There’s this idea in publishing that you have to be lucky to become successful, and I think that’s true. There are so many factors beyond the control of the author. There are really good books that never find their readership. There are mediocre books that definitely do (and no, I’m not going to name them. We’ve all got our opinions in our heads, and that’s a great place for them to stay.)

But what does “luck” look like? Where does it come from, and how does it happen? Can we create our own luck?

Well the first thing you can do is write a good book and do your research on the business side. Because despite everything I said about some good books not finding purchase–which is true–having a good book definitely increases your odds. There was a saying I heard back when I was in the army: Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

What does luck look like in publishing? It takes a lot of forms. I think maybe the biggest thing might boil down to the attention of the right person at the right time. I think the best thing I can do is tell you where I personally got lucky with my first novel.

I’m going to do my best not to be self-deprecating. False modesty aside, Planetside is a good book. Is it the best book ever written? Absolutely not. It very correctly did not win awards or anything like that. But people like it. It was definitely the best book I could write at the time, and yeah…it’s good. If you don’t believe me, feel free to read it and tell me I’m wrong. Or, you know…read it and don’t. That would be cool too.

But here’s my point: Planetside has sold about 60,000 copies, give or take, across all formats. There are plenty of very good books that haven’t sold that many (and plenty that have sold more.) The thing that I think makes it an interesting case is that nobody (including me) expected it do sell that well. Sure, we hoped. But this wasn’t a book publishers were fighting for. I had one offer and got a $7500 advance. And look–I know some people would love that advance and I’m not going to get into the whole privilege debate–I’m just going to present data without editorial. The data is this: that advance, at the time, was at the very low end of a debut deal with a big 5 publisher. I’m not upset about that or bitter in any way. I willingly signed the deal, and I was happy to have it.

Given the sales, the book has earned out its advance many times over. So I think it might be useful to examine some of the factors behind why it’s had this success. Because as you’re going to see, I got lucky in multiple ways.

This is risky. I’m going to try to talk about all the ways luck played a role in this–but a lot of that is a judgement call, and to other eyes, there may be even more ways that I miss. That’s fine. I still think there’s value in discussing the ones I see.

Also, some of the things that I’m going to call luck are the result of other people doing a really good job. This is no disrespect to them. For me, it’s luck because I didn’t have any control over that thing happening, and I could have just as easily had someone fail to do that thing (which is a different post for a different day…probably when I’m not in publishing anymore).

From a methodology standpoint, I’m going to try to go chronologically, at least as I remember it. A lot of this stuff was 5 or 6 years ago, and it gets fuzzy.

1. Somebody bought the book. Planetside falls somewhere under the umbrella of military SF (though it’s not truly that) and there is just not a huge big 5 market for that sub-genre anymore. We’d had a lot of rejections prior to David Pomerico at Harper Voyager offering, and if he had passed, I think there’s a good chance that we don’t find another spot. So think about that–if he was a little more busy, or in a little different mood, or if he’d just bought something military–any one thing could have turned that into a pass and we wouldn’t be here.

2. It was turned into a two book deal, and that second book was a sequel. You might ask how that’s luck. A few ways. The initial offer was for one book. By the next day, my agent, Lisa Rodgers, had turned into two books. At the time, I didn’t know what that second book was. I just knew I was glad to have it on the contract, because twice as much money. Here’s the thing: Planetside was a stand-alone. I hadn’t even considered a sequel. In fact, I didn’t know there was going to be a sequel until a few months later when I got the draft contract for review and it said same characters, same world. So…yeah. That’s how Spaceside came about.

Here’s how that helped Planetside. In the first year, Planetside sold maybe 18 or 20 thousand copies. Given that success, there would always have been the opportunity for a sequel. But having it in the first contract meant that book two came out 13 months after book 1. Sales on Planetside had slowed measurably…right up until book 2 came out, when they shot up again and in its second year, it sold another 18 to 20 thousand copies. If we’d waited to see how book 1 did before signing for book 2, the delay would have been longer, and who knows if we’d have gotten the same result?

3. The Sebastien Hue cover. I mean…look at it. You know what my input was to that? “Uh…I want a station in space, orbiting the planet.” I got this. I’ve had a bunch of people tell me they first picked up the book because of the cover.

This was absolutely the publisher doing a good job and hiring a great artist. But to me? Luck. I have a lot of friends who have published books, and not all of them have gotten covers they’ve been happy with for any number of reasons. Covers matter.

4. RC Bray narrating the audio book right as the demand for military SF books hit its peak. There’s a lot of conjecture here, and some of this wasn’t luck. But some of it was, and especially the timing. Audio has been around for a while, but in 2016-17 it was transitioning to digital subscription and becoming more mainstream (It’s still growing faster than print and e-books). I personally started listening to a lot of audio books in 2015, still using CDs or DVDs, and I’d listened to this little book called The Martian, narrated by RC Bray (it has since been re-recorded by Wil Wheaton, but the Bray version is superior. Don’t @ me.) I was hooked. And I wrote Planetside with RC Bray’s voice in my head.

When we signed the deal, the one thing I knew was that I wanted an audio book, and a second thing I knew was that I wanted Bray to narrate. I told my agent and my editor. It mattered so much to me that my agent got a reversion clause for audio rights inserted into the contract (which turned out not to matter, as the publisher exercised the rights). And when I got my list of three narrators to choose from, RC Bray was on the list. I made my choice without listening to samples. I already knew.

To this point, you could argue that this wasn’t luck. I’d done the work and pushed for what I wanted and, with the help of my agent and editor, I got it. So in some ways, I helped make this happen.

But the luck was in the timing. When Planetside came out in July of 2018, there were 800 books listed in the military SF section of Audible, and there was a high demand for that sub-genre in audio. Today there are over 4000, and a new title wouldn’t get nearly the same visibility. And at the same time, we were seeing the rise of The Expeditionary Force series, starting with Columbus Day, which is probably the biggest mil SF audio book series ever. Also narrated by RC Bray. A lot of those fans found my book.

You might ask why this matters. After all, isn’t audio a small portion of sales? Not for me. Over 60% of the sales for Planetside have been from audio.

5. My publicist at the time, Andrew Gibely, found me some nice spots to talk about my book, including placing a piece in the Military Times. This might sound less like luck and more like the basic things that should happen for a book. It doesn’t. Most mid-list books–and especially those like mine, at the very bottom of the mid-list, get very little support. Andrew happened to be great. He soon-after quit because he was underpaid and took a better paying job elsewhere. I’ve been through 4 publicists in 4 books. I’m not the only one. Publishing has a problem. This ends the soapbox portion of this post. Turns out I’m just a little salty about how this business treats people. Whoops.

6. Reviewers found my book. Some of this credit also probably goes to Andrew, but I got some very nice reviews in spots that small-time debut authors don’t always get. I’m not going to talk about them specifically, because I don’t want to embarrass anybody, and as an author it’s not great to interact too much with your reviews in public. But a lot of the reviews are listed on the book page here in my blog, so you can check them out if you want. Suffice it to say that I feel very fortunate that I got as much attention as I did.

I’m sure there was more, but having now worked on this post for two days, I’ve kind of lost the pulse of it so I’m going to quit here. I think I’ve made the point. There are so many things with a book that are beyond our control, and success or failure (commercially) can hinge on one or many of them. Hopefully seeing some specifics helps shine a light on that.

There are going to people who disagree with some of this. That’s fine. The comments are open, and as long as you’re not horrible to other people, I’ll leave it that way, so feel free to discuss.

I’m starting a new section on my blog called “Things I Would Have Tweeted if Twitter was Still Showing my Tweets to People.” It’s a working title.

Either way, here are my tweet length thoughts.

Two SFF books came out today that I’m excited about and planning to get: THE TYRANNY OF FAITH by Richard Swan and WORLD RUNNING DOWN by Al Hess. Looking forward to consuming both of them (one on audio, one reading)

Zac Topping made a video trailer for his book WAKE OF WAR, which came out last year. WoW was the most realistic, gritty Mil SF book I’ve read, so if you’re into that kind of thing, check it out.

My local SFF con, ATOMACON, is adding a writer’s conference this year and I’m leading it. For the price of admission (which is cheap for a con at $40) you’ll work with me and other professional writers and editors, as well as getting my feedback on your first ten pages. If you’re near Charleston, I hope you can join us. I love teaching about writing and publishing.

This isn’t news, but having a writing group with people who are at similar and different points of their careers where you can share information is great. It never ceases to amaze me in the ways that it’s useful.

Tags: Michael Mammay, Planetside, Science Fiction, The Tyranny of Faith, The Wake of War, World Running Down