10 things I know for sure about being an author

10 things I know for sure about being an author.

1 – Bad luck can tank a career. I have seen it happen many times. They were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and, through no fault of their own, the universe screwed them unfairly. It’s heartbreaking every time.

2 – Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. The reverse is also true, even if you don’t see it.

3 – If you have enough projects going, eventually good luck and hard work can save a career. I have also seen this happen, often with the exact same people who lost their career to bad luck. Every project has its own luck baked into it, and every project is a chance to turn it all around. Once you do, suddenly everything else you’ve made has more value.

4 – You have absolutely no idea which project is going to pop off, or where. The book that has made me the most getting optioned is one most of my fans have never read, and never heard of (My Father Didn’t Kill Himself, fwiw). Ichabod and The Godsverse Chronicles, my two most successful and enduring works, have made $0 in Hollywood during that time.

5 – The only thing you truly control is the work you do. You can give yourself better odds through understanding marketing, sales, writing to market, and all that stuff, but even then you can’t control who resonates with your book. You can show it to them. You can tell them about it. You cannot force them to buy it, read it, or love it. The only thing you truly control is the work. If you don’t love the work, then you should stop doing it, because even when you have a career doing this, all you have to look forward to is more work.

6. For some people, the path is clear from the beginning. For almost everyone, though, it takes searching through the mire and the muck, sometimes forever.

7. If you believe in something enough, double down on it. However, if you’re not ready to be proven a fool, or push a boulder up a hill for a long time until people see things your way, then pivot to something else. There are infinite projects, and they all have within them the chance to break through and completely change your career.

8. Making money doesn’t determine the importance of something. Some of my favorite things I’ve ever made are also my worst sellers.

9. There is no shame in doing things for the money. We all have to eat. There is also no shame in doing things for the passion, even if it never makes a dime.

10. Just because a project fails now, doesn’t mean it’s a failure. It took 7 years for Ichabod to find an audience, and many of my best work never found theirs. They were still worth doing, though.

BONUS

11. If all else fails, you are not a failure.