And then the luck then comes into play: in matching the right story to the right agent, to the right editor, and the right cover, and the right period for the right market trends, and making it to the right distributor with the right data entry clerks to make sure the thing hits the stores, and possibly reaches the right readers who will appreciate it and tell their friends.

Bad luck: you write a novella specifically for an anthology, only to have the publisher respond to your querry six months later saying they never received your submissions packet, which you mailed a solid two weeks before the deadline.

Good luck: they also say that they’re publishing a second volume on the same topic, so please send it (electronically this time) directly to a contact who now at least knows your name from jane doe’s. And this time they received it.

We’ll see how it all pans out.

The solution to career hiccups (even this one) is to keep writing new stuff, and keep sending it out, and keep expanding our audience.

It is, after all, the only part of the writing equation we can actually control.

One of my local writer friends had to change her name twice because of the proverbial death spiral, but she’s doing just fine now, with many excellent books in print and a writer lifestyle I envy.

Hard work is the overwhelmingly dominant factor, but it’s clearly not the only one.

I include talent because not everyone starts in the same place and I know people who genuinely can’t write (fortunately none of them want to be writer and they are genuinely successful in other fields) I’ve had long conversation with several of them about their attempts to write various thing and really not being wired for it.

I include luck because I know good writers who work far harder than I do who have yet to catch the right break and I also know writers who caught a lucky break first thing out of the gate.

Nobody gets there and stay there without working their assess off, but quite clearly hard work isn’t always enough.