"The best things in life are free/but you can give them to the birds and bees/I want money."*
I'm a big fan of transparency. I believe that systems work better when you can see inside them, understand how the work, and navigate them without large portions of the map shrouded in fog.
So I was super excited to read Lynn Viehl's blog entry, in which she discusses (and posts!) her royalty statement for Twilight Fall, her latest novel and the first to hit the NYT mass market bestseller list.
(I feel a little late to this party, Lynn's post has been making the blog rounds this past week, so apologies if I'm bringing you old news.)
I really admire Lynn's willingness to be transparent. I want to follow her great example.
So ... what do you want to know? I don't know *everything* about publishing, but I do know some. I want to tell you the truth. (After all, my name is Alison.)
Ask me a question. I'll do my best to answer you truthfully. If it gets too long for a comment, I'll carry it over to next Sunday's blog.
Ready?
Go!
* I know this has little to do with today's post, but here's how I got there. My thought process:
I totally want to link to Lynn Viehl's blog post about royalties today. Royalty statements can be so confusing and sales numbers can be so nebulous! I wonder if more authors will share their statements. I wonder if he publisher is upset about her transparency. It seems so impolite to talk about money, sometimes, but it's really great to see the cogs of the machine and dispell the 'all authors are millionaires!' myth. Ugh, I should put my rent check in the mail. Oooh, I should link to that great money song my dad used to play on cassette tape in the car, that was a great song ...
