Allison Winn Scotch and the Secrets to her Success

Psst, WU readers! Allison Winn Scotch’s new release, Time of My Life, has just gone into its second printing! Her novel has not only made People Magazine, it’s made the Today Show’s list of “10 can’t miss fall reads!” (See this list HERE.) Is it possible Allison will make the NYT best-seller list this weekend? Have you purchased your copy yet?

Allison recently posted an inspiring essay on her blog about the secrets to success. We’re happy she’s allowed us to re-post that here for you today. Enjoy!

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I was asked this week, on one of my writer’s boards, to share the secrets of my success. The question made me both laugh and cringe, and it feels really narcissistic to even indulge myself into thinking that I’m someone who should have secrets to her success, much less share them, but once I started thinking about it, I thought, eh, maybe I do have some tips that might be helpful or inspirational to blog readers, and so, here are a few ways that I think I helped boost my career. Take them for what you will, knowing that there are many, many writers out there who are more successful than I am, and that I in no way am placing myself into their vaulted category.

So anyway, here are some tips:

1) I’m not afraid of failure. For me, it’s not that failure isn’t an option. Of course it’s an option, but it’s not a reason not to do something. I push myself my very, very hardest, and I truly and fully believe that I will succeed at virtually everything I do, but I also know that if I don’t, it’s not the end of the world. Failure really isn’t that scary to me, but I think for some writers that fear of failure can be paralyzing. But you know what? So what if your ms doesn’t sell? Mine didn’t. Eat cookies, move on. (As I’ve been known to say.) Use it as a lesson for improvement.

2) I’m open, very open, to constructive criticism. This sort of goes along with #1. I think a lot of writers tie their egos to their work, but what really happens is their egos bog them down like boulders. I got criticism earlier in my career (hell, I still get it, let’s be honest), and rather than raise a wall of defensiveness, I took an honest look at what these people were saying about my writing and I tried my very best to implement the advice, when sound. I often say here that improvement in your writing is a limitless ceiling, but many times, the only way to improve is to take a hard look at your weaknesses. Even if your mother tells you that your ms is perfect, it’s most likely not, so stop thinking that it is.

3) I dream big. I don’t know if this makes me particularly unique. I’m guessing that most writers hope to write big books and have their novels turned into movies and all of that good stuff. But regardless, I dream big, but I don’t just dream: as I alluded to in #1, I fully, fully believe that I am capable of making this stuff happen. I honestly give this credit to my parents: I have been over-confident since I was a kid; it’s just full-blown innate assuredness (is that even a word?) that if I want to get something done, I have the skills and capacity to do so. So I use everything in my control to make it happen. If it doesn’t, it’s not going to be for my lack of trying. (Think of that Chumba Wumba song: “I get knocked down, then I get up again, you’re never gonna knock me out.” Well, I love that song. It is my motto to a tee.)

4) I surround myself with very, very, very good people. I keep getting congratulatory emails and phone calls, but really, I think a lot of the kudos goes to the team (ugh, yes, I said that I have a team, forgive me) that has worked to make this book a success. I have been with my agent since the beginning (well, after my first agent gave up on me – see #1 about failure), and she wasn’t the most established and she wasn’t the biggest and she wasn’t the a-numero-uno. But I believed in her, and she believed in me, and together, we’ve ascended the ranks. I trusted that she was smart and capable and talented and my ally, and she has proven to be all of these things, and without her, I would not be here. Ditto the team at Random House: people congratulate me on The Today Show, and I say, “Congratulate my publicist because she did it, not me!” And it’s true: from the person who designed the incredible cover to my publicist to my incredible editor who suggested some tweaks in my first draft that made this book so, so, so much better…it was a collaborative effort. And an intentional one as well. My agent and I knew that we wanted to work with these folks before we shopped the book around, so we found a way to make it happen, even if it meant, for example, that I pulled out from an auction and took less money.

5) I had some good luck. Let’s be honest here. There are plenty of incredibly talented writers out there who haven’t yet been discovered. My timing has worked out. If my best friend hadn’t called me on the day I was gestating a time-travel idea and hadn’t started talking about her what-ifs and if I hadn’t then gone for a run on that incredible summer day, who knows? I worked very, very hard, but I also got lucky. I’m smart enough to know that too.

Anyone else want to chime in on their own secrets to success? I’d love to hear them!

Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.

Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.

Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.

www.theresewalsh.com/