If you found success

I would be very immature and then go tell EVERYONE about it.

My ego would go through the roof. Afterwards though? I would probably level out (mostly) and get to work with something or start my own fan club forums that are free to join, and invite all my internet friends that I have talked with about the said book.

And get ready for that movie adaptation with a big motion picture team with big names!

I'd amuse myself all day reading the badfic that my stories would spawn.

I'd immediately start thinking about how and whether to spend the money. It's never too soon to start a retirement fund, but there's also the matter of food and housing.

I would probably help out my friends with some of their financial troubles, and my family, and various charities and help sponsor alternative energy research. Try to use my wealth and influence to help out where I can, continue working on bigger and better things.

On the dark side, I would create a supplemental material for my story/game which would effectively detail all the little things fanfic writers, R Pers, and so forth would want to know! I would also occasionally troll bad fanfic writers, maybe give some of the more promising ones pointers.

Also, I would continue to post to TV tropes wiki.

Well, after rupturing my kids' eardrums (and probably those of the neighbours as well) with my elated "YEEE-FUCKIN'-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"...

Call some of my friends over, buy some wine and/or coffee liqueur and have a bit of a celebration. Get drunk enough to be telling my friends that I love them all but not so drunk that I don't dare lie down for fear of the bed-spins (very delicate balance, that, as the latter state normally follows very close on the former's metaphorical heels).

Call my sisters and brother and let them know that my writing's finally paid off.

Start serious work on finishing up some of my other works so I can ditch my professional geek job and become a full-time author.

In order to have "made it" in my eyes, I need to earn enough moola from the book to take a year's holiday to write my next book uninterrupted by work.

Continue working diligently, natch. But taking that as granted, I would acquire a diligent retainer to clean things (I am quite lazy), start hoarding studio equipment, and proceed to buy enough stock in certain key companies as to have reasonable influence...

edited 27th Apr '11 2:48:42 AM by JHM

Oh yeah, forgot, I had plans to start my own hatedom.

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!

How can you be hatin' on your own work?

Masochistic Self-Deprecation? That or trolling, but trolling can justify anything.

edited 27th Apr '11 4:41:08 AM by Dec

Presuming that with success comes a hefty pay-cheque - royalties, purchase of movie rights (which will ensure I get final say in the adaptation and at least a cameo appearance) etc, here are some things I'd do:

Buy my own home - in the area I want and to my specifications, including (but not limited to) my own office/den/man-cave and sufficient rooms for my family - and have it freehold.

Tour the world by motorcycle with friends - and claim a large percentage of the cost back on my taxes as research for my next work.

Set up a trust to ensure that no matter what training/education my kids want, they will be able to afford it without going into debt.

Even best sellers do not get that much from their writing unless it makes it to the big screens. You guys do realize that right? I do not think we would make a lot of money off the books alone unless we self published or became a juggernaut.

AHR: I actually had a plan to do something like that, except it was part of a Batman Gambit to discredit the inevitable hatedom that would appear if my work was Popular.

Shhhh. Let us dream!

@jasonwill 2: For the Lulz, my dear boy, For the Lulz. Also, publicity, and therefor profit.

I think that if my success also comes with tons of cash, I'd probably go to school a bit longer, travel the world, and / or other things, all while writing more books.

Leradny: I would go to schools everywhere saying "LEARNING IS FUN AND SO IS BEING TOLERANT OF OTHER PEOPLE WHO DON'T SHARE YOUR OWN VIEWPOINTS, MMMKAAAAAAAAAAY?"

I'm dying! I'm dying!

Damn those electric sheep!

@ Jasonwill 2: That's why I mentioned purchase of movie rights for the work, I know that the money you get for a single novel is not much, even if they take a chance on a multi-edition deal from the outset.

I suspect that any money I made from the acceptance would go towards a small celebration, a few mundane bills and investing in my further writing - equipment, consumables, research etc.

And try to claim back as much as possible of the tax I would have to pay on it as business expenses - electricity bill, rent (if you work from home you can claim back certain percentages of both), consumables costs (assuming I can ever find the receipts, I'm slack at keeping such things) and so on.

Once you've become a published author it's easier to get more stuff published - you're officially out of the "Slush Pile" and also the publishing houses may solicit you for books.

Success would mean the potential for a career in writing. If that meant I could regularly earn enough to survive doing what I enjoy doing, that'd be good enough.

Eldritch: Dem kids got to keep on larnin so they's gonna be as rich and famous as me, y'know.

Get a small studio apartment in the city, and have it be my writers den. Then hire an artist (hopefully also a fan) to help me create a webcomic side story, as well as a manga adaptation.

Encourage my fans to make fan fiction, fan art and fan films. and that's about it.

I would declare total war on any Fan Dumb. I would publicly insult them, write anti-fan essays that would make "Xenogenesis" look like a love letter, and endlessly and shamelessly troll, or openly attack, the shippers.

I would also hire some well-trained bodyguards.

And on a less negative note, I would go out of my way to pay my respects to all the members of the Silent Majority who read my works without looking like escapees from a sanatorium.

edited 28th Apr '11 10:39:47 PM by nrjxll

The fan dumb could be part of the fun...I'd join them just to see how they would react. Maybe they would feel silly if they saw the author not taking things as seriously as them.

I'd become famous on the internet from writing a spork website dedicated to tearing my series apart.

I will amass a legion of fellow sporkers.

I mean, who's better at insulting a story than the one that knows every inaccuracy and mechanical error?

My ego would skyrocket and I'd be even more insufferable than I already am (to some people). Apart from that, I don't think it would change my life much.