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Now while I largely don't believe that the overnight success as we like to imagine it exists (Nathan Bransford wrote a fantastic post about it here), the idea of sudden, massive success with an author's debut novel is one that many writers dream about while pounding away at their books. The idea of achieving celebrity-like author status with your first book is a tempting one, even if you're probably more likely to win the lottery and get struck by lightning at the same time.
But all that talk about so-called overnight success has got me thinking—is it really something that we should strive for?
I'm not going to pretend that there aren't any pros to achieving massive success with your first published book: I imagine the financial security alone is a pretty fantastic plus, and it certainly can't feel too terrible to walk into a bookstore and see your book highlighted on the shelves. Depending on your personality, the hoards of raving fans that can't get enough of your books is also a pretty nice side effect of being a highly successful author.
Yet there's a dark side that people don't often like to talk about, namely, pressure and expectations.
I imagine achieving massive success with your first book feels pretty great—more likely than not it way outdid your expectations for the kind of success you'd achieve with your first novel, and it can't feel too horrible to see just how many people really enjoy your words.
The thing is, however, no author wants to be a one-hit wonder. And if you're writing a series, you now have hundreds of thousands of people waiting for the incredible new book that you might not have written yet. Suddenly you have an audience—a publisher expecting your work to give them another boost in sales—who have probably already paid you a nice sum of money for the next book, and readers clinging to every update on the sequel. You have people counting on you, who fully expect books two to be as wildly successful as the first one was.
And chances are, once you've made it that big, it will be pretty successful, but it's still a lot to handle while you're trying to write, and it's a pressure that will follow you for the rest of your career as an author.
Look, I'm not saying it isn't nice to make millions with your writing, and I'm not saying it's absolutely impossible to do so (we all know it isn't impossible). All I'm saying is working your way up to a successful career with an accumulation of mid-listing, then more successful novels with the experience of publishing book after book behind you and a slowly growing, but loyal fan base supporting you isn't a bad way to do it. All I'm saying is overnight success might not be the dream without a single downside we like to imagine it to be.
All I'm saying is be careful what you wish for and don't sweat it if you don't get it. There's more than one way to the top.
25 comments:
Although the pressure is tough, I can only imagine that readers who liked my first writing style thoughts, will also like my second. I think the most important thing is to keep working and trying to improve even if you are a bestseller.
I agree that there's always room for improvement. Writing is a lifelong learning experience and the best thing we can do for ourselves as writers, regardless of our status, is to continue to learn about the craft and improve our writing.
I completely agree! (BTW Suzanne Collins wrote several books before Hunger Games, and did TV screen writing before that). I think handling success is as much (or more) of a challenge than handling failure, and growing slow is not a bad way at all of getting there!
Suzanne Collins probably wasn't the best example of the so-called overnight success, but on the other hand I suppose it's further proof that the overnight success doesn't exist.
Anyway, we tend not to think about the challenges of handling success, but I think it's certainly something to consider, especially for authors (or anyone) who is launched into it, rather than growing into it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Susan!
That's a really great point--I think you're right that overnight successes often get both ends of the fan spectrum (just look at Stephenie Meyer--it's practically become cool to hate the Twilight series, despite the hoards of raving fans). All writers have to develop a thick skin, but the downside of everyone reading your book is...everyone is reading your book, and you better prepare yourself for the people who have no problem posting rude (and sometimes downright mean) reviews.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I think a mediocre rise to fame that takes off just as I finish my final installment would be a good way to go... Then I could move back to the first series I started and hook the fans on another addiction. Yep... I wonder if the marketing department at my still to be determined publishing house will like it when my still to be determined agent pitches them my plan.
That pressure to write a book that lives up to the expectations would only be fuel for me to do just that. A challenge. And I like a challenge. ;]
And on top of all that pressure is deadlines. You'll be pressured to change the plot to make the reader happy, but you have to resist that and remember you are writing for yourself. Otherwise, you'll fall under the pressure and you will miss the deadline.
I think I would choose overnight success. I just want to hear what people think of my story and writing and what the literary reviews says I do well and what I don't do well. Then I'll be able to work on improving the parts I'm not good at.
That sounds like a good plan, Sarah. Now if only we could control these things... :D
That's a good way of looking at it. :)
This is a great topic, loved all your points! I recall Gilbert saying that a lot of people told her "What if your next book can never live up to Eat, Pray, Love??" I rolled my eyes because, honestly, who cares? She succeeded once, she can do it again, even if it's not her next book. But that's how people think, unfortunately. Not to mention, plenty of authors do go downhill instead of uphill because it goes to their head and they think *anything* they write is gold. We all dream of it, and it'd be nice, but just like with being a famous actor or singer, you have to live up to the pressure and often give up your privacy. And you can never satisfy everyone; even the best books have one-star reviews. There's definitely a price for everything. I'm training my gut for it, but I know the chance is slim. A girl can dream ;)
Very good point -- a bit like the people who wanted a sequel after To Kill a Mockingbird. I think Harper Lee essentially said "What? This was the novel I wanted to write, I don't have to do it again."
I think ideally the success should come as you are able to devote enough time to writing that you can put out your best work without leaving the audience waiting so long it gets fed up. But worse than that is cranking out novels that aren't ready for prime time, just because you feel pressured to do so. I sometimes wonder what Stephanie Myer is going to do with the rest of her writing career; but then, for her, writing more books is probably a question of interest, not necessity.
I'd want writing success to build slowly, so I could keep up with it and keep improving with each book.
I choose gradual accumulation of success. I don't want the general public to define success for me as cookie-cutter follow-ups to what I have already covered. I want to be appreciated for my versatility as a writer. I want to be anti-series, anti-sequel, and cross-genre even though it may risk having a larger readership.
Oh, I love your Harper Lee example!!
It's a hard decision, but my short answer is no. I would not want to have immediate success. Instead I'll use John Green as an example of ideal author-ness: he's got a loyal fanbase but not stalkers; he's got fame but not over-the-top; he's allowed to be opinionated and hilarious, because he hasn't got people trying to turn his every word against him. You might not know John Green, but that's the sort of reaction I'd want. The more people like something, the more people hate it, and I wouldn't want to be at the receiving end of that.
I think I also read that article about Gilbert a while back--interesting reading. I like your point about the trade-off for success, and while I think authors have the better end of it (uber-famous actors and singers have to deal with paparazzi, while most authors don't have to worry about that), there definitely is a price to consider. On top of that, as you said, it's impossible to make everyone happy and with hoards of raving fans comes groups of rather loud critics, who often have no problem being rude or cruel with that one-star review.
I often wondered what Stephanie Meyer would do next as well, but as you said, she no longer has to do anything. Even with the Twilight saga ending, she has The Host coming out in theaters next year (or sometime near then), so she's still getting a profit even without writing another book. I imagine we'll probably see more from her (after all, we writers love to write) but there's no rush for her.
As for slowly building up your writing success, I think you make a good point about being able to keep up with it. As an added bonus, I imagine the pressure isn't quite so high as the expectations set on you won't be as astronomically high as expectations set upon an overnight success.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, David!
You have an interesting way of looking at it. I take it then, your style is more John Green-esque (in that he doesn't write series, but many standalone novels), then?
Also, I agree--David Fuller's Harper Lee example was an interesting one.
I was actually thinking about John Green while writing about the slow accumulation of success. He has a very large and loyal fan base that has grown over the years and it wasn't until just recently that his first novel Looking for Alaska hit the New York Times bestseller list, seven years after it was published--something that I find particularly telling.
I believe he mentioned in a tumblr post a while ago about the extent of any stalker-like behavior from his fans were a couple people leaving candy on his front yard (or something like that--a reference to one of his vlogbrothers videos, I believe), and while he admitted the candy dropping freaked him out a little, it's not so bad when compared to what some people (especially actors and actresses) encounter with fame.
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Thank you, Chris. Welcome to Writability--I look forward to seeing you in the comments!
I would choose overnight success. Because I'd have more people helping me to make the next book just as good as the first one than I otherwise would have. And sometimes I get frustrated because I feel I need more feedback and help than is available to me.
Hmm, that's an interesting thought. I don't know the inside of the publishing industry well enough to be able to say whether or not you'd get more attention for editing purposes depending on the popularity of a book. More popular books certainly get more attention in the form of marketing, but I imagine it wouldn't be too different on the editing end--you'd still have your agent, editor, copyeditor and beta readers as well as others looking at your work either way.
Agreed. We must all learn a lot from the writer's journey. Cutting it short with lucky success is sometimes harmful to our growth as writers.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post! It can be too easy to dream of that first huge book success, rather than dream of the long-term writing career. There seems to be less caviar and glamour associated with the latter.
That's very true. Writers sometimes forget that a long-term writing career is in many ways a better outcome than overnight success.
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