Scholarly writing: Not for profit

As of today, I have published 10 books and co-authored two others. For many people in both my academic and personal lives, that I have published books sparks several responses that include surprise (my cycling friends often have no concept of me as an academic/writer), genuine respect, and most of all a bit of personal dread about the task of writing a book mixed with a common question about how much money do I make off these books. . .

If you are a scholar/academic reading this, you are likely to know where this is going. . .

So I am into my second Neil Gaiman novel of the summer, Anansi Boys (another brilliant work that followed my reading American Gods), and near the middle of this novel, the character Daisy is fleshed out, including this passage about her parents, a pair of academics: "They moved from university to university across Britain: he taught computer science while his wife wrote books that nobody wanted to read about international corporate hegemonies. . ."

I smiled and backed up to re-read this when I came across it. . .and now notice "monies" in "hegemonies". . .

So, many years ago when my daughter was younger she would see me working and ask with a serious amount of scorn, "Are you writing another book?" And I would confirm to which she would always add, "Not gonna make any money on this one either"—not a question, just a statement of fact. . .