Getting a consulting business based on a book IS a success--if that
business is successful! Almost nobody makes a living writing these
days. I know only one author who does it, and she has to write, and
sell, a MINIMUM of three books a year. (It's the science fiction
writer Catherine Asaro, BTW, and her latest--"Diamond Star"--has just
hit the bookshelves in hardcover. For a really, REALLY good read,
check out her "The Last Hawk." You can get it in paperback, along
with a lot of her other books, on Amazon.com.)
Lawrence Watt-Evans tried his buy-a-chapter-at-a-time scheme to sell
his books (and later get them commercially published) only after he
had many published books and a large fan base. Though I have heard
of authors releasing larger works a chapter at a time, the chapters
are usually free--only a comparatively big name with a lot of energy
and chuzpah like Watt-Evans can make it pay. (There are also some
cooperative schemes--such as Podiobooks.com--in which books are
distributed free, piece by piece, as podcasts.)
And as for Maria Snyder giving out chocolates to entice readers to
buy her first novel, "Poison Study," about a woman who is recruited
to taste the food of a dictator to make sure he isn't poisoned: the
chocolates were very much to the point. At several science fiction
conventions, she had little mini-seminars to teach readers how to
taste for poisons using--you guessed it--various kinds of chocolate.
The chocolates were NOT poisoned, but some of them were very much
better than others! BTW, the Dove chocolates won.
--Constance Warner
I just followed up on one of there books. I see that 2 years later
the author updated the book and Peach Pit Press published it. I
also see that he has gotten out of the book business and now runs a
home-based consulting company in the same field as the book.
I don't know whether this should be called a success or not.
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