Are Authors Lucky?
thoughts on control, letting go, and trusting the universe
Hi friends,
We are almost through this series, exploring whether publishing is sustainable.
We’ve covered the toxicity in publishing, why authors are exhausted, how readers and authors are connected, and today, we’ll explore l u c k .
I chuckled to myself when I included luck in the parts of what’s it like being an author, but it’s true- there is a measure of luck involved, which is terrifying and a bit freeing, if you think about it.
Luck? Really? What does luck have to do at all with being an author, and if it is connected, isn’t that terrible news for most of us?
Yes and no.
Again, these thoughts, everything I’ve been sharing with you so far in this series, is based off of my own experiences in publishing and conversations I’ve had with others who publish. And I really had to include luck in this, even if it’s just a sliver of the whole, because luck can really play a part in our careers, and we have to figure out how to navigate it.
So, just three quick thoughts on luck:
luck exposes our want for control
luck makes us reexamine our relationship to social media
luck can change some things and is terribly overrated
First, luck exposes our want for control. Publishing is a wild endeavor because we can put so much of our blood, sweat and tears into a book, into marketing and publicity, and still not see the results we hoped for.
We can “check all the boxes” only to be flooded with a sense of panic because our numbers aren’t what they should be or there aren’t reviews on Amazon, and we end up trying to figure out what else we can do. We search for ways to re-launch the book or grasp for followers or hope a podcast and or two asks to interview us.
When it comes to luck, what we can do is the best we can do, and in a way, it frees us into realizing that we cannot control who buys our books and when. We have to let go.
Second, luck makes us reexamine our relationship to social media.
Some of the most incredible colleagues I’ve met, other authors who uplift and support me, found me on social media. I’d say it’s luck, by chance, but maybe it’s just the way networks make sense—a follower exposes their mutual to someone, and they end up following that person and a connection is made.
I’ll still categorize those moments as luck, because some of the incredible connections I’ve made via Instagram and Twitter have changed my career and reminded me that I’m not alone and that I am supported and cared for. Those people are pure magic and I am incredibly grateful for them.
So, don’t write off social media entirely. Post about your work proudly, and keep posting in new and creative ways, because you never know who is going to see a post. You never know who will show up because you took that chance.
And for those of you who are, understandably, exasperated with posting to social media, an idea: take 30 minutes of your writing time and create a social media content calendar for the next month. Date, social media outlet, and what you’ll post about, as specific as you need it to be. Reframe and share your work, images of your books, however you can show up in your spaces with intention and care. Then you’ve got things aligned ahead of time, and you can take five minutes of your day to share about something that matters deeply to you.
Will it always play out? Will you always get lucky? No. But you’re sharing your work with the world, with your networks, and that’s where it all has to begin, where the magic happens.
And third, luck can actually change some things and is also terribly overrated.
In other words, hold out some hope for good connections and keep sharing your work, and also, don’t create agony for yourself over getting lucky.
An example:
When Living Resistance came out in 2023, I checked all the right boxes (that I’d created for myself)— I did some podcast interviews, wrote a piece for Oprah Daily, was on Glennon’s podcast We Can Do Hard Things, gained thousands of followers on Instagram, and still, I didn’t hit the numbers we were hoping for, and it was a bit devastating for me.
I gained followers, but how many of them were actually buying my book? Twitter imploded as I was launching the book, and I lost 40k followers there because no one was seeing my posts anymore.
I felt like I had lost all control, and I had to decide if that was going to dictate the joy I had in writing in the first place.
Over the course of those months, I met some new authors and we shared solidarity in our writing and publishing woes, and I’m so grateful we found each other. I struggled and agonized over every social media post, hoping it would translate to more book sales. I hoped the right eyes would see the right posts at the right time. It was exhausting.
So, here’s my advice, friends: don’t base it all on luck, and don’t stress yourself out trying to find luck.
Share your work with passion and fire and care.
Celebrate the milestones. You wrote a damn book! You’re writing a damn book! You’re journaling daily! You’re sharing your words with the world! You believe you’re worthy!
Those things all matter, all the little and the big milestones. Don’t let those moments slip away because you’re waiting for the luck to arrive. Just lean in and do the damn thing.
In this space, this, yes, liminal space, we find all of it—letting go of control, asking what our relationship is to publishing and sharing our work, and also holding our hands out to the universe and saying “take it and let it be.”
Let it be, friends.
I think what I’d really love for you to take away from this is that it’s okay to believe in magic a little bit. It’s okay to let go of the grip of control we want to have on our writing, on how it’s perceieved in the world, on who sees it and who doesn’t.
It’s okay to hold out our hands and let go, to let The Universe and The Sacred show up and show us the way, probably taking us in directions we weren’t even expecting.
It’s okay to show up to this moment with the belief that our words and stories matter and will bring healing out there somewhere, in ways that surprise us.
And the big question we are still left with is this: is publishing sustainable?
Not quite. Not in ways we need it to be.
And next week, we will explore how we can get there, what that might look like, what it might mean to shift things a little and see what happens.
There are just TWO days left to register for this event with me, happening Thursday evening! I would really love to see some of you there and say hello. We will journal together, enter into our personal realms and ask questions about what embodiment means to us.
Register here!
Appreciate this - "Share your work with passion and fire and care," yes!
I’m loving this series, Kaitlin. Looking forward to the next one.