The Writer Who Found His Market

Once upon a time, a successful author went to a business seminar.  The presenters told him that every business had to pick a price and therefore the size of a market.  “You can sell one billion items for one dollar, or one item for one billion dollars, it is the same.”

The author was quite taken with the idea.

He poured his heart and soul into writing his next book and then made one copy.  He listed it for sale at $10 million dollars.

A very, very wealthy family eventually bought the book and made it available to the public.  It did them a  lot of good.  They now had reknown, and a heightened sense of themselves as a family.  They lasted for generations.

The author thought he could do even better.  For his next  book, he wrote his guts out.  His reviewers told him not to change a line.

He listed it for sale for $20 million dollars.

A very, very wealthy family bought the book.  But they did not share it.  They kept it only for their family.  Reading it became a rite of passage for them.  They acquired even more reknown than the first family, and had an even greater sense of identity.  They lasted for generations unto generations.

Then a very, very wealthy family approached the author.  For $50 million, he agreed to become their family writer.  His next book was about them and for them.  His family and theirs swore oaths to each other.  That family, and the author’s, lasted until the end of the world.