The Stories Writers Tell Themselves
Aug 13, 2026 · 7 min · 7 segments
**Episode 11 - I thought success would feel different** Writers spend a lot of time making up stories and not all of them end up in our books. *The Stories Writers Tell Themselves* is a free…
Katherine ColletteHostBecause once your work is out in the world, there are suddenly all these new ways to measure it.
How many copies did it sell? What reviews did it get? Did it make any lists? Did it win anything? Did the publisher buy another one? And then inevitably, you start to also think, "How did everyone else's book do?" There's a stage in a writing life that isn't really dramatic enough to be called a crisis, but it isn't stable enough to feel secure either.
You understand and know so much more about writing and publishing than you did when you started.
Your work exists in the world, and that changes the psychological terrain.
I've done this, I've looked, and the point I'd make is that I wasn't trying to be malicious or mean.
It felt necessary, like glancing at a scoreboard while waiting to be subbed in.
Where do I stand? Am I doing well? Am I going somewhere? Have I plateaued? Is this as far as I go? The seductive thing about all this data is that it looks like an answer.
Sales figures, review averages, prize lists, rights deals, they all feel definitive, but they're not.
They're pieces of information, and we try to turn them into stories and make them mean something.
Because once your work is out in the world, there are suddenly all these new ways to measure it.
How many copies did it sell? What reviews did it get? Did it make any lists? Did it win anything? Did the publisher buy another one? And then inevitably, you start to also think, "How did everyone else's book do?" There's a stage in a writing life that isn't really dramatic enough to be called a crisis, but it isn't stable enough to feel secure either.
You understand and know so much more about writing and publishing than you did when you started.
Your work exists in the world, and that changes the psychological terrain.
I've done this, I've looked, and the point I'd make is that I wasn't trying to be malicious or mean.
It felt necessary, like glancing at a scoreboard while waiting to be subbed in.
Where do I stand? Am I doing well? Am I going somewhere? Have I plateaued? Is this as far as I go? The seductive thing about all this data is that it looks like an answer.
Sales figures, review averages, prize lists, rights deals, they all feel definitive, but they're not.
They're pieces of information, and we try to turn them into stories and make them mean something.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
