I am a big reader. Hopefully, being a semi-professional author (I’m still not used to saying that), that should not come as a big surprise to anyone. If you are an aspiring author, my best advice to you is simple.
Read.
Read anything and everything. By doing so, you can see how the published professionals do it. See how they put a story together and then find your own voice.
Still, here is a staggering statistic. Mick Foley (no relation) is a #1 New York Times Best Selling Author and professional wrestler. In his 2001 book Foley is Good (and the real world is faker than wrestling), he levies a staggering number that 70% of all adults never read a book after completing school. 70%!
But while appalling, that number is not far fetched. Say that a paperback book costs $7.00. If a book sells 100,000 copies (making $700,000) it is a runaway best seller. Howard Stern’s Private Parts shocked the literary world in 1993 by selling over a million copies. (I’ve read that book. It is hysterical.) Now, let’s say that your average movie ticket price is $7.00. If a movie only makes $700,000, it is considered a massive flop.
And here is some impressive numbers for you just to show the disparity. According to Variety, The Dark Knight grossed $996.8 million worldwide. Iron Man grossed $581.9 million. But I think that is probably safe to say that you could take the sales of all Batman and Iron Man related comic book sales for 2008 and you would be hard pressed to sell even 1% of that.
So movies are certainly the new genre for my generation. Writing a book is not a big deal anymore. Getting the movie deal, that is where the money is.
I’m kind of between projects right now (waiting on editors), so I have been catching up on my reading. My favorite author of all time is R.A. Salvatore and I absolutely love his Forgotten Realms book series. I have been reading them since I was about fourteen years old. There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Salvatore’s work is the reason why I write. In many of his dust jacket covers, the blurbs say that Salvatore received a copy of The Lord of the Rings as a gift and after reading it promptly changed his major in college. That book changed his life. I would love to meet him one day and tell him that The Crystal Shard changed my life.
So because of my writing and schedule I was delayed in reading his 2007 release The Orc King. And since Amy got me his 2008 release The Pirate King for Christmas, I figured I needed to get going and get caught back up on my reading. So I have spent some time over the last week sneaking pages on my breaks and lunches at work. And when people come back and see me reading, many ask what I am reading or assume I am reading the Twilight series.
I must have had four people in one day ask me if I was reading Twilight. When I shared this with Amy, she asked me if I was reading it, I said, “I’m not a fourteen-year-old girl.” To which she sarcastically replied, “You aren’t a twelve-year-old boy but you read Harry Potter.” That is a whole different ball of wax and a blog for another day.
Still, anything that can generate that kind of buzz is a tremendous thing. And I’m not knocking the series of vampire novels by any means. I’m just not into the whole romantic thing. Clearly it is very popular but just doesn’t really sound like my cup of tea. I may check it out later.
Still, it is amazing how many people just do not read. I don’t think it is because they are stupid or illiterate. Maybe lazy. But people just do not read and as an author, that is pretty darn depressing.
But in the meantime I am pretty happy. I am hip deep in the battle for Mithral Hall and the attempted establishment of an orc kingdom under the leadership of Obould Many-Arrows. Heck, I’d write more for this blog but I am a pretty intense part of the book.
Read.
Read anything and everything. By doing so, you can see how the published professionals do it. See how they put a story together and then find your own voice.
Still, here is a staggering statistic. Mick Foley (no relation) is a #1 New York Times Best Selling Author and professional wrestler. In his 2001 book Foley is Good (and the real world is faker than wrestling), he levies a staggering number that 70% of all adults never read a book after completing school. 70%!
But while appalling, that number is not far fetched. Say that a paperback book costs $7.00. If a book sells 100,000 copies (making $700,000) it is a runaway best seller. Howard Stern’s Private Parts shocked the literary world in 1993 by selling over a million copies. (I’ve read that book. It is hysterical.) Now, let’s say that your average movie ticket price is $7.00. If a movie only makes $700,000, it is considered a massive flop.
And here is some impressive numbers for you just to show the disparity. According to Variety, The Dark Knight grossed $996.8 million worldwide. Iron Man grossed $581.9 million. But I think that is probably safe to say that you could take the sales of all Batman and Iron Man related comic book sales for 2008 and you would be hard pressed to sell even 1% of that.
So movies are certainly the new genre for my generation. Writing a book is not a big deal anymore. Getting the movie deal, that is where the money is.
I’m kind of between projects right now (waiting on editors), so I have been catching up on my reading. My favorite author of all time is R.A. Salvatore and I absolutely love his Forgotten Realms book series. I have been reading them since I was about fourteen years old. There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Salvatore’s work is the reason why I write. In many of his dust jacket covers, the blurbs say that Salvatore received a copy of The Lord of the Rings as a gift and after reading it promptly changed his major in college. That book changed his life. I would love to meet him one day and tell him that The Crystal Shard changed my life.
So because of my writing and schedule I was delayed in reading his 2007 release The Orc King. And since Amy got me his 2008 release The Pirate King for Christmas, I figured I needed to get going and get caught back up on my reading. So I have spent some time over the last week sneaking pages on my breaks and lunches at work. And when people come back and see me reading, many ask what I am reading or assume I am reading the Twilight series.I must have had four people in one day ask me if I was reading Twilight. When I shared this with Amy, she asked me if I was reading it, I said, “I’m not a fourteen-year-old girl.” To which she sarcastically replied, “You aren’t a twelve-year-old boy but you read Harry Potter.” That is a whole different ball of wax and a blog for another day.
Still, anything that can generate that kind of buzz is a tremendous thing. And I’m not knocking the series of vampire novels by any means. I’m just not into the whole romantic thing. Clearly it is very popular but just doesn’t really sound like my cup of tea. I may check it out later.
Still, it is amazing how many people just do not read. I don’t think it is because they are stupid or illiterate. Maybe lazy. But people just do not read and as an author, that is pretty darn depressing.
But in the meantime I am pretty happy. I am hip deep in the battle for Mithral Hall and the attempted establishment of an orc kingdom under the leadership of Obould Many-Arrows. Heck, I’d write more for this blog but I am a pretty intense part of the book.
Catch everyone on the flip side!
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