How I Became a 10-Year Overnight Success Story
Bestselling author Evie Woods shares her experience of becoming an “overnight success story” through 10 years of writing and publishing.
As I type, my book sales have just hit two million copies worldwide. The Lost Bookshop (which published in 2023) not only changed my life, but marked the 10-year anniversary of when my career began. 2013 was the year I self-published my first novel (The Heirloom, which will be republished with One More Chapter next year). With no contacts in the industry and no clue of how to get my books published, the intervening years have been a lesson in how to write your own success story.
Back in 2016, after I had self-published my second book, I came across the term, ‘The Cinderella Complex.’ As an author whose work is influenced by myth and folklore, I was intrigued!
The Cinderella Complex, a term first coined by Colette Dowling in her book of the same name, describes how women were socialized to be passive, dependent, and to wait for a knight in shining armor to come along to make our dreams come true. Written in the 70s, many of these ideas are outdated now, but I couldn't help seeing the parallels when it came to publishing.
In the doldrum years of waiting to be signed by an agent, or spotted by a publisher, writers are doomed to wait around, hoping someone else will make their dreams come true and declare them an official writer. Authors who do have a successful career path are often framed as having a ‘fairytale’ journey. Yes, they wrote a great book, but so did thousands of other writers, so how did they do it? We never quite know. Did they just get lucky? There’s a sense of mystery surrounding it and as though it just ‘happened’ to them, rather than making it happen.
As a new, unpublished writer, I felt daunted by this hero's quest. While I was fully aware that the creative industry isn’t like other industries, where you get your qualifications and apply for a job, I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of leaving my fate up to, well, fate! There had to be some way for me to claim my agency back.
Publishing can feel like a fortress, shrouded in mystery. I would send off submissions and hear nothing back for months, if I even received a reply. Vague feedback ‘not right for our lists,’ left me wondering when my life as a writer could really begin, or if my writing was any good. I felt like a young woman in an Austen novel, doomed to wait it out until some editor or agent would finally see my value. It felt outdated—like harboring the desire to be rescued from the slush pile was my only hope.
But waiting around for Mr. Write (to use the Cinderella analogy) can really chip away at your confidence and if I ever told anyone that I was writing a book and hoped to become a published writer one day, it felt delusional. Without any external validation, I decided I would have to claim the title of writer first and believe that the recognition would follow. Eventually. And so I formatted my manuscript, hired a cover designer, found a beta reader, and nervously uploaded my first book.
I remember when it went live, I was watching the sales graph, giddily expecting it to rise. It did not. And so I began writing novel number two!
There is a lot to be said for the years spent honing your craft—it's certainly not wasted. But it takes a lot of determination and resilience to keep going despite rejections, without knowing if readers will ever see it. Nevertheless, I worked hard at building a platform and a small but invested readership.
I set up a mailing list, wrote articles for newspapers and online magazines. I used my time by blogging, engaging with readers in a more immediate way and giving myself the experience of at least feeling like a writer. Without realizing it, I was starting to build a platform, albeit small, but I started to take myself more seriously as a writer.
I gave myself the validation to pursue this career, when nobody else would. And taking your destiny into your own hands can change your perception of success. In retrospect, I am so thankful that I started out as a self-published author, because I never had to compromise on my ideas and now I have found a publisher who collaborates with me, so I now have the best of both worlds.
Finally in 2018, I signed with a small Indie Press in the UK to publish my third novel, The Story Collector. It was the first time I didn't have to do everything myself, like cold-calling bookstores and selling my books out of a suitcase (yes, I did that!). I felt like I had made it—my books were in airports and I even had one translation in French. But when Covid hit, the publisher folded and I was back to square one.
That's when I began writing The Lost Bookshop and decided that if I couldn't find an agent or a publisher, I would self-publish. I submitted to around 25 agents and heard back from three. All rejections. I was keeping an eye on the submission window at One More Chapter—I had come across their imprint as they published one of my favorite books (The Map of Us by Jules Preston). They seemed to offer a new kind of publishing that addressed the changes I was seeing in the digital landscape. They opened their inbox and in December 2021, I submitted. Six months later, my editor Charlotte Ledger sent the email I'd been waiting for so long to receive—an offer of publication. I was so surprised, I needed a second email for confirmation!
Whilst OMC is an imprint of HarperCollins, they are a dynamic division that aims to bring the author and the reader closer than ever. This, together with their global platform and commercial expertise made them the perfect home for me. Their model is not traditional either, offering 50% royalties on digital copies instead of an advance and monthly royalties, which was also very similar to the self-publishing model I was already used to and gave me a sense of continuity and control.
We have achieved so much together and all of this without literary representation, which might be a bit unusual, but having had to wear so many different hats as an indie author, it gave me the confidence to negotiate my own contracts (with the help of specialists from the Society of Authors in the UK and the Irish Writers Union) which is something I’m very proud of.
There have been some amazing highlights along the way, like being shortlisted for a British Book Award and hitting the Sunday Times Bestseller List, as well as making it to Number One on The Wall Street Journal Bestseller List. Barnes & Noble released a special hardback edition in 2024 and when my editor sent me photos of The Lost Bookshop for sale at Christmas in their Fifth Avenue store, I felt like Cinderella had well and truly made it to the ball! And just last year, my name was a clue in the New York Times crossword! (40 down was Evie, in case you’re wondering.) It’s when unexpected things like that happen that I really have to stop and look back at how far I’ve come.
I read a quote recently, ‘You don’t get what you wish for, you get what you work for.’ It’s such a positive affirmation, one even Cinderella might appreciate. You can decide to become your own knight in shining armor, making your own dreams come true.
So instead of waiting for something to happen, start making it happen. Instead of waiting for ‘The Call’™ to come, keep writing the next story, the next article and keep reading because eventually you will get there, and you will have done it all by yourself. For yourself.
If writing is what you want, go after it. Don’t wait to be asked.
Check out Evie Woods' The Violin Maker's Secret here:
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