For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
–Conclusion to the "St. Crispen's Day Speech", Henry V, Shakespeare
 
-David
 
Related Posts:
Why I Choose to be an Indie AuthorThe Indie Alternative Part 2A Bit More DavidRM Backstory