Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
You may be thinking more of best selling authors--those who have one or more books that made various best selling lists with their "first" printing and sold enough to have a second or third print.
From AC Crispin's blog:
From David B Coe:
Some have day jobs, some don't. Most midlisters are not making a lot of money and that means the money that comes in later isn't much either. Many midlisters feel enormous pressure to get to best seller or get dropped (and they do get dropped. They sometimes have to write under a different name to try and establish a better sales record.)
As they say: It's a tough market--and even making it to the best seller list once is no guarantee. To make an income--any kind of income--you have to continue to be visible, continue to sell books and find ways to stay in front of the audience. Just "being in print" or still available helps--but it doesn't necessarily mean an author's books will sell.
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I suspect that mid-lister is a definition that it is difficult to get agreement about. Certainly some mid-listers have had one or two books that hit the best selling lists, though not most of them. IMPO, the vast majority of authors never really hit the mid-list status.
For the purposes of this discussion, perhaps the viability of generating money from an author's backlist should be the cut off point. If an author's books have never generated enough sales to warrant a second printing, then discussion of backlist sales is more of a matter of philosophy than practicality.