Can you name the USA national college football champion in 2019? Or name the winner of American Idol in 2022? What was the best-selling Christian novel in 2023? Or, even harder, name two of the top five top best-selling Christian nonfiction books of 2019, only five years ago.
My point is that success is fleeting. On top today, forgotten tomorrow. But that depends on your definition of success, doesn’t it? Authors and artists tend to depend on adjectives like “bestselling” to “award-winning” to define whether or not they are doing a good job. The problem is that the arts rarely have a method to quantify success. So sales numbers, awards, or bestseller lists become the criteria upon which everyone relies.
We like to celebrate our clients who achieve bestseller status or receive a major award. They are confirmation and encouragement that is hard to achieve. At the same time, I know of writers who are wildly successful with their writing but will never garner such attention. They labor with novels or nonfiction topics that have a focus that are unlikely to capture the imagination of the commercial market or go viral on social media.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to hear the stories of authors who receive letters from readers telling of changed lives? I’ve seen a few over the years, and they can be astounding. Readers who choose life over suicide because of a book they read. Birth over abortion. Recommitment to marriage instead of divorce. God-honoring lifestyle instead of drugs or sex. Don’t know about you, but I’ll take that as a “win.” Are you willing to pursue your call to write for the sake of one reader? Someone you may never meet or never hear from? This type of success is not fleeting but eternal.
