What bestseller list can you trust?

The calculation for the New York Times Bestseller list is a closely guarded secret. In the past it was based off of sales to retailers (not books bought in the stores) so it was possible to hit the list by an aggressive sales campaign to bookstores. This meant that some not-so-bestselling books hit the list because buy-in is not the same as sell-through and the huge returns were not accounted for after the fact.

Also in the past, the NYT indicated that they did not take into account online sales, though I suspect they do nowadays because online sales superstars are now hitting the list (even some self-published authors even though the list description clearly states that self-published works are excluded.

In October 2009, the NYT started using Nielson Bookscan data which takes into account "actual sales" as recorded by readers actually walking out the door with books in their hands - but the BookScan data misses a lot of sales and is terribly inaccurate.

I'm not a big fan of the NYT list - it seems pretty biased to the the "old model" where bookstores ruled the book buying world.

Amazon, on the other hand, is based on real live actual sales directly to consumers, so this is the list I spend a great deal of my time reviewing. And the great thing about Amazon's lists is not only do they track the top 100 in multiple categories, but they also have the Mover's and Shaker's list that shows whose sales have skyrocketed in a short burst.

I watch the Mover and Shaker list a lot. It alerts me to recent trends and promotional aspects - for instance the way I first noticed "The Big Deal" and "Sunshine Deals" wasn't from an email announcement or noticing the links on the pages...but because the Mover and Shaker list had some strange movement (a bunch of books going from 1,200 - 3,400 suddenly showing up at 200 - 300.

To bet on the Movers and Shaker List you have to be ranked 400 or less and your change in ranking from one day to the next has to be significant. Ridan authors have been on the Mover's and Shaker's lists a lot. People who have made the list include: Michael Sullivan, Nathan Lowell, Leslie Ann Moore, and now Joe Haldeman.

Joe's Forever War first hit the list on 8/12/2011. I don't have a list of all the times it was on as titles tend to bounce on and off the list but here are some snapshots I found:

• 8/12/2011 - #9 moved from 529 to 377 (40% increase)
• 8/13/2011 - #93 moved from 410 to 378 (8% increase)
• 8/17/2011 - #37 moved from 404 to 318 (16% increase)
• 8/18/2011 - #56 moved from 354 to 297 (19% increase)

There are a few milestones I look for with any title.

• 1,000 - once you reach this you're doing well enough that the Amazon engine of recommendation and also bought are starting to pay some dividends.
  
  
• 400 - eligible for Mover's and Shakers - usually once you hit this level it is easy to stay in the 200 - 500 ranking as you are getting more exposure through the Amazon engine
  
  
• 100 - The big time, if you hit this list you are really doing something. Most indies and self-published authors only hit this with price breaks (most are $0.99). There have been a few $2.99 on the list but they are usually second books in a series. There has only been one author that I've seen that hit the list with $3.99 and that is J.R. Rain who did so with books #3 and #4 of a Vampire Series. I'm still waiting for a fiction $4.99 book to hit the list - there have been a few non-fiction one by John Locke the other by Seth Godin.

Sadly, no Ridan author has hit the top 100...yet. I few got very close:

• Full Share by Nathan Lowell - 117
• Soldier of the Legion by Marshall Thomas - 148
• The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan - 102

As we price our books at $4.95 it's a bit harder for us to get onto the list - I'm sure if I dropped one of the popular books to $0.99 then it would get on the list but that would be trading income for a high ranking and I'm not willing to do that.

So, I'll continue to count on the Amazon lists for my "finger on the pulse" of the books that are selling well - they have the biggest share of the market and their data is based on actual sales and I like that rather than some obscure algorithm.

Here's to hoping all of you will one day find yourself on one of those lists.

Agents as Publishers

Today's post is "by request" as someone asked me to comment on the recent trend of agents becoming publishers. There are some that say it is a conflict of interest, that an agent should be working to place their work with a publisher and not acting as a publisher themselves.

To be honest...there is a part of me that feels that way too. It's kind of a matter of serving two masters. I think that most successful people find something they are good at and do that thing very well. To be trying to walk both sides of that may be difficult to balance. But my biggest problem is not with conflict of interest but rather do they have the skills required to make a book a success...and that generally comes down to marketing.

I know that in today's publishing environment agents are scrambling to find out what part they can play. I think there is much that they can do that fits squarely with their training and strengths. For instance, agents are used to reading a book and seeing the good and bad things about it. For indies, I think there will be a huge market for content editors. Those that can give critical feedback that can take a book that shows some good potential and making it great.

So for new works...I think an agent can be a great content editor which is one of the major jobs that a publisher does (or should do). But it's not all that is necessary. But...if you need substantial story editing and even copy editing, then getting it from an agent who takes a cut might make more sense then spending several hundred or thousands of dollars to get the book launched.

But, in most cases where this comes about is not for "new titles" it is for back list reverted works and that is a horse of a different color. Because this book has already been edited and is "good to go" for the market. So here's what's left:

• Formatting - either for ebook, or print, or both -- ebook formatting is amazingly easy so much so that I personally think people should do this themselves...or if they pay someone else to not pay more than $100 - $200.
  
  
• Cover Art - something the agent will probably be outsourcing. Since this will come out of their pockets - then it's not such a bad idea. (Although I've heard of some "arrangements" where the author is being asked to pay for this ... then what is the agent doing for their cut?
  
  
• Marketing - well now that is where the rubber meets the road. This is not a business of, "if you build it people will come". Well - this may be the case for some very popular books but if they are so then why were they dropped? And if this is so what value add is the agent/publisher bringing? Marketing is key to a book's success and I've proven five times now that once I concentrate a little marketing loving on a project (that is well written) then getting sales of tens of thousands of books is doable...but....my background is marketing. I understand how to build a brand, how to promote, how to get people excited and I work pretty hard at that. Will an agent do the same? Will they know what to do? Will they be successful?

If the answer is yes - then I say sure - go with an agent/publisher - after all they are just taking 15% and a royalty share of 85% is pretty generous and a book sitting idle and unavailable isn't doing anyone any good. But they better be doing things to earn that 15% - if they are just slapping on a cover, formatting, and getting the book "for sale" then do as Dean Wesley Smith suggests and pay for "day labor".

Anyway - that's my two cents on the matter - comments?

Agents Verses Intelectual Property Lawyers

There's been a fair amount of talk on the Kindle Board, and also in a phone conversation I had with another author as to whether you should use a lawyer or an agent. As with most things, the answer is...it depends. The argument I've heard is why spend 15% forever when you can spend a fixed fee. It's a valid point in SOME circumstances but I think there is still a lot of value in having an agent. Let's look at some typical scenarios.

Signing with a small press
In this case I actually suggest: neither
Whenever I hear an author talking about their agent just got them a contract with xyz, and xyz is some small fry publisher , I scratch my head. They really don't bring anything to the table in this situation. The contracts are pretty straightforward. Yeah they'll ensure nothing truly terrible is in there, but they won't be able to negotiate more money (most small presses don't even give advances) and their royalties are usually at or above big-six percentages.

While one would think that a lawyer should look over any legal document - you have to consider cost / risk. That's what a contract lawyer does - looks to eliminate risk. Let's look at Michael's first small press contract with Aspirations Media. We got the contract in and I went to my local Bar Association and several Lawyer referral sites - the estimates I got ranged from $500 - $1500 to review the contract. This wasn't to negotiate the deal, just read all the clauses and point out anything worrisome. But the publisher was only printing up 2200 books (had no plans for ebooks - it was a while ago), and Michael would make $0.75 a book so...even if he "sold out" the first print run he would only make $1,650.

So in this case we "did ourselves" - looked at the contract with a critical eye and asked for changes for some of the things that concerned us the most - mainly under what conditions the rights reverted.

A Medium or Large Publisher Approaches You
This came up on the Kindle board the other day, and what prompted this post. The first thing I want to say about this is...don't do it alone. The fact is, the contract that you'll receive "all by your lonesome" will look nothing like one you'll receive if you're represented. This will be in terms of both money and the clauses (whether they are weighted heavily toward the publisher or the author).

If you have a single book, and it is pretty focused (say non-fiction educational), yeah a lawyer might be the best way to go. It's a fairly one time transaction, the lawyer, if they do a lot of these will know the "going rates" and get the offer increased if he/she thinks its a low ball offer and the likelihood of follow on venues (foreign, movie rights, merchandising) is small.

If you have a series, say fantasy, science fiction, or a thriller than I would suggest an agent. This is body of work with more "legs". The first thing the agent will do is use their connections in the industry to get multiple offers. One of the biggest reasons to use an agent is they have contacts with many editors. Having an existing offer is leverage they can use.

A series also has more potential for subsidiary income: foreign translations, movies, etc. A series has the potential to create a "career" and having an agent to help build it to its maximum potential is, in my opinion, well worth the 15% they will take. A lawyer will work the single transaction and then they are done. The agent has the connections to get additional revenue streams.

You've experienced self-publishing success and want to go traditional
In this case I think an agent is the only smart way to go about this. If you're already earning, you won't have to the query-go-round to find an agent. Pick the ones you are most interested in. Prepare data on your sales, and make some phone calls. If your sales, or rankings are good, I suspect you'll find several people willing to represent you (especially today as authors with an established platform are very marketable).

In this case there agent can bring even more to the table. Most are used to acting as content editors. They'll read the work - suggest changes to make it more attractive (something that an indie author will find expensive and hard to find). It could be that you had a "great start" with good sales, but a little tweaking can turn a good novel into a great novel.

Again, they have many contacts at multiple publishers so armed with a "hot commodity" can make some phone calls and get the ball rolling. This is exactly the situation with Michael's Riyria Revelations series. Our agent put together a proposal, gave it to 17 houses with a deadline to respond with interest in 17 days. She immediately had 7 publishers expressing an interest. Approaching publishers once you have success certainly accelerates the process form the standard approach.

In tomorrow's post I'll talk about agents again but this time "by request" as someone asked me what my take was in the agents as publishers trend.

5 Steps to Building a Platform When You Hate Selling Yourself

The following post was originally written as a guest blog for Michael Hyatt's blog on Leadership. This single guest spot generated:

• 186 Facebook likes
• 215 Tweets
• 492 Comments

It also forced me to write the blog following a "method" that Michael has devised and I found it really helped to create a very focused post. Even though it was posted about a month ago, it still is generating a lot of traffic to my site 5th highest of all other sources and just a smidge down from twitter!

So here's the blog as it originally appeared:

---

I hear the following from authors all the time, “All I want to do is write. I hate promoting myself. I’m no good at it.” The result is they don’t work on their platform, hoping somehow that the whole notion will somehow just go away.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/tap10

Putting your head in the sand is not the answer. It’s no longer a question of if an author needs a program, it’s now part of the writing business and can mean the difference between success and failure.

But fear not, I’m here to tell you that it’s not only easier than you think, but you should know that someone with your attitude is actually well-equipped to do well.

I’m going to let you in on the most important, and most often overlooked aspect of social networking: It’s not about selling. It’s about participation. It’s about being a member of a community. It’s about connecting with people who share your interests.

Those that use social networking merely as a venue for saying, “Buy my book, buy my book,” are missing out. Nobody likes to be sold to. What people gravitate to is those who give of themselves.

Here’s what you need to know about getting started in social media.

1. Observe. Start out by joining and watching. Pick a venue to get yourself started. It could be twitter, an online forum, or a site dedicated to books like GoodReads, Shelfari, or LibraryThing. You don’t have to do anything at this point other than watch and learn. Be a sponge and absorb what is going on around you. Get a feel for the place. Wait until you are comfortable.
2. Participate. When someone makes a comment that you agree with, support their position. Expand on it. Give an example from your own life that illustrates the point. If you disagree, do so respectfully, offer supporting information for your opinion.
3. Contribute. Once you are comfortable talking with others, it’s time to go to the next level. Start contributing. If you read an article that people in your group might find helpful, post a link to it. If you read a book by someone in the group and liked it, tell others. Be supportive. Be helpful.
4. Form Relationships. This is what social networking is all about. Make this your “end game.” You’re not participating to sell your books. You’re here to make connections. If a fan writes a nice review, thank them. Most don’t expect to hear from authors. But after hearing from you, they’ll remember you even more. They might even share with their friends “how nice you are.”
5. Provide Information. Let the people in your group know about what’s going on in your life. Do you have a signing coming up? Is a new book being released? Have you posted a sample chapter for free? Did a magazine publish one of your short stories? This isn’t selling; it is informing. You aren’t telling them to buy; you are letting them know what you have and leaving the decision to them.

Notice that I never once asked you to sell. That’s what’s so great about social media, you don’t have to. Become a person that others like, be one that is helpful, let others know that you have products (books) and the sales will come.

Now I know what you’re likely to say next, “But Robin, that’s a LOT of work. I don’t have time for all this. I want to write.” I understand, but is writing ALL you do? Of course not. What if you cut out some TV? Is having your dream of being a writer worth your spouse helping a bit more? Can they do the grocery shopping or get the kids bathed and ready for bed?

By trading off on non-writing tasks you can make time to devote to this. The only thing that will hold you back is your belief that it will be a chore. If approached differently, this would be so, but if you follow my steps you’ll find you actually look forward to your time online.

When you receive a great review, tell your network, and they’ll celebrate with you. If you are struggling with a chapter, talk about it and you’ll get words of encouragement. You may just find the opposite is true, that spending time online can be very addictive. Does that sound like such so terrible?

Question: What do you need to do next to take your platform to the next level? You can leave a comment

Discoverability...picking the right title

In my continuing series on discoverability I turn now to titles. I was reading a great post by Kevin McLaughlin where he lays out 6 things you need (You can read the full article on his site - which is worth a read but as they say in the Princess Bride...."I'll sum up".

1. You must have a great cover.
2. You must have a great blurb.
3. You must have an outstanding sample.
4. You must have a good price.
5. You must have a compelling book.
6. You must write other books.

He makes the very astute observation that when someone first comes across you:

"That’s all you have for advertising – just your cover and title."

Many people put a lot time an effort, as they should, into creating a great cover - but do you put just as much time into thinking about the title?

Most authors come up with their book’s titles very early in the writing process with no thought about marketing. It could even be, that at the time they were planning on publishing it through a big house and figured they would take care of that (and they will). But if you are self-published, or have a publisher willing to work with you on title then you should be thinking about this.

When I come up with a title the first thing on my mind is: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which basically means how likely is it to find your title using Google. For instance, one of Michael’s early books had a working title of “Wizards” but I would never release a book with that title. It is much too broad and would be nearly impossible to get dominance. If you type Wizards into Google right now there are 83,900,000 results. We selected the titles for Michael’s books very carefully. For instance if you Google Nyphron Rising, it returns 7,400 links and while I’ve not gone through all of them, I did looked through the first 10 pages (100 entries) and each one was related to Michael’s third book. This title has great SEO. Even if all you remembered was the Nyphron part you still get all entries related to Nyphron Rising.

The other issue with title selection has to do with what it conjures in people’s mind. I’m currently helping a new author with his thriller book. It is a about a female CIA agent who is after a criminal who starts off with a simple crime and escalates the stakes with each one. At each crime scene a card is left behind saying, “This was my xx crime, the next one will be bigger.” Taped to the card is a stick of gum (the first crime was stealing that pack of gum). The author’s title is, The Bubble Gum Thief. I really don't like this title...it conjures (for me) a kid's book featuring Scooby Doo or Encyclopedia Brown Boy Detective. So I would definitely re-title this before release.

If your book is in a series there are other things to consider. Can you tie them together in some way? When Orbit told us they would release Michael's six-book Riyria Revelations series as a trilogy the obvious question was - what do you call them? Michael took a step back and asked himself what was at the core of each. The first two books both revolve around stealing a sword. The second two books around a newly formed empire, and the last two about the lost heir of a forgotten time. To tie these together he decided to make each one be three words with "of" in the middle. Hence was born:

• Theft of Swords
• Rise of Empire
• Heir of Novron

He proposed it to Orbit and they loved it and ran with it.

But what about the title of the series? How can you leverage this? Ridan inherited a few series (signed authors that were previously published) and their titles did little to nothing to enhance the series. Leslie Ann's Moore's Griffin's Daughter Trilogy is simply the name of the first book with Trilogy tacked on the end. Similarly Marshall Thomas's Soldier of the Legion Series is, once again the first book in with Series tagged on. Ugh! What were the previous publishers thinking of?

Again, looking to Michael's books his are entitled The Riyria Revelations. There are several things going on here. First "Revelations" is used to indicate that there are secrets and mysteries that will be revealed through the course of the books. And Riyria is the name used by the two main protagonists to refer to them as a single unit (Riyria is elvish for "two"). Riyria is also SEO friendly (75,300 - and again all relating to Michael's books).

Here's a big secret about B&N's search engine - it's pretty primitive. Selecting of categories doesn't help you out very much as it works primarily on titles. So...when posting your nook titles be sure to add a short descriptive phrase. For instance, if you search for: Military Science Fiction in B&N you get:

• #1 - The Forever War
• #3 - Solder of the Legion
  
• #4 - March of the Legion
• #5 - Cross of the Legion
• #6 - Secret of the Legion
• #7 - Slave of the Legion

Magic? Nope - I've just added, "a military science fiction adventure" to the title of each book. BTW - this is a "loophole" that B&N may plug at some point but for now it's worth using. But let's say they won't allow such "tagging" int the title in the future? Well if your series was named, "The Path Finder Epic" then you will still be found when someone types in that they are looking for Epic Fantasy.

Title choice is just one of a myriad of issues that has to be thought of from a “publishers” standpoint and not a “writers.” So if you don’t start out by changing your mindset early you’ll make a ton of small mistakes along the line that will all add up in the long run.

The morale of this story is use every tool available to you. Think of ways you can maximize every aspect related to your book. It is strategic thinking such as this that will help you get ahead of the pack.

Finally...BookStat Data

For anyone who comes to this blog regularly, you know I'm a number cruncher. One of the most difficult things to get a handle on in the publishing industry is some reliable data on sales.

There are many reasons for this.

• Books are sold in many different venues
• AAP data is released monthly but reports data from a VERY small subset of publishers as a whole.
  
• There are thousands (maybe even tens of thousands of small and micro presses whose data is not reported at all
• Top selling self-publishers are not having their data reported at all (the New John Locke, rick Murcer has sold more than 130,000 books but they are not recorded anywhere.
• When do you count a sale? When the bookstore orders the books? Or when the buyer purchases them? How do you account for returns?

Some organizations go at this from the other side of the equation...by surveying readers. But this data is problematic as well. Do they tend to shop online or in stores? Do they use the Internet? The buying patterns of the sample data can heavily weight the information.

One of the reasons I went to BookExpo is to get a better grip on the data of the book industry as a whole. I attended a number of presentations that did help, but the one I was looking forward to the most was BookStats.

This is a 2 year analysis of publishing from 2008 - 2010 performed by BISG (Book Industry Study Group) and AAP (American Association of Publishers). The data was not ready for BookExpo in May, and they expected it to be ready in July. Well July came and went but it looks like the report is finally out as I'm seeing articles written about it.

I plan on getting my hands on the complete report - will cost me nearly $600 to do so but I think it will be worth it. Once I have the report, I'll give some further analysis but here are some fact that have been put out by the New York Times based on their reading of the data.

• 2008 seems to have been the bottom as there has been expansion in each of the three previous years
• 2010 Net Revenue for publishers was $27.9 billion
• 2010 Net Revenue increased 5.8% over 2008
• Trade books grew 5.8% to 13.9 billion (fueled by eBooks)
• Juvenile books grew 6.6% over three years
• Adult fiction grew 8.8% over three years
• eBooks were .6% in 2008 and 6.4% in 2010 (a number which I still think is grossly under reported)
• 2010 eBook sales 114 million copies
  
• Adult hardcover and paperback were essentially flat from 2008 - 2010
• Mass market paperbacks declined 16%
• Hardcover books as % of trade books held pretty stable (37.7% in 2010 39.6% in 2008)
• Trade paperbacks saw similar trends (37.8% in 2010, 39.5% in 2008)
• 
  

A Conversation with Rick Murcer

As I mentioned a few days ago, Rick Murcer has seemingly come out of nowhere and is now dominating the top of the Amazon 100. His two books:

• Caribbean Moon (A Manny Williams Thriller) - is #2 (32 days in top seller)
• Deceitful Moon (The Second Manny Williams Thriller) is #11 (23 days in top seller)
  

I talked to Rick yesterday for several hours in a thoroughly enjoyable conversation that I hope we can continue. Here's what I discovered:

Rick Murcer is:

• A gifted storyteller who is able to channel his vision to the page in a way that brings his characters to life and makes reader care about them as much as they do "real people"
  
  
• A humble man both grateful and surprised by his recent success, who believes in God's blessings, and plans to give back to others less fortunate then himself
  
  
• An experienced businessman and yet unfamiliar about the world of publishing, and quite frankly baffled by many of its idiosyncrasies (as well he should be – there is much that defies all logic)
  
  
• A family man who works as a team with his wife, and is helped along by other family members (nieces, daughter-in-laws, etc.)
  

I LOVE stories about people like Rick and when talking to him I saw many corollaries to my own life.

• We both come from Michigan, have held executive positions, and know the frustration of being laid off and over qualified for most of the jobs available
  
  
• Throughout our conversations he constantly used "we" in reference to his wife and himself. It is obvious that they are both partners in his writing and share equally in its success.
  

• Like Michael, he has had no formal training in writing, but has been a storyteller for his whole life. Rick wants to produce a quality product, is willing to continue to educate himself to do so, and improves with each subsequent book.

• Has made more money than he ever dreamed, possible and yet has only begun to scratch the surface of his full income potential as a writer.

What I'm torn with when writing this post is how to classify Rick. On one hand, I have to put him in the outlier category (i.e. in the ranks of Hocking and Locke), after all, he sold 135,000 copies with two titles over just a few months…and that doesn't happen every day. It’s important to note that both Amanda and John Locke had multiple books (7 or 8 each) when they were at the height of their Amazon Top 100 runs. So it makes sense to call Rich an anomaly.

But on the other hand, Rick got there without the marketing prowess of Locke or the social network platform of Hocking. He reached the top doing things that just about anyone can manage – and he did it largely on his own (the support of his family notwithstanding).
It goes without saying that Rick has written two fantastic books that are obviously connecting with his readers. And this is true of anyone that is making good money in publishing – it all starts from a quality product that spreads by word of mouth. But what else did Rick do to get where he is? Let’s take a look and find out a little bit more of Rick’s story.

Five years ago Rick had been Vice President for two different companies, and in his spare time wrote Caribbean Moon in about four months. As with many executives in economically challenged Michigan, he was laid off, and at fifty-four found himself overqualified. Even after submitting hundreds of resumes he saw no new job potentials in sight.

Rick had submitted Caribbean Moon to a few agents (12 – 15) and received some positive feedback but in April 2011 he decided to release it on his own. He invested just $185 on the cover, while the editing was done by his wife, niece, and daughter-in-law, he taught himself how to format ebooks and get them posted onto distribution sites.

His first day of sales saw 10-12 copies move (mainly to people he knew). He made some posts on cruise related boards (Rick vacations often via cruises and the book takes place on one). He also sent about 250 emails to a network of cruising and golfing friends that he had gathered over the years which picked up another 25-30.

Next Rick started interacting with other authors and readers on the Kindle Forums (The Spinning Wheel and Comfort Inn). He made a post to send free copies of his book and received quite a few emails right away. The post was removed, he didn't know that it wasn’t allowed, but gifted 50-60 copies to those who had asked.

By May, just as the second book was about to be released, he had sold 3,500 copies and had his first 400 book day. Somewhere along the way Caribbean Moon was in a promotion of $0.99 books that Amazon featured as part of a 2-hour sale. In July he started having 1,000 books days, and then 1,5000, and then had elven straight days each in excess of 2,000. By the end of the month he had a 4,000 book day and hit the top 100 on the same night that his granddaughter was born.

Two days ago he sold 6,300 books and yesterday he sold 6,800. Rick also raised the price of his second book to $2.99 and has seen no slowdown in sales. THANK YOU RICK! I'm always saying that people have to get off the $0.99 price when sales are good. Readers won't begrudge you making more money—anything under $5 is a bargain—and they want you to succeed.

Rick is obviously a prolific writer. His second book took about five months from start to finish, and he's working on Emerald Moon and expects to have it out by September. Once released, he has an email list of more than 400 people who have asked to be notified as soon as it is available.

I'm not sure Rick truly understands how unusual his story is. There are many people who have $0.99 books out and never make the top 100 let alone #2, or two in essentially the top 10. The fact that his second book is ranked so highly is a testament to his ability to weave a good tale. As I said, the ONLY way books get to this level of success is through word of mouth. You need to get the ball rolling (which he did through some direct mail, gifted books, posting on relevant sites), but after that the Amazon system kicks in via their best seller list, referring of books and also bought features.

I couldn't be happier for Rick. I love that so many authors are able to make a living in the new world of publishing. I don't think Rick will be submitting any more resumes any time soon. Will it last forever? No, probably not, everything has its day in the sun, but Rick has plenty more stories to tell, and his audience will build with each new release. There’s no reason to suspect that he won’t continue to earn a living from his writing for as long as he desires to.

I want to thank Rick for being so open and honest with me yesterday. Every story like his shows struggling authors what is possible—not what is probably—but what is possible. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, there is no better time than now to be an author.