I can tell you this, if it wasn't for my book royalties, I'd be in debt.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I haven't the faintest idea what my royalties are. I haven't the faintest idea how many copies of books sold, or how many books that I've written. I could look these things up; I have no interest in them. I don't know how much money I have. There are a lot of things I just don't care about.
Growing up, books were my lifeline, and I owe a debt to those writers that can never be repaid. They saved my sanity and gave me a world I could escape to. If I can pay that forward to another person, that's all I ask.
Books are so cheap and easy to get that people don't bother stealing them, which is the essential rule of piracy that the music business learned much too late.
No matter how much money I made from writing, I'd keep the bookstore job.
Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have left me.
I owe everything to the musicians I work with.
If the books are selling, the money will follow.
I don't publish the books to make money, not at all.
I didn't need to borrow money from the record company, because if I had my own publishing company, and I had my own writers, I'd have enough to get and do whatever I wanted to do.
When I give away a book for free, it gets my name out there. That has lifelong value for me that goes way beyond the few dollars I could maybe charge.