My wife and I live near a lake and every morning we take a long walk. Well, this morning my wife turns to me and says out of the blue; “You need to make 1.4 million dollars.”
“Done,” I replied.
“No really,” she pressed. “We need 1.4 million dollars.”
“Why that amount?” I asked.
She gave me this answer. 1.4 million dollars is the number she came up with that will allow us to retire; which sounded good to me since we’re both in our early forties. She came up with this number by figuring our debts, what we could pay off, and how much we’d have left over to invest and live off the interest. It wouldn’t be an extravagant life, but we’d be comfortable and happy. It all sounded very logical to me. After all, what better dream for a writer than to spend his days perfecting his/her craft instead of having to work a conventional job?
This sent my mind into a churning idea mill. How do I get the money? Options flooded my brain with pros and cons.
Option #1: Steal it or rob a bank.
Pro- Easy way to get the money.
Con-watched too many episodes of LOCK UP and fear jail and violence.
Option #2: Buy and sell drugs.
Pro-Once again, easy way to make the money.
Con-Once again, watched too many episodes of LOCK UP.
Option #3: Work three jobs twenty-four hours a day until the money is saved.
Pro-Legal way to acquire the funds.
Con-I’d be dead from exhaustion so what’s the point.
This lead me to the last option. The only feasible option: Write books that people want to buy and read.
Pro-Legal and enjoyable.
Con-Well, there really isn’t any.
Okay, so how do I go about this? Well, I’ve already written a number of books that are available for sale all over the world and I’ve gotten some very good reviews from independent readers. That part of the process is complete. Now, how do I get a million readers to agree to purchase my books? Believe it or not, that isn’t out of the realm of possibilities. Author’s sites GOODREADS and AUTHORS DEN have a combined membership of over six million people and a combined ‘unique hits’ of over fifteen million a month. Imagine if fifteen million people bought one of my books tonight. Now, I’m not saying that will happen, or even a small fraction of people will purchase my books, or even a smaller fraction of people look me up with any interest. What I’m saying is that it is a possibility. By placing this post on my blog and on the homepage’s of the multiple author’s sites that I belong to, I estimate it will generate at least a 100,000 hits. And if you’re reading this you’re one of them. That’s pretty incredible when you think about it. If just a small fraction of the readers purchase just one of my books I’ll be on my way to making and keeping my wife very happy and content. And isn’t that the goal of every husband?
Okay, I’d also benefit a bit, too.
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