I was visiting Wendy Woo’s site earlier and she brought up an interesting question. Does one wrong choice in your writing career destroy your chances of achieving success?
I personally don’t think so. I do believe it can delay success, but I think the choices we make are right for each of us at the time the decisions are made. I refuse to believe that we cannot change our circumstances.
As an example, I debated whether to go straight to the NY publishers when I first started writing. While continuing to write and ponder the above quandary, I found a ‘little’ epublisher that sounded like a good place to get my writing feet wet. I had no intention of abandoning NY. I just wanted to see if I could get published. It took me a year and a half to decide whether I’d submit to the epublisher. In 2002, I took the leap and ended up at Ellora’s Cave. They were still building a name for themselves and hadn’t become RWA recognized or a paperback publisher. Little did I know that the company would become a springboard into the NY market.
I guess my point is you never know what direction your career will go in. Even if you made EVERY decision correctly, it doesn’t guarantee success.
October 8th, 2004
I think that every step you take in this business is an opportunity for learning. A tragic scenario of course would be to sell to a big house and get horrid reviews for your work on your first book, but that could be used as a learning experience on how to make your next book even better. Or, being unpublished, chosing to write that book of your heart that gets tons of rejections, but not because the writing is bad. It’s a lesson in marketing your story correctly. I don’t think that anything can ruin your chance of success except for not even trying. That’s the most tragic scenario of them all.
by Sidonie October 9th, 2004 at 12:59 amSidonie, I think about it in the exact same way. You can learn from the journey every step of the way. Success means different things to different people. (Kind of like fame.) You only lose if you don’t try.
by Jordan October 9th, 2004 at 8:48 pm