Best-Selling Books

I got a royalty statement from O’Reilly over the weekend. It seems that we still haven’t sold enough copies of the badger book to make back our advance. It makes me wonder if there’s any point in spending such large parts of my life writing obscure technical books that (almost) no-one wants to buy.

I want to try my hand at fiction. And I want to write something that has a chance of being a best-seller. It seems that the best way to ensure this is to be controversial. With that in mind, here are a few ideas.

* I could jump on the Dan Brown bandwagon and write something based in Hermitic Tradition. Maybe a historical novel based on the Templars. The life of Jacques de Molay or something like that.

* Or, sticking with magic and religion but coming a bit more up to date, the life of Aleister Crowley. Actually, that might make a good film. Lots of special effects. But there was an article about Crowley in Saturday’s Guardian so I may be too late with that idea.

* Or keep it simple. Just do something that will enrage the Daily Mail. A book where the protagonist is a paedophile. And portray him sympathetically. That’ll do the trick.

Need to think more on this.

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