WRITING: Blank books, book sales, and expectations

Posted inWriting
A blank book reaching #44 on Amazon? Yep. It happened. A blank book -- blank -- became a top seller. They spend years writing a book, then even more years trying to get a literary agent and publisher to back it and then, when their book finally comes out, the author breathes a huge sigh of relief and assumes that their book will be discovered, widely read and will sell around the world in bucketloads. Well, any new author needs to wake up and smell the rankings. Most books, however well written, hardly sell many copies at all. And that's…

Authors don’t make a lot of money

Posted inWriting
People have the impression that writing a book = making money. That by writing a book you'll suddenly be rolling in dough. Advances! Royalties! Cash! But it just doesn't work like that. Not only is this an absurd notion for a little book like mine -- I'll be happy if it covers the expenses we incurred while writing it -- it doesn't even hold true for New York Times bestsellers, as author Lynn Viehl outlines in this blog post. Her bottom line is simple: Despite a $50,000 advance, selling about 73,000 copies and hitting #19 on the New York Times…