Do you feel like every time you log onto Instagram someone else is sharing that they have an agent or an amazing publishing deal? If only 1 out of 1000 authors get an agent, why does it seem like that?
I’ll tell you why: your reality is being distorted by confirmation bias and selective attention. It’s like choosing to buy a red car, and suddenly seeing only red cars everywhere.
Here’s the truth of it: If your focus is purely on traditional publishingas a success metric, you’re going to miss out on the diverse experiences and perspectives in the writing community, and, unless you become that 1 in 1000, you’re going to find the experience far less rewarding than you would if you changed your metric of success.
And here’s the brutal truth: your dream agent or publisher may never materialise, but don’t panic, because there’s also good news: traditional publishing isn’t the only path to share your story.
If you are comparing upwards, which means making a comparison to the people who you believe are incredibly successful, you are doing yourself a disservice. You are forgetting to see how lucky you are, how intelligent you are, how talented you are at writing, how much joy it brings. It’s essential to think about what success means to you as an author. For me, it is readers enjoying my work.
Without exaggeration, redefining your metric for author success could change your life, and bring so much more joy into your writing world.
Want to read something similar?
Check these out:
