When things work out differently
the bookseller piece, a career reflection & a discount code
I’ve had a huge influx of new readers because the Big Book Industry magazine The Bookseller wrote about Substack — and it turns out this Substack, The Hyphen, is one of the biggest Substacks in the UK written by a novelist. (I currently feel like a very tired and run down novelist because my second novel is a slow ongoing labour of love.) I was explaining to a friend yesterday that I am in the ‘feral’ part of the process. It’s when you’re nearly there and need to give it one last major push. Edits are done in the same unwashed jumper, scaring anyone who knocks on my door with my massive birds-nest hair. Anyway, it was really strange (and exciting) seeing my name on the list and I wanted to say hi if you’ve just joined!
(Most of the ~action~ happens behind the paywall — but every now and again I like to explain what on Earth goes on here, and give you a free piece to read.)
Firstly, on The Bookseller piece, I’ve been reflecting on these strange moments where something you are doing seems to be actually working out really well. For so long, I wanted to be accepted by the mainstream. I wanted to get behind those doors, be in the green room, be in a fancy reception, get the stamp of industry approval. The ‘establishment’ of the media who anoint you with their sword and allow you in. Feeling accepted within an industry is a tough game — essentially it’s a lot of people with power and connections who either grant you access, or they don’t. That’s how it feels.
Growing up in Exeter, and not knowing any one in “the media”, I longed for someone to give me advice. Instead, the results of a ‘careers test’ at school (all I remember is having to write ‘S’ backwards lots of times?) told me I should be a town planner. I remember my older brother telling me he had an old school friend who was now an author, and that author gave me some really good writing advice in my twenties. But it all felt so far away. How do you ‘become an author’? I was missing the steps in between, so I just made it all up. One foot in front of the other. I couldn’t see very far in front of me, but my headlights were on and I could inch forwards slightly.
work in marketing > take pay cut to work at a start-up magazine > work at a bigger magazine > write a blog on the side the whole time > pitch a book idea > get book deal > quit job > do freelance bits and bobs > start a podcast > pitch another book > on repeat until you burnout > start a Substack
I don’t know anyone who becomes an author by sitting by the sea with their quill hoping for the best — many authors I know have many different jobs, make ends meet in any which way they can, to buy themselves time to write. The publishing industry is not what it was. Advances are tiny, too many books are published, there’s not enough space, people are burnt out.
The real sign of ‘success’ for an author, apparently, is to be on The Sunday Times Bestseller List or sell a shedload of copies. Or be heavily stocked in W H Smith in an airport. Then the rules of success seem to change: in the film American Fiction there was a sense of the protagonist rolling his eyes at airport books and books with their own massive window displays. There is even a popular snarky podcast that dissects ‘airport books’. Being in the airport was The Thing and now it’s seemingly Not The Thing. Mainstream success is a fickle beast. (I personally love picking up a book at an airport and find great comfort in this — but sometimes it really is disheartening to see only giant hardback celebrity memoirs in a row on the shelves, each with a variation of the title “This is Me”.)
When I worked at Condé Nast, I thought it would really open doors, but then I was invited onto panels because of my blog. I would say Condé Nast like it really meant something, but the invitation was because I’d launched my own project and found a community online. I did lots of radio, getting invited onto Woman’s Hour often and other BBC TV and radio shows — but it was my little old podcast (recorded with two £15 microphones) that really gained traction and changed my life. I longed to be in airports and on bestseller lists — even though my books have sold fine, I’ve never had a ‘hit’. I got a sad little royalty payment recently for my first book, on the same day I got a big payment through from Substack.
If you look at the contents of my books, all of this should make sense. The art of doing things differently. The Multi-Hyphen Method is about designing your career your own way — screw the system. OLIVE is about deciding not to have kids and live a different kind of life — screw doing what everyone else is doing. The Success Myth is about how the lure of success is never enough until you work out who you actually are underneath it all — screw chasing a career ladder that never loves you back.
The Universe has a funny way of saying: “I know you so desperately wanted that thing, but over here… this is even better.”
The paperback of The Success Myth is out on March 7th with a brand new beautiful green cover. You can pre-order yours here.
If you fancy joining the community, here’s a 40% discount code for 24 hours. I do these flash sales every so often. Now’s a good chance to nab it. Today we’re chatting about age-fluidity in the private community forum. Every other Sunday I give you a round-up of everything I’m reading; and I write a new long form post for you most weeks. Come and join! And introduce yourself here, if you’d like to, so I can say hello.