What’s at the Heart of Being a Successful Author

In the most recent issue of the Authors Guild Bulletin, there’s a transcript of a symposium on the future of publishing, with a panel of Publisher, Agent, Author. The comments were fairly predictable: the Publisher was interested in how to make money; the Agent was interested in how to ensure the Author got some of the money so the Agent would make money; and the Author (Susan Cheever) was interested in the question of how the new ways of Publishing will actually change the way writers write because it is clearly changing how readers read.

All very interesting, and highly recommended reading. But, overall, the piece got me thinking more about money than about the future of publishing. Most of us want to make a living as writers. We measure author-success in various ways – from paying the bills to bestselling fame – and yet for most of us (especially novelists) both those concepts are equally far-fetched. I won’t go into the statistics here – they’re easily accessible to all of us, and if looked at through a traditional lens, they’re pretty discouraging.

But what constitutes success, really?

The idea of being able to make money off of your intellectual property may be harder in the future. The internet has made ideas pretty much accessible and free to all, and if businesses or individuals try to grab back some of the pie, it’s not going to be easy. Take Open Source software for example, and community-based sites, and blogs that offer a wealth of information – in the hope perhaps that someone will buy something else: this seems to be a convoluted way of doing business. We’re in a state of flux, and we don’t know how it will pan out.

What we are completely free to commit to, however, is our ideal of “success” as an author. And this ideal can withstand any changes in politics, the economy, or even our own writing endeavors. Also, if we as authors and artists create our ideal of success, even the somewhat desperate-sounding publishing houses who are still hooked on the old model of doing business won’t be able to impact our futures. So how do we want to live our lives? Do we want an elusive publishing house that is owned by an even bigger corporation that cares mostly about its jobs and its earnings to be determining our success?

Recently, I came across a new way of envisioning money that sounds fascinating. It’s called TimeBank.  In the TimeBank world, hours are exchanged for hours with no monetary consideration (and no taxes). An hour of plumbing is worth an hour of lawyering is worth an hour of gardening.  A painter might do an hour of work for the lawyer, who then does an hour of work for the gardener, who then does an hour of work for the doctor, who then does an hour of work for the painter.  You earn hours and spend hours. You look up Time Bank services online or call a community coordinator to do it for you. You earn Time Dollars after each service you perform and then you get to spend it on whatever you want from the listings.

If you look at this concept as a way to increase wealth, it’s not going to work. But if you see it as a catalyst for social change – people truly being free to do what they want to do, and to live decently and well, it’s pretty amazing. Organic banking. It’s a different way to look at ways of earning a living. I’m trying to think of a way that this concept can work for writers. Any ideas? For instance, would someone be willing to spend an hour weeding my garden, and I would ‘pay’ them with a copy of my book? But is a novel really only worth the cover price? How would that work?

On the Reimagining Money blog I find this: “Success can mean more than growing larger or increasing market-share, it can be measured by increasing happiness and well being, deepening relationships, and expanding creativity, knowledge, and consciousness.”

Perhaps our entire definition of being writers can be nested into that concept. This morning I read on Chip MacGregor’s blog how social media does very little for an author’s ‘success.’ But what if our success was about deepening our relationships with our readers, as much as it is about selling our books?

What if instead of reaching for the cheapest coffee, you went for the Fair Trade coffee – because you knew that the lives of the workers, and the way the coffee is produced and marketed, is as important as the extra dollar you might have to spend on it? Does that impact you on a soul level, and make you feel more ‘successful’ than you would have if you’d saved a dollar?

For most of my life I have longed for four things: love, wealth, fame, wisdom – not necessarily in that order. My world suddenly shifted when I realized that even more than that, I wanted the happiness that I imagine those things will bring. Of course I did not want miserable, heartbreaking, unrequited love, nor wealth at the expense of another human being, nor fame that would separate me from being one with most of the people in the world… what I truly sought was happiness. And even that word needs definition – because it’s not the happiness we often equate with thrill and excitement, but a profound inner peace. (There’s no word that defines it, that I know of.)

Now I know this: success to me is not seeking love, not seeking wealth, not seeking fame, not even seeking wisdom. Not needing. Simplicity, letting go. Engaging with people because one loves them. Doing what one loves because one loves it.

For example, writing for Writing’s sake. I think this is true of every passionate author. In the future, how can we devote our time to writing, and growing readers and friends, and paying the bills and having what we need, not what we hanker after? And does that constitute ‘success’ for the majority of us?