How to Write a Bestseller

Everybody has their theory, but they seem to boil down to this: resonance = bucks. Beautiful writing makes it easier to deliver something that hits home for a ton of people who are, coincidentally, willing to drop $20 on average for a book. You still have to hit what the average book buyer or persuadable book buyer cares about.

That's where my theory sits. Read spam! Well, the subject headings for spam. Spammers stake their careers on knowing what drives the average person, and they cater their subject lines the key elements of resonance - the recipient's actual life, inadequacies, and fantasies - all elements in achieving resonance.

So taking a random sampling of my spam from the last couple of days, I should be writing for deal-seeking, computer literate people who are interested enough in current events to sign up for CNN alerts, worried enough about people wanting to have sex with them to be open to enhancement drugs, and first on the mouse when it comes to possible topless photos of celebrities. I am so up for writing to all of that.