In any creative field, there are those who stand out, and publishing is no different. You know who I mean; we call them overnight successes or media sensations, and talk about how they breezed through the publishing process. We refer to their work as lightning in a bottle, because of course the acclaim and attention it’s receiving is a one-off. There’s no way the critical acclaim and subsequent popularity could be the result of something as mundane as hard work.
And yet, it almost always is.
The thing is, when hard work pays off it invariably looks like luck. Why that is I’ll never know, but I’ve seen it happen time and again. For instance, a friend of mine started out ghost writing ten years ago, and back then she made about one hundred dollars per book. Now she makes in excess of ten thousand dollars per book, and has worked with some of the biggest names in publishing.
Another friend of mine (see how I’m not naming names? That’s another aspect of luck—I know enough about the legal system to keep myself from getting sued for libel) released an unconventional YA book that shot up the charts, was translated into multiple languages, spawned three sequels and many reprints, and is currently being made into a movie. All the articles touting her “overnight success”—her luckiness—conveniently ignored the first five books she’d released in the same genre.
How do you make your own luck? Tell us in the comments, and as always, happy reading!
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