On June 30, Audra Winter released her highly-anticipated indie debut novel, The Age of Scorpius. The book had been a passion project of the 22-year-old author for 10 years and was, in truth, part of a much-larger series of zodiac-themed fantasy novels. Winter had publicized her writing process since 2021 on her TikTok page called “The World of Guardian LLC.” Through the years, she steadily gained supporters of her literary endeavors, and her view count drastically increased in January 2025 following the creation of a Kickstarter campaign. As one follows her playlist titled, “My Publication, in Order,” one can see her videos rising from the tens of thousands, to the hundreds of thousands, and then to the millions of views. The Kickstarter would shortly be shut down at the end of February due to Winter moving her publishing date from October to May. By the date of release, Winter had sold more than 6,400 preorder copies which, as an indie debut author, was an astronomical number for her to ever have achieved.

Upon the release of The Age of Scorpius, many of her excited readers were outraged by the lack of quality and rushed nature of the novel. In a day, Winter went from a beloved figure in indie BookTok (the literary-oriented niche of TikTok) to last year’s news. Winter, in turn, lashed out at the reaction; she first dismissed her readers’ reactions only to then promise that she would release a new and improved version of The Age of Scorpius in October—with her prospective readers now having to pay even more for a publishable-quality version of a book that should have always been at that standard, according to some.

Her beloved book idea has become both her rusted knight’s armor and her rolling windmills, having become blinded by a mirage of literary success. Her relentless optimism ends up reading as self-delusion and her lack of acknowledgement to her objective failure, as seen by her 2.0 Goodreads rating, hubris. 

We often have things we love doing, things we have cultivated and polished to the best of our ability. When the time comes to unveil these efforts to the public, we expect that the world will love our creations as much as us. In Winter’s case, she likely expected just that. 

As college students, we are familiar with the rejection of internships, job applications and academic failures. These rejections come in many forms, whether preemptively through prohibitive job qualifications or actively through emotionless letters expressing that another, mysterious candidate was their final choice after six rounds of interviews. But the important thing is how we deal with that failure.

Everyone has always been a bit of an Audra Winter. Whether that comes through a bombed exam, an embarrassing presentation or the three-hundredth rejected job application, we have all felt that our efforts have gone to waste and reflexively believe that, if we continue the same exact steps, we will fix our mistakes. At a time where rejection feels inevitable, it is important not to fall into the trap of fighting or ignoring these realities. Rather, it is key to embrace failure, accept rejection and move on from defeat. Only then can you change, grow and try again. Take a break, take your time, shift your perspective. Do not abandon the things you love creating. Rather, accept that not everyone will love what you love and either live with that reality or evolve so that more people can love it. Do not sink into the hole of endless job applications. Instead, realize that your ultimate worth does not lie within whatever job you inevitably get after college, but rather inside you—your ability to take life’s punches and keep fighting. Accept failure, even embrace it, and the next time it won’t be as harsh as it was before.