The Bad Thinking With Book Sales Numbers…

I Hate Writers Talking Sales Numbers…

Actively hate it. Why? Because most writers do not understand that every number is a person who reached for the money and paid for one of the writer’s books. Real people that chances are the writer does not know.

I have always personally found it an honor when someone buys one of my books or stories.

So writers who talk about only selling 100 copies just can’t imagine 100 strangers lined up paying good money to read their work. Flip the numbers into real people and you will make a lot better decisions.

And for me, when the numbers get too high, I have trouble even imagining it. For example, Kris and I wrote one Trek book that has sold over 30 years just over 1.7 million copies. There aren’t that many more people here in Vegas. Wow.

So sure, we are businesses, and we often break down how the business is doing, like any business, with sales. Income.

But the writers I have seen really succeed realize there are real people behind every sale, and it is the writer’s job to give them something they will be entertained by and that they can read. And with luck, they spend money for more stories by the writer.

Book after book comes into this condo and more times than not, I open it, shake my head and close it and put it in the bag to go to the library. Not because the story doesn’t interest me, but because the writer forgot there are real people on the other side of their product. Print so small, not even a twenty-year-old could read it.

And some night I will talk about the complete inability to read a “pretty book” that so many writers are putting out these days. You know, the ones with the art distracting the reader from the story every page. Oops, forgot why they even wrote the novel in the first place. Just because it is possible to do a pretty book does not mean you should.

We are storytellers. We have readers who spend good money for our stories. Treat those readers with respect. They are a lot more than just a number.