When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

It makes sense to explore success after exploring values. Values are well and good for inspiring actions and guiding choices. But what can I celebrate? What are those little (or big) milestones that I am working towards? It’s also a timely topic because yet again I’ve been talking with my friends in multiple writing groups about how difficult it is for writers to “make it” today. We constantly have to move the goalposts. My friends keep encouraging me to redefine writing as a hobby, but it’s so hard to let go of thinking of success as a making a living from it. The thing about writing, is there are so many different definitions of success. For me there are publishing, monetary, and fame goals.

Publishing Goals

Over the years my definition of success has changed greatly. First, it was getting published. Anywhere. Anything. Which, sadly, led to some publications I’m not super proud of. But it also led to me writing a whole lot and subbing a whole lot. I got a lot of experience in writing, critiquing and accepting “no” without taking it personally.

My next goalposts were trad-pub related: get an agent, get a pub deal with a trad publisher. That never happened. I worked towards it for about five years and then I pivoted to only shorts. When I came back to novels, I decided to go the indie route. This was because of one simple rule that was popular in the trad realm but not indie. “No response means no.” I don’t mind if a response is a form. I wouldn’t even mind if it was literally a one-word “yes” or “no”. But my mental health did not handle the no response method that more and more agents were utilizing to cope with a flooded market.

Sometime in my short story journey I was getting published rather regularly, sometimes once a month. So I set my challenges harder. I made a list of dream publications I wanted to get published in. These are not all of the big names out there — I’m self-aware enough to know my style doesn’t mesh well with plenty of magazines. I’m happy to say that of the four magazines that are still active, I’ve been in two of them, both multiple times. This leaves me with two golden horses I’m chasing. But if I crossed off all four, would that mean “I’ve arrived”? I can just stop writing shorts? Of course not. Because the writing is driven by the story and not the success.

For novels, when I switched to indie I had no expectations. I had no goals or hopes. And somehow I got three books published. It just sort of happened. Right fit, right time. I should probably set some more concrete definitions of success there. Publish ten books? Publish one hundred? Publish one really really good one? I don’t know anymore.

Monetary Success

When I was a young adult, my idea of writing success was to be able to write as a full time job. It is so deeply ingrained in me that I ache for it. Do I dream of fame and wealth? Of course. But honestly, I would consider myself successful if I could make 40k a year from my writing. I just don’t think it’s possible. Maybe other writers do. Surely there are trad publishing deals that work out to 40k a year. But as I’m not in trad, I won’t be seeing those. Even if I was… would it be something I could get by work and willpower? Or is it more about connections and luck? I’m not sure. But I can’t define my success on that metric anymore. Because I am a person who has to achieve my goals and I just don’t see a path to monetary success.

At this point, I’m happy to make a sale, and the money I make from my writing definitely helps support me. But I’ve also given up that dream enough to get a full-time job in the tech industry. Unfortunately it cuts into my writing time and energy, but it at least feels secure for now while writing never would for me.

Fame and Awknowledgement

Like most writers, I want people to read my words. I want to touch people’s minds and hearts. I want them to think about my writing and view the world a little differently. Part of the success of this is getting published in bigger publications who have platforms that can boost my voice, which I’ve done a few times. I feel like my next picture of success in that realm is to have a “breakout” story. I want a story that people are talking about. Something that people keep recommending others to read.

As far as awards, the one I have my eyes on is the Shirley Jackson. I don’t even want to win it, just get a nomination. (Pretty stone, please). Any other awards would, of course, be amazing. But I will consider one of my next big milestones to hit getting nominated for the Shirley Jackson. If I accomplish that in my lifetime, I will feel like I’ve reached a level of “success” that my childhood self could be proud of.

The other metric of success I have is book sales. I went into indie assuming I’d easily reach and surpass that 1k mark for each of my books. That hasn’t been true, though. So now I am considering my next “level” of success not only to publish a book and get it read, but to have 1,000 sales. Arbitrary? Absolutely. But these milestones help to keep me going.

A Picture of Success

So my next picture of success looks like this: I’ve been pubbed in those two magazines I want to be in. I’ve been nommed for a Shirley Jackson. I’ve sold more than 1,000 copies of one book in one year.

And once I reach those, there will always be another rung on another ladder.