Joy to the (Writerly) World—Post-Pub Edition
By Vaughn Roycroft | December 19, 2022 |
It’s the holiday season! I seem to have created a tradition of sorts with my last few December posts here on WU, dedicated to my feelings about the prior writing year and the year ahead. Last December’s essay spoke to a positive change I was sensing, triggered by the oncoming release of my debut (this past October). I expressed how the self-evaluation I’m prone to this time of year had often led to less-than-positive feelings about my writing journey. Feelings born of judging my progress, particularly in relation to publication. Feelings that had unfortunately become entwined with the holidays (in spite of the ready availability of peppermint flavoring and the household scent of a slowly dying conifer). I reported that my improved outlook was due primarily to two factors: the freedom I was finding in staying true to my story, and a growing ability to let go of the outcome.
In the wake of my release, as I once again look backward and forward, I’m happy to report that the positive change I sensed last year has, for the most part, continued. I remain enormously happy that I’ve chosen a path that allows me to stay true to my story and how it’s presented. And, although some days are better than others, I’m continuing to get better at letting go of the outcome.
I hope you’re feeling joyful enough to stay with me as I elaborate. Or, who knows? Maybe I can help with that.
Inevitable Peaks and Valleys
I look back on my book release with memories I know I’ll cherish for a lifetime. I think this overwhelmingly positive outcome owes much to the experience of years in and around the writing community. I’d heard how ephemeral, and even disillusioning, a release could be. I had lowered my expectations to the point of resting assured that absolutely nothing magical or enduring would come of the day on which I happened to be published. Those expectations were utterly trampled by what actually occurred.
The day started right here on WU, with my first author interview (thanks, Therese!), and an outpouring from you guys in the comments. Followed by an uncountable number of calls, notes, texts, tweets, and posts, congratulating me and commending me. This went on for days and days. I continue to be astonished by the number of people who are so clearly, genuinely happy for me. My wonderful wife planned and threw a release reception that even a famous bestselling author would’ve been amazed by. Over 70 kind souls came out that Saturday night, and most of them left with signed books. In all of my six decades, I have rarely felt more appreciated.
I’m equally astonished by the dozens of non-fantasy-readers who have picked up, and are reading or have read, my debut. As delighted as I am, I’ll admit to an occasional chuckle over the response from friends and family who are finally reading my work. Several have reported that they’re actually enjoying the story! It makes me smile, how surprised they are to be engaged by a fantasy story, let alone mine.
Of course life can’t be rosy all of the time. I have continued to have my ups and downs. I’ve made mistakes and had setbacks. I’m sure there will be more of each. But all peaks with no valleys would be nothing more than featureless flatlands, right? This past week has provided some good examples. On the day that I found out that a fairly prominent fantasy BookTuber didn’t connect with my characters, another popular Bookstagramer announced that the book had taken his top spot for the year. In addition to that, as we prepared for my first in-store book-signing (which will have occurred the day prior to this post’s publication), my dog slipped on wet leaves while retrieving and tore her ACL. Our poor girl is hopping around three-legged, waiting for surgery, scheduled for early January.
In spite of the ups and downs, I’ve mostly felt honored and humbled by the entire experience. And joyful! My heart is full. Nothing has engendered those feelings more than the response from this community. So many of you have been so supportive and helpful. You continue to buoy my spirits, and to make me, and my books, better. My gratitude is immense.
Let It Go, Elsa
I’ve also had my ups and downs relative to my ability to let go of the outcome. In spite of promising myself I would do otherwise, I have read all of my reviews thus far. In my defense, there aren’t that many of them. The previous sentence may reveal that I’m also failing when it comes to not keeping track of how many ratings and reviews I’ve received, along with the commensurate, dastardly Amazon and Goodreads star scores, both of which I am generally aware. Thankfully they’re good so far, but I know there’s zero guarantee that will continue (and a very good chance it won’t). So I must do better.
I can report a few successes, though. For one, I have yet to lock myself away in an ice palace (#TeamElsa). Regardless of my home-heating circumstance, I honestly don’t know how many actual books I’ve sold. I have some idea, and I’m satisfied—both by what I’ve gleaned and by my ability to not obsess over the numbers. I also haven’t once checked on any of the sort of ranking scores that seem so ubiquitous in the bookselling world. I consider them wins.
Although this next example doesn’t technically resemble letting go, I had to let go in order to fully appreciate it. One of my book’s reviewers titled their review, “Warning,” and pointed out that my book has what they deemed to be unnecessary explicit sex and profanity. The reviewer then generously went on to say it was a good story, called it well-written, and awarded the book four stars. Beyond these generosities, by letting go I’ve come to realize that this review actually performs a valuable service, both to potential future readers and to me. If explicit sex and profanity are going to ruin someone’s experience, they don’t want my book and I don’t want them as a reader—one who is liable to voice a less generous opinion.
As I say, I’ve had my successes and failures in regard to letting go, but I’ve learned that I’m capable of improving, and this is just the beginning of my publishing career. Moving forward, I have a grasp on how much healthier a hands-off-the-outcome approach is for me. I can see that by letting go I will better recognize and appreciate the joy the journey brings.
Joy’s Secret Ingredient
In recent weeks, even amidst the most angst-inducing portions of this roller-coaster ride, I’ve discovered an ingredient that provides more than a mere remedy to the resulting queasiness. It can keep joy alive and despair at bay. Better still is its simplicity. It’s something we all can do, at any point along the way. I’m certain you’ve heard it mentioned, but today I’m going to try to convince you of its phenomenal effectiveness. I hope you’ll more fully embrace it than I used to.
So what is this simple ingredient to our writing lives, that provides remedy to nearly all that so often ails us? Three simple words: keep moving forward.
Lately I’ve been focused on what will soon become my second published book, and I can’t overemphasize how soothing and reenergizing the work has been. Even as I continue to market my first book, focusing on moving forward with the second keeps me from obsessing over what has now become my previous work.
It’s a cliché because it’s true, that a writing career is a marathon not a sprint. Working on the next book reminds me every day of what brought me to this gig. It forces me to appraise how much is yet to come. Which in turn reveals how insignificant to the greater scheme any review or rating truly is.
I’ve long recognized how important momentum is to the completion of a manuscript. It’s also the key to a successful career. Besides that, maintaining forward momentum is a boon to the actual readers who have found connection with your storytelling—you know, the only ones that truly matter. By staying focused ahead and writing on, you are laboring to provide exactly what those all-important fully-connected readers want most. More story. Which can only make your career more rewarding.
After all, passionate readers tend to spread the joy they’ve found in story. Your story. And isn’t that the sort of human connection that most of us have been seeking since we first picked up a pen, or sat at a keyboard in front of a blank Word doc? Isn’t that the essence of writerly joy?
What say you, WU? Does your conifer need watering? Have you embraced the joy found in staying true to your vision? How are you at letting go of the outcome, even if your name isn’t Elsa?
I’d like to thank each and every one of you for being a part of my memorable year. You make me a better writer and human, and it’s much appreciated. I wish you the very best of the holiday season, and much writerly joy in the year ahead.
Vaughn Roycroft’s (he/him) teacher gave him a copy of The Hobbit in the 6th grade, sparking a lifelong passion for reading and history. After college, life intervened, and Vaughn spent twenty years building a successful business. During those years, he and his wife built a getaway cottage near their favorite shoreline, in a fashion that would make the elves of Rivendell proud. After many milestone achievements, and with the mantra ‘life’s too short,’ they left their hectic lives in the business world, moved to their little cottage, and Vaughn finally returned to writing. Now he spends his days striving to finish his epic fantasy series.
Vaughn, thank you for sharing the ups and downs of your adventure. I have to agree, the secret ingredient in this writing life really is Letting Go. We do our best to shape and nurture, then open our hand and let the kestrel fly. That said, I think letting go is a journey in itself, with side trails, blind spots and cul-de-sacs galore. I also believe that it’s circular, but in an upward-spiral kind of way. I’m inspired by what you’ve done and continue to do as an author! Thank you for all of it.
Hey Susan — If I have faith that anyone can navigate the way through that tricksy journey you so aptly describe, it’s you. I’m honored to provide inspiration, and it’s perfect, because that too is circular as you’ve long inspired me.
Here’s to paying heed to our kestrels overhead, and to forging onward, side by side. Wishing you a lovely Christmas week and bright blessings for the new year, my friend.
As always, Vaughn, I find your posts engaging and enlightening. Congrats on all your success–not just with Severing Son but in how you have found such a positive and joyful approach to your writing career–and are reaping so many benefits. Love your reminder to keep moving forward too –good advice as I am working on my own follow-up book to Intuitive Editing.
Happy holidays, friend. Glad to be part of this writing community with you.
Hey Tiffany — I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done to support me and my release. You’ve provided so much support and friendship, but perhaps as importantly, you’ve strengthened my belief. If someone I admire as much as I do you believes in me, how can I not?
I’m so very glad you’re here, my friend. Wishing you and yours a very lovely holiday week, and a prosperous year ahead.
It’s always good to read an uplifting post such as this and get a gentle nudge to assess our writing journeys over the past year. And your message of “keep moving forward” is so perfect. We can sometimes get so caught up in checking numbers, reviews, comments, that we forget the most important thing we do – write.
Congrats on the success of your book so far, and happy writing.
Hooray for gentle nudges–particularly when it comes to being kind with ourselves and seeking joy. So glad the post resonated with you. Thanks much, and happy holidays. Wishing you writerly joy in ’23!
Happy (and productive) new year, Vaughn. It’s been fun to ride along. I was struck by your reviewer’s comment about too much or too-explicit sex in your book, because I had a similar review from an old friend regarding my second book (she had loved my first). I was surprised. Who doesn’t like sex? And the sex wasn’t explicit, although a quick scan made me realize how crude many of the situations might have seemed to her. It was your response that made me realize that she had been *disappointed* in my hero’s behavior. (And mine.) Now I have to write with her in my brain, looking over my shoulder for unnecessary smut.
I agree–sex is mostly such a happy aspect of humanity (at least as I portray it). It’s something most all of us partake in, as opposed to the (at times, very) graphic violence I depict, and that no one seems bothered by. But as Mellencamp phrased it, “Ain’t that America?”
Happy New Year, Michael! Wishing you the same–productivity and joy in your writing life in the year ahead!
Vaughn, you have put much heart and soul into your work, your research to write THE SEVERING SON. This success speaks to your fortitude and kind spirit. Wishing you the best in all your endeavors, Beth
Thank you, Beth! Wishing you a lovely holiday season, and much joy in your writing journey during the year to come.
Vaughn, I’m one of those “actually enjoying the story”—I won’t put an exclamation point as you did, because I’m not surprised. Glad to hear you’ve held a steady perspective post-launch. I’m ready to keep going forward too, knowing there might be a going sideways now and then.
Thanks, Tom, first for not being surprised. But more than that, for reading, for all of your very valuable aid and feedback, and for your friendship. Ha–glad you’re ready for some sideways. It’s coming. Have a wonderful holiday season. Wishing you oodles of joy in ’23!
Vaughn, thank you for this beautiful post. May the coming year hold even better things in store for you!
Thanks, LK! Wishing you the very best for the coming year!
Please excuse the typos. I do proofread; I’m just not very good at it.
Congratulations on your first publication. And congratulations again on your progress on your second story. And thank you for this wonderful Christmas Post. You’re one publication ahead of me.
As to letting go, I can write, and I can offer my writing in hopes of finding someone who thinks they might be able to sell it. When I find someone who thinks they might be able to sell it and is willing to try, I’ll help as much as I can and in any way I can. the buying and selling are in the hands of those leading the sales campaign and my readers-to-be. I have little or no expertise in sales and very influence in buying decisions.
Oh! But I can hope!
I must be careful not to confuse book sales or popularity with the worth of my story or of me. I loved writing it. I hope that doesn’t change.
Best of the Holidays
to you and the rest of WU.
Hey Bob — Everyone has different skills and strengths, and we all have to pick our own path based on those things. But you point to two very important truths: One, hope is a powerful medicine, and we must hold to it, come what may. Also, the joy we find in writing can never be diminished by whatever occurs on the business side of things. We absolutely must know there’s a distinction and hold to it. It’s a true human experience that we’ve labored to find. It’s joy that cannot be taken from us.
Thanks for a wise comment. Wishing you the happiest of holidays and bright blessings in the year to come.
Happy Holidays Vaughn! Wow. Talk about just in time writing. Now I know The Severing Son contains a healthy helping of gratuitous sex and profanity I’ve place my Christmas order and look forward to spicing up the season. And in the spirit of ‘Joy to the World’ I am joyfully daydreaming of completing my fantasy WIP and creating my own “Warning: Author’s Advisory — trauma, sex, profanity, vomit, farts, banquets, and (my personal motion picture favorite) thematic elements. P.S. Danger: story involves plot and 346 pages.” As you wisely point out, as readers we bring ourselves to authors’ stories with all our values and quirks and appetites. It would be a dull and scarey world indeed if one book could rule us all. One style entertain us equally. And a diversity of re-viewpoints helps me find my favorite authors. Thanks for a thoughtful send off to 2022. Looking to the new year to finishing my 1st draft in 2023. I see revision in my future. ;-)
Oh Torrie — Your warning list not only makes me laugh, it fills my heart with even more joy. I can’t wait! Isn’t it funny, how some so-called warnings are actually enticements?
Yes, thank goodness for the diversity of storytelling in this world. Even as each of us has preferences for types of stories, we’d all go mad without a broad range to keep us all invested and learning new lessons, new perspectives, and new heights of empathy. Blessed are the storytellers.
Wishing you a lovely few weeks of merry-making, and a very joyful and productive year to come. I hope you enjoy The Severing Son! I’m cheering for you, and can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Spoiler Alert: There will be a review!!!
I’m halfway through a re-read of your novel. So many good things to say, but I’ll mention one: your characters are not modern people, their thinking (for instance magical) and values (such as honor) are of another world, and yet in their ambition, fear, devotion and love, they are so much like us now—probably as we have always been.
And I am crushing again on Elan, I’m sure that I’m not alone in that. She is the great romantic heroine that Tolkien lacked. I hope that battlefield love scene made the final cut, BTW, nothing else like it that I’ve ever read.
Happy Holidays, Mr. Roycroft, thanks for your many gifts to this community—and us readers.
Hey Benjamin — Oh, the scene is still there, in all of its fumbling, awkward, youthful exuberance. How could I ever cut that? Thanks for your kind appraisal of my very favorite character. You’ll be happy to hear that, indeed, everyone I speak to seems to mention their fondness of Elan.
I think it’s true, that by providing that bit of distance, portrayed via the historical and magical, fantasy gives us a unique perspective that can offer us much. Even solace. We are, and have always been, mere humans.
Back at you–big thanks for all you’ve generously offered and provided, to me and to WU. Here’s the the joy of writing on. Happiest of holidays to you and the family.
Vaughn, thank you for this honest, enlightening essay on your post-pub experiences. I shall be there (with much less fanfare I’m sure) after Jan. 30th when my debut fantasy romance The Witch Whisperer releases. Once a book publishes, it is no longer yours. It belongs to readers that will do with it what they will (gulp.) I know I will obsess over reviews and ratings and contest results. But meantime, I shall do what you do–keep writing that next book. They’re like foster pups, really, to nurture and raise up until it’s time to let them go. This evening I’ll settle down with a good book–I hear The Severing Son, although kinda hot, is full of adventure and great characters!
Huzzah, Barb! So exciting that your release is so close! Congrats in advance. And what an intriguing title. :)
We do what we can to let go of the outcome. Your foster pup metaphor is spot on! Of course we want the very best for them, but you’re so right, that they’re no longer ours. A very wise addition to the conversation. I can perfectly see how ready you are for the exciting days ahead.
Wishing you the very best with The Witch Whisperer! If you do me the honor of checking out The Severing Son, I very much hope you enjoy my spirited foster pup. Happy holidays, and grab that joy and hold on to it come January! You’ve got this! :)
I’m super late in replying, but I couldn’t agree more that momentum is key. I really think you’ve got a great handle on this self publishing thing and I’m so excited to watch your journey so thank you so much for sharing it so openly. I’ll continue to cross my fingers for your success, but really, I think you are doing a great job of making your own luck! Wishing you a very happy holidays!
Thanks, Lara! You’ve always been an inspiration. Thanks for leading the way.
Wishing you a lovely holiday week (or two), and solid momentum and joy in the work in 2023!
“Three simple words: keep moving forward.”
So say we all.
Ups and downs are part of life, so if you can look back on the past year and say, “Hey, overall this was pretty good,” then I think you’re doing well. I’m so happy for you, and for your book. Here’s to a solid 2023 too!
Hi Kristan! Very wise way to approach it, and yes, overall it can’t be called anything but a good year. I must keep this in mind as the swings continue (which they have, and undoubtedly will).
Here’s to ’23! Thanks for passing along the wise approach and reminder. Wishing you the best, my friend!