This from Lynn Viehl (by way of Nathan Bransford). She’s sharing her royalty statement. How cool is that? This is fascinating stuff. She’s so right about no one sharing this information. Sales figures are guarded as if the security of the nation depended upon their remaining secret.
The blogging agents have said their slush piles have grown quite a bit lately. Some people have guessed that with the shaky economy more and more people are losing their jobs and thinking, “Well I’ve always wanted to write a book. Now’s a good time. Selling a book may be a good way to make a quick buck.”
I’ve thought, “No way! No one really thinks that writing a book is a way to get rich quick.”
And then a friend called to ask me about the whole publishing deal. She had a book idea. And she was sure it was going to. Sell. Really. Well. She was ready to quit her job so she could devote all her time to spitting the book out, but she wanted to make sure she’d make several hundred thousand dollars first.
Um. Good thing she asked BEFORE she quit her job. I was able to disabuse her of the notion that making scads of money from writing and selling books is easy.
Oh, I encouraged her to write the book and told her I’d help her craft a proposal. Writing a book is never a dumb idea. It’s great, cheap entertainment. It’s just not the best way to get rich quick. You probably have better odds of getting rich if you buy a lottery ticket.
