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God, what a mess, on the ladder of success, where you take one step and miss the whole first rung.”
The Replacements, from “Bastards of Young“
There’s an awesome discussion on tap over at Konrath’s blog about the definition of success. Konrath made a nice comparison using the parable of the ant and grasshopper.
“The grasshopper believed that all he had to do was write a good book, and his future was assured.
“The ant knew that writing a good book was only the beginning, and he had to make sure people knew about his book by building a brand and spreading name-recognition.”
On the one side of the discussion is Jude Hardin, a recently agented author looking for his first sale (unless I’m behind the curve and have missed some news). He’s contending that the ant is silly for taking such an interest in these things because, after all, the publishing world is fickle.
It’s not quite the same as the music world, a place where—as Chris Rock said—you’re here today and gone today. But the point remains: as Jude said, “the sad (and unfair, many times) fact is, publishers drop authors every day.”
I see his point. What’s wrong with just focusing on writing the best book you can and letting the market decide? It’s a tough world and the words should stand or fall on their own, right?
It is, as Jude said, one of the driving reasons we write. I can really get behind this. If I never land an agent or sell a book, I’ll have a lifetime of doing the thing I love, doing the thing I know I was meant to do.
On the other side of the discussion is Joe Himself. He’s famous as much for his self-promotion as he is for his books, if not moreso. Nobody—and I mean nobody—in the publishing biz works harder than he does.
Of course, his take is that it’s better to be the ant.
So, here I go, right out in the middle: I see Joe’s point, too.
What’s the sense in having the “published author/full-time novelist” goal if you do little or nothing to help ensure you remain so? Like my buddy Lou Schuler asks, “if your actions don’t support your stated goal, can you really call it a goal?”
In any case, there seems to be a divide between the two points. I don’t think these things have to mutually exclusive.
Besides, success is what we, as writers, define it to be and it’s always a moving target. What I’d call success today is considerably different than what I called it five years ago. I suspect I’ll say the same thing five years in the future.
Right now, I’m happy when I can get up and crank out five hundred or a thousand words of something. Is that what someone else considers success? I hope not. And, quite frankly, I don’t care whether or not they do.
At any rate, I’m eager to read what you think. Drop me a comment and let’s discuss.
Tags: J.A.-Konrath, On writers, On writing, Ramblins, self-promotion
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