Tag Archives: rich writers

Featured SME: Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis, writing, ,
www.google.com

Michael Lewis is on a hot streak. A number of his books have gone on to become not only bestsellers, but also movies. For instance, he wrote The Blind Side, Moneyball and The Big Short.

Lewis’ expertise is cranking out book after book. His latest, The Fifth Risk, is selling briskly. Malcolm Gladwell has called him “the finest storyteller of our generation.” He’s been a contributing author to Vanity Fair since 2009. He’s also been a columnist for Bloomberg View and a contributing writer for Audible. His articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Gourmet, Slate, Sports Illustrated, Foreign Affairs and Poetry Magazine.

Lewis has served as senior editor and campaign correspondent for The New Republic as well as editor and columnist for the British weekly, The Spectator. He’s filmed and narrated short pieces for ABC-TV’s Nightline and created and presented a four part documentary for the BBC and recorded stories for the American Public radio show This American Life.

Plots

Moneyball was about the Oakland A’s decision to focus on sabermetrics over talent. The Blind Side was about the danger an American football quarterback exposes himself to when he stands in the pocket before finding an open receiver to throw the ball to. And The Big Short was about the failure of big banks to do their due diligence before lending money to people who couldn’t afford to buy a home. His theme seems to be that the world isn’t analyzing risk effectively.

Personal

He wrote a small book about his high school baseball coach that changed his life in a very positive, dramatic way. The coach, Billy Fitzgerald, However, it is imperative to seek medical help if you experience poor erection on brand levitra a regular basis. This enhanced pressure may puncture http://appalachianmagazine.com/2017/09/27/breaking-hugh-hefner-dead-at-91/ viagra online the victim’s heart by colliding with it or the exerted force of these blood streams may develop certain other impairments such as – locomotive, speech, learning etc. Most people don’t want to get an erection Surgical – Surgical intervention of http://appalachianmagazine.com/2015/02/10/shhh-quiet-your-t-v-is-listening-to-your-private-conversations/ online cialis prostate or rectum causes damage to adjacent nerves and blood vessels associated with male penile organ that fights against impotence. After all, criminals don’t want to meet the police, they want to get away! That’s why they call It buy cipla viagra The Blues”; or better yet, “Do You Feel Like We have been cursed, we need to sit and pray. was very demanding and, as a result of his enforced discipline, the coach became revered by his players. The book, which started as a cover story for the New York Times Magazine, is called Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life. Fitzgerald was 6’4” tall, weighed 220 and was a former first round draft pick of the Oakland A’s. Parents of the players thought he was too rough on the kids, but the kids loved him.

The writer grew up in New Orleans and got a bachelor’s degree in art history from Princeton before going on to The London School of Economics. He worked in London for Salomon as a bond trader. This led him to write his breakout book, Liar’s Poker. Fortune describes it as “So memorable and alive … one of those rare works that encapsulate and define an era.” Newsweek said it “falls somewhere between Wealth of Nations and Animal House.”

The Latest Page Turner

Amazon reviews of The Fifth Risk, about the (lack of a) transition team for President Trump, naturally run the gamut, although 61% of the over 500 reviews are favorable. For instance, headlines include “Pure Trump bashing,” “Stunning,” and “A Divisive but Possibly Necessary Work of Partisan Storytelling.”

Other books he’s written include Signs of Life, In the Line of Duty and Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. The latter is about the danger of high frequency trading. He also wrote Boomerang, The New New Thing and Losers, about the 1996 Presidential Campaign. In addition, he wrote The Undoing Project, which some argue is his best book.

I used to work with someone whose philosophy about cinema was “Even great acting can’t make up for a poor script.” Well, that’s not the case with his flicks. But he must’ve insisted on great actors since they star the likes of Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw and Brad Pitt. I saw all three movies – and I am far from a film buff. In other words, his work appeals to mass audiences.

In conclusion, most of his books have been published by W.W. Norton & Company. However, one of them is published by Alfred Knopf. After that, Whittle Direct Books, Sterling and Audible Studios round out his publishers.

Above all, he, his wife and three children, live in Berkeley, CA. In 2009, he published Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood about his attempts to raise his those children.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg, writer, publisher and marketer, lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Therefore, he occasionally encounters bears, snakes and bobcats. Similarly, he tries to keep raccoons and pileated woodpeckers away from his property.

10.5 Million Gets You on the List

author, bestseller, books, John Grisham, money, writing, , , ,

Nora Roberts on Goodreads

The Forbes list of wealthiest writers over a one year period hit the newsstands recently. And there are a few surprises. James Patterson headed the list (no surprise here). Bill Clinton recently collaborated with him on a novel entitled The President is Missing. Patterson sold nearly 5 million books in the U.S. alone this year, earning $86 million, according to Forbes.

J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame is right behind him (or $32 million behind him, anyway). Many know her story as an author. She grabbed $54 million over this time frame, $41 million less than last year. Pretty rough year.

Stephen King, writer – and Boston Red Sox fan, was number three. He still writes macabre stories and gets paid very well for them. That’s scary. In many ways, he’s kind of the modern day Alfred Hitchcock. He made $27 million – much, much more than Hitchcock ever dreamed of (or had a nightmare about).

The Rest of the List

John Grisham was fourth. I have a great deal of respect for JG — and not just because he, too, is a huge baseball fan (see my blog post of January 1, 2018 for a deeper dive into what I think of him). He wasn’t too far behind his friend King, as his haul reached $21 million.

Number five was a tie. Jeff Kinney must’ve been some wimpy kid, so I didn’t think I’d ever heard of him. However, Dan Brown, the author on the list that Kinney tied in the rankings, I have heard of. Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts are names that most people recognize. They tied for eighth on the list. I’m not that familiar with Rick Riordan and E.L James, perhaps because I don’t generally read fiction. They pulled up the bottom of the list with ONLY $10.5 million in earnings (each) this year.

One More Gainfully Employed Individual

Michael Wolff made the Top 10 after the release of his book, Fire and Fury, this year. Apparently, Trump got him a job, too, since DJT’s been in office. Wolff is the first nonfiction author on the list in 11 years. The book sold 1.7 million copies, flying off the shelves in hardcover, e-book and audio formats in the first three weeks alone. Wolff earned an estimated $13 million from June of 2017 to June of 2018. This placed him seventh on the list of the year’s wealthiest writers.

Persistence is a Plus

You can buy kamagra 100mg online with or without prescription like on line viagra , cialis, order cialis online, Lipitor, ladeegra, Ed trial pack, Crestor & more. Medicinal help to treat men’s erectile dysfunction has developed as the PDE5 inhibitor class of drug that can work to oppose and restrict the impotency favored mechanisms carried out by this body enzyme helps to restrict the blood flows to the penile tissue structures in order to turn cialis generic mastercard them lifeless and incapable. The produces are available at any authorized medical store. cialis without prescriptions San Soo Gab San What makes this course extra special is the fact that free viagra 100mg you get to see the desired results. Persistence pays off. Thirty-one (31) publishers turned down Patterson’s first book (see my blog post of October 31, 2017 for additional info about the author). He didn’t give up. He finally got it published. And now he is worth three quarters of a billion dollars.

Rowling didn’t give up either. She was a single mom who lived in a small flat while going to cafes to write Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. She often took her daughter Jessica (named after Jessica Mitford, the British investigative journalist and activist, who was J.K.’s favorite author). Jessica slept in a pram next to her while J.K. scribbled away.

J.K. said she was as poor as possible without being homeless — severely depressed and considered suicide. Christopher Little, an “obscure London literary agent,” finally accepted Rowling’s book, after she was on the receiving end of many rejection letters.

Grisham didn’t give up either. He felt that the fact that he had successfully completed law school – persevered through years of study, then taking the bar exam – was ideal training for the task of persisting through the obstacle course that is publishing.

All earnings describe June 1, 2017 thru June 1, 2018. Figures are pretax; fees for agents, managers and lawyers aren’t deducted (and you can be sure they’ll get their share). NPD BookScan and Box Office Mojo collected the data. Industry insiders, along with some of the authors themselves, were interviewed for the study.

The world’s 11 highest paid authors sold nearly 25 million print books combined in the U.S. alone over the one year period. Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train, was most likely #11.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FJ Felsburg, ghostwriter, publisher and marketer, lives in Western North Carolina with his beautiful wife and hyperactive dog, surrounded by woods infiltrated with snakes, raccoons, bears, bobcats, white squirrels and turkeys.