Two things writers–like a lot of people–tend to obsess over. Yet we tend to do it without a very clear idea of what either term really means. Is success being published by a mainline publisher? Widely read? Lots of money? Writing full time? Critical acclaim? If the answer is “All that and a ton of other stuff you forgot to mention” then by that definition there may be ten to fifteen successful writers in the entire country, tops. I’m not one of them and chances are you aren’t, either. Everyone fails by some standard; the question is what standard you apply. And I submit that applying any standard outside your own control is programming yourself for real failure. Too much of that can, as noted elsewhere, screw up your entire life, writing included.

Let’s consider an example: A few years ago, before ebooks mattered and we were still in the mini-explosion of the Print on Demand craze, a new writer proudly posted an excerpt from their novel, just published by some vanity house that I won’t dignify with a name. The prose was, no two ways about it, godawful. “Eye of Argon”‑class bad. Can I make that any clearer? I had absolutely no problem proclaiming both novel and writer complete and absolute failures. I didn’t see even the vaguest spark of talent in the work and their judgment was badly flawed or they wouldn’t have put that work out for the world to see in the first place. So. was the writer a failure?  Ummmm, no. Why not? 

Simple: I don’t get to decide that. Continue reading →