An amusing side benefit of the New York Times mention of my book Reign of Iron - I got to see the sales ranking on Amazon.com shoot up as people who read the article bought the book. Not to say it became a best seller, and with Amazon you have no way of knowing how many books are actually sold (I'm guessing maybe a dozen), but it was clear from the rankings that the article inspired people to buy the book.
And that's why book review editors are flooded with every new title to come out.
I heard a great quote on The Writer's Almanac this morning, by the writer Andre Dubus II:
"[T]he writer who endures and keeps working will finally know that writing the book was something hard and glorious, for at the desk a writer must try to be free of prejudice, meanness of spirit, pettiness, and hatred; strive to be a better human being than the writer normally is, and to do this through concentration on a single word, and then another, and another. This is splendid work, as worthy and demanding as any, and the will and resilience to do it are good for the writer's soul. If the work is not published, or is published for little money and less public attention, it remains a spiritual, mental, and physical achievement; and if, in public, it is the widow's mite, it is also, like the widow, more blessed."
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