Is it time you redefined success?

This week my mate Nathan came to visit me here in Liverpool and we had one of those conversations about life and creativity and forging your own path in this world that was so good I wanted to share some of it with you here, in the hopes that it will get you buzzing too!

So grab a cuppa and settle in, especially if you’ve been feeling a little downhearted or directionless lately. 

introducing Nathan to my mate John

Nathan and I first met at the Lancashire Book of the Year Awards back in 2019, when we both had young adult novels shortlisted for the prize.

The authors of the five shortlisted books were invited to stay the night before in a hotel near the University of Lancaster, where the award ceremony would be taking place, and we met for dinner in the hotel restaurant.

As we took it in turns to introduce ourselves around the dinner table Nathan immediately grabbed my attention when he said that he had self-published his book. All of the other shortlisted novels had been traditionally published so this was a huge achievement and something I could really relate to personally as ten years previously I’d self published my first YA novel, Dear Dylan. 

Dear Dylan also ended up being shortlisted for a book award - and it was also the only self published book on the list. 

When Nathan said that having his self published novel shortlisted felt as good as winning I remember having that exact same feeling. The day I found out Dear Dylan had been shortlisted I had to go to the Ladies bathroom at work and do a little dance in one of the stalls I was so overjoyed!

Dear Dylan ended up winning the award it had been shortlisted for and this changed everything. The very next day I had literary agents emailing wanting to represent me and the book ended up going to auction with eight publishers bidding for it and I’ve had books traditionally published every year since.

winning the award for Dear Dylan

I took real pleasure in sharing my story with Nathan to encourage and inspire him, telling him that whatever happened now he’d been shortlisted for a book award as a self published author so this gave him instant credibility.

Another reason I could relate to Nathan was that he was from a similar background to mine and like me, he’d had to overcome a lot of challenges in order to write his novel and had the same inner voice of fear telling him he wasn’t from the right kind of background to become an author.

There was none of the arrogance or air of entitlement that I’ve encountered in some other authors from more privileged backgrounds and I decided in that moment that I really wanted him to win the award we’d been shortlisted for.

In the end, neither of us won the book award, but Nathan took the achievement and prestige of having been shortlisted as an indie author and he ran with it.

He quit his day job and self published more young adult novels and off the back of his books he now works with young people in schools and colleges in Blackpool - helping them use writing as a form of empowerment and self expression and inspiring them with his own story of achieving success against the odds - something that I also did when I was a YA author.

Nathan has now become a respected spoken word poet too, and has collaborated with musicians, and he recently released a book of poems for young people.

When we met this week we talked all about the joys of forging your own self employed creative career and how things are changing in favour of the indie artist. Finally! 

When I started out as an author you pretty much had to get an agent and a traditional book deal in order to make any kind of living from your work.

Here in the UK at least, it felt as if a very small group of white middle / upper class people held all the power when it came to who and what got published.

But the internet has brought so many exciting opportunities for creatives to take control of their careers.

We now have the technology to produce our own books, podcasts, videos and music from our devices in our homes and at a much lower cost than it would have been before.

As a musician I once worked with said, thanks to YouTube, we can now effectively create and launch our own TV station - and for free!

And thanks to podcasting, we can do the same with radio shows!

Nathan is now selling more self published books than a hell of a lot of traditionally published authors. 

And this may sound a little childish of me to say but the fact this kind of thing causes much hand-wringing and whinging amongst the literary snobs in the UK makes me punch the air with glee.

Isn’t it about time that someone else got a crack at the whip?

Isn’t it about time that other voices were represented in our literature - and not clunky middle class interpretations of those voices!

Isn’t it about time that grit and hard graft rather than privilege and who you know or where you were educated are rewarded?

Nathan and I went on to talk about how we now define success and, although we both need to earn a living and he has a family to support, as long as we have our basic needs met, we’re good. And that success as a writer isn’t about fame and fortune, it’s about touching people’s lives with our words and making them feel better.

Even if it’s only one person.

Nathan told me the story of a teenage boy he recently met on a school visit that moved me to tears. It’s not my story to tell but I will share that this was a kid who had been through hell and was busy building walls against the world that had caused him so much pain. But meeting Nathan and learning from him how spoken word poetry could be a powerful outlet for his feelings changed everything for the better.

It reminded me of the time I offered to run a writing course for a charity for homeless teens in London and only one girl turned up.

I went home that first week thinking my course was a failure because no one else came. But week after week that one girl turned up and I helped her craft a really powerful and moving story based on her personal experiences. And then I got her a work experience placement at a children’s fiction company I was working for.

Let me tell you, homeless young people do not tend to get work experience placements at UK publishers!

Seeing her turn up every day so eager to help and to learn and soaking up every second of the opportunity remains one of the highlights of my writing career.

Only one person turned up for my course but my god, it made such a positive difference to us both.

Thanks to the internet and new technology we all have the power to reach others and inspire others and help each other.

We all have the opportunity and the power to create - and to create positive change.

And the way I see it, we have a choice…

We can bitch and moan because our ego isn’t getting what it thinks it’s entitled to and seethe with jealousy when we see other people doing what we dream of

OR…

We can look around in wonder and awe at all of the incredible ways in which we can create that we now have at our fingertips (that previous generations could only dream of) - whether we want to create art or a business or some kind of side hustle - and we can put the joy of creating and connecting with others at the centre of what we do. 

We can build a life / career / business around grit and gratitude instead of grasping and greed.

And we can choose how we define success.

So let me leave you with 3 questions to ponder…

How could you use modern technology to create a passion project of your own?

How could you redefine success in a way that feels freeing and fun?

How could you connect with others in a meaningful way?

I hope this inspires you. 

And for more inspiration please do give Nathan Parker a follow. You can find his books on Amazon and he’s on Instagram @parkerwords 

Until next week, happy creating!

Siobhan