The Ten Roads to Riches: The Ways the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!)

144

The Ten Roads to Riches

something-anything

. You can even create

your

own catchphrase

and be parodied on

Saturday Nigbt Live.

WRITING

FOR

DOLLARS

Most

successful writers don 't get rich. Few books sell many

copies-

most less than 10,000. At

that

, if it's a $20 book, royalties may be $2

per book.

The

author

makes $20,000 for much of a year's work and

remains

poor

. A tiny percent sell

better

. Take stock market books,

which are mostly what I've written. A real

monster

stock market

book may sell 200,000 copies in its life.

There

are maybe two

of

those a year at most and they will make the New

.York

Times Best

Seller list like my 2007 book did. But $400,000 in royalties isn't

enough to get rich on. And that's before expenses associated with

promoting

it.

Writers who succeed keep cranking out best sellers to main tain

income and then go down the Road

More

Traveled (Chap

ter

10).

Broader category monsters like

James Michener are statistically

and simply way

out

on the bell curve of success. You're as apt to

become the next Babe

Rut

h.

Long

-

term

top

-10 selling romance

novelists accumulate $5 million to $30 million in t

heir

lifetimes. I

know because two of

them

are my clients. But that's it.

Nice-but

not

mongo

huge.

That

is unless you mo

rph

otherwise.

For

example, St

ephen

Kin

g will collect endless cash from royalties on Tbe Sbining

-the

movie,

not

the book, and subsequent remakes, prequels, sequels,

remakes

of

prequel/sequels, reissues, special-edition