We are a few weeks out from the release of SAVAGE LEGION now, and I find the portion of my brain devoted to obsessing over it is split right down the center.
I am deeply grateful for the support and reactions my debut epic fantasy novel has received. So many more folks than I expected have posted pics online of their copies (many featuring their dogs and cats and whatnot, which is a big bonus), have already read it multiple times, and have expressed a deep love for it. It has connected with people. That is, or should be, in my opinion, the goal of any creative work. The number of people shouldn’t matter. If you genuinely moved and inspired and really drew in one person, you did your job well. You made an impression. You gave them their money’s worth. You succeeded.
I believe I succeeded with SAVAGE LEGION in that way, and I’m very proud of and happy with that.
I also have to accept the fact, as it stands, commercially at least, I’ve written Just Another Book. That doesn’t mean it’s a commercial failure. And the commercial life of a book is, or can be, a long and evolving process. But SAVAGE LEGION is a book that didn’t shake the SFF or publishing world in any meaningful way upon release. It isn’t a best-seller, and isn’t going to be. Reviews and sales are both decidedly trickling. It’s not stoking a big conversation online, or inspiring a big fandom. It’s not a Gideon or a Murderbot or…whatever the best, most recent epic fantasy analog of that would be (it’s weird and telling that I can’t think of one).
Odds are fair SAVAGE LEGION is going to sell a few copies, make a few hardcore fans, but largely it’s just going to fade from the public consciousness as more new and exciting books are released every single Tuesday.
Of all the fantasy novels that came out this summer, I am the author of one of them.
Maybe, hopefully, this book and this series (SAVAGE BOUNTY is coming same time next year, folks!) will be a thing that builds momentum over time. I’d like that. I’m going to do what I can to help that along. But for right now, I have to be honest and candid with you folks and admit I’m disappointed. I wanted this book to be more, and for a while before its release I thought it could be.
I wrote in my last update about how having any book you write published is a huge accomplishment. And it is. But it’s also okay to want and aspire to more than that. We are all, as authors (and especially as genre authors) taught and conditioned and hardwired to be so goddamn humble about everything, to the point anything that is not you prefacing every fucking statement with some version of, “I know and acknowledge I am but the petrified wad of gum stuck to the sole of the universe’s shoe” is seen as arrogance and aggrandizement. Know your fucking place, SFF Author. And be self-deprecating before you are anything else. Ever.
We also have the dreaded reality of publishing hammered into us at every turn. Basically, we’re told, no book is ever commercially successful. You never make money doing this. It’s buying a fucking lottery ticket. If you think your book should sell well, you’re deluded, you’re a newb, you’re not a hardened industry professional who understands the brutal certainties of being an impoverished and ignored SFF author. Expressing hope or desire that you, a sodden nobody, could write a book and then magically that book is a big commercial hit, that is naivety at best and severe, deluded hubris at worst.
Bunch of bullshit, I say. All of it.
I want more than that. Yes, I do want to write a best-seller. I want a book that sells big and long and is beloved by many. I want it for practical reasons, for my career and my professional and financial future and for my family. I also want it purely for my ego. I also want it because I pour myself into the books I write and work damn hard on them for years sometimes and I believe my time and efforts and the work I produce are worth all of that perceived grandeur and monetary reward.
It’s okay to want those things. It’s okay to shoot for them. Frankly, if you’re publishing novels, those should always be your overarching goals. Yes, you should manage your expectations and plan accordingly. Plan and be prepared for the worst, even. But it’s also okay to be disappointed and even feel defeated when your book and you fail to achieve those overarching goals.
Measuring the impact of something like a novel is a maddening and objectively impossible pursuit. There are so many metrics and so many variables. So much is dependent upon the author and how they perceive success, what constitutes their book making said impact. There are also different kinds of “success” when it comes to writing a novel, or releasing any kind of work, really. There’s creative success, critical success, commercial success. These are all different things that we view and judge in different ways. And I daresay no author is every truly satisfied with all sides of that coin.
Creatively, I’m extremely happy and satisfied with SAVAGE LEGION (although I do believe you should always push yourself moving forward to do more and different and better and learn from the flaws and mistakes in what came before).
Critically? I can’t be anything but elated, honestly. All the professional reviews have been amazing so far. I’ve got a bunch of stars. The reader reviews that are coming in have been overwhelmingly positive thus far. There just aren’t that many of them.
Commercially? I’m really disappointed, and more than a little depressed. I really thought we could do better out of the gate. We didn’t. It sucks. And I’m really sick of that being something we’re supposed to keep to ourselves.
It’s okay to feel all of these things simultaneously. It’s okay to acknowledge all of them, and not discount any of them, even and especially the negative aspects. I also believe it’s important to differentiate them. Focusing too much on any one type of success gets toxic really quick. I’m trying not to let my commercial disappointment diminish my creative satisfaction, or let the fact a million people don’t love my book invalidate the people who very much do. They don’t deserve that.
It’s not Just Another Book to them. It’s not to me. And that counts for a lot. That’s success, too.
— MW
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Don’t forget that SAVAGE LEGION is out now in hardcover, ebook, and audio form. You can also support your local independent bookstores by ordering through Bookshop. If you haven’t picked it up yet, there is no time like the present! If you have picked it up, please do take the time to rate and review it places like Amazon and Goodreads. It means a lot, and yes, it absolutely does make a huge difference to the life and success of the book.
Thank you for the stark honesty Matt. I think it's better for all writers when the painted on happy smiles can be put down (like Edgar's) and complicated truths can be shared. I will continue to hope that this book finds it's audience. I'm enjoying the heck out of it (I am, sadly, given my interests and pursuits, a very slow reader sometimes.) but it's certainly worthy of hitting that commercial success.