Burn the Ships!

When the Vikings invaded England their leaders burned the ships on the beach. It created a great incentive to move forward. As a result there are still a lot of blue eyed people in the British Isles.

All three of my JR Johnson novels are among the top ten percent of books on Amazon. That's the good news. The bad news: There are 10 million books on Amazon! Congratulations Jim, you're number one million! To be successful, you need to be in the top one percent. And the pyramid gets mighty steep when you get near the top.

I've taken what I've learned and am applying it to writing the fourth JR Johnson book, Useful Idiot. But here's the thing: I've burned the first three books.

Not actually, I'm not a book burning guy. But I have taken them Out of Print. A bit of perspective: Combined, the novels have sold thousands of copies. Further perspective: My golf book, Hit Your Second Shot First, has sold more than all the novels combined, and continues to sell every day somewhere in the world

That means you can't buy a new copy of the novels. I looked back at the first three. Losing Lola was written six years ago.. The books are pretty good, they have their moments, Losing Lola even won a couple awards. The Bitcoin Gambit sold the best.

If I'm going to aspire to being a one percenter I have to produce better books. It's not the writing so much, it's the plot structure. I'm not going give another boring lecture on that, I don't want my friend Bob to stand on the railing again and threaten to jump.

But pretty good isn't good enough to get where I want to go. Let's just say that I made amateurish mistakes, and leave it at that. To anyone who vigorously agrees with newfound my self awareness: Keep it to yourself! Nobody likes people who pile on.

​I truly thank all fans of the books, and I'm going to do better. 

Useful Idiot will be out when it's ready. It can stand on its own.

I'm not sure what to do with the first three. Write them over? Leave them alone, and move on to the next phase? A lot will depend on the reception for Useful Idiot.

So forget about one millionth place.... How about a million copies?