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Do You Have to Be Lucky to Have a Successful Writing Career?
I’ve asked myself often how much the element of luck has to with an author’s success. We know authors have to have some talent. They must be able to write, to tell a story. But there are many writers who can write and are good storytellers and yet they are not published.
So, there has to be some luck involved too, right?
Maybe.
But I’m not sure how much I believe in luck and how much I believe in making your own luck by preparing to be successful.
If we say that it’s just luck that one author finds a publisher who loves her work and another does not, or that one author has a successful career with thousands of happy readers and another doesn’t, then we believe that dozens of things had to line up just right for that “lucky” author to have that career.
Think about it, the author had to write just the right great story that an agent or editor was looking for. The story had to find itself to just the right editor. The publishing house had to have a slot for that book. No other book in the recent months could have been similar and published by that house. The book had to get just the right cover to attract the target audience. The book had to get a large enough print run to attract enough readers to do well in bookstores. The right readers had to pick up that book and like it. And so on.
Many lucky things had to line up just right for that author. And I don’t know that anyone has that much luck.
Or could it be that there was a little luck and a whole lot of preparation and hard work?
I believe in luck and destiny, but I believe authors can nudge luck a little by being prepared for success. Here are a few things we can do as writers to increase our luck:
Research the Current Market
Know what is selling and what readers want. Whether you want to sell to a traditional publisher or to self-publish, you have to be on top of the market. If you plan to write westerns and westerns are not selling, then you will have a difficult time finding readers and success. But then again, your book could be the breakout book that brings that genre back.
