OT: This is sad but interesting:

http://www.stormwolf.com/essays/appeal.html

The subject line says it all. I never thought anybody who gave me so much
reading pleasure would be in such dire straits, even when selling so many
books.

> Brian Bilderback wrote:

> http://www.stormwolf.com/essays/appeal.html

Ludo toen said
> The subject line says it all. I never thought anybody who gave me so

Hmm he says he earns 2 dollars if we buy all three books so thats 2 dollars
for every book he sells. Now on amazon I counted 20 plus starwars books that
he says sell between 250,000 and 500,000 copies let us assume a low sales of
an average of 300,000 per book or 200,000 dollars income for each novel with
20 novels thats $4,000,000 dollars isn't it just on his starwars novels. Dire
straits. Dire straits indeed!!

Bob DeAngelis PS perhaps I am using the wrong figures??? Hobby pages
www.angelfire.com/games4/chubbybob
[quoted original message omitted]

> Bob DeAngelis Wrote:

> Hmm he says he earns 2 dollars if we buy all three books so thats 2

No, that's $2.00 per trio of books, as I read it, and specifically for Talion:
Revenant, The Dark Glory War, and Fortress Draconis. I don't know how good
those specific books are or how many he sells.

Now on amazon I counted 20 plus starwars books that
> he says sell between 250,000 and 500,000 copies let us assume a low

> with

Assuming he makes as much per book for the SW and BT. That is in now way a
given. If the figure is down in the pennies per book, which is possible, the
annual income is significantly less.

> Bob DeAngelis

Possible.

However, regardless of how dire his straits may be, it would be sad to see him
cease to publish novels if he can't get a contract.

I'm not sure I find it to be very sad. Plenty of people have to hold two jobs;
very few people make a successful living just writing books. If he's really
committed to writing, then I'm sure he'll find the time. If not, then c'est la
vie. Besides, does the fact that he's got relatively low sales numbers
(excepting his BT and SW books) say anything about the quality of his writing?
I've read his BT books for years, and while I did enjoy them, it was more due
to the subject matter than the writing. Never been able to get into his other
books; they just didn't interest me, although I certainly tried. Also, I would
like to point out (at the risk of getting my undies flamed off) that this is
the same man who essentially told BT players that "they weren't the ones
paying him to write, and as such had no right to comment on what was being
done with the game". And now he's appealing to those same people to buy his
other books? (and, in case you're wondering, yes, that did torque me off a bit
at the time:)

> On 1/15/02 3:09 PM, "Mark Reindl" <mreindl@pacbell.net> wrote:

> I'm not sure I find it to be very sad.

I'm afraid that I must agree here. MOST writers have a "real" job,
particularly in "fringe" genres.

> Bob DeAngelis wrote:

> Hmm he says he earns 2 dollars if we buy all three books so thats 2

No that's $2 for every 3 books. So at $4,000,000 orginal figure, div 2 times
2... carry the one... two thumbs... 4 toes.... lets see... 2.67 million...

Course I don't think his income is so much the isue, it's the publisher's. If
an author does bring in enought profit per run, they dump the author and find
one that'll make more money for them.