I'll admit it. I'm a daydreamer. Some days, when I don't feel like writing, I imagine what it would be like to have a book hit the New York Times best-seller list. This is rarely productive. A blog post I read today effectively snapped me out of the dream.
In a full disclosure attempt to dispel the illusions surrounding mass market bestsellers, New York Times best-selling author Lynn Viehl has posted the first royalty statement for her book Twilight Fall on the blog GenReality with an explanation of the numbers and comments about what made her book a best-seller.
Take away point? While hitting the best-seller list is an awesome feat (Congrats Lynn), it's not like winning the lottery.
Of having a best-selling book, Viehl writes, "I’ll tell you exactly why [the book] got there: my readers put it there."
Now that's reality!Labels: creative writing, humility, Lynn Viehl, publishing, royalty statements, writing