international bestselling fantasy author. I self-published my first book in 2010, founded an indie publishing company with some of my best friends, and sold more than 100,000 books in our first year and a half. I’ve just agreed to a traditional publishing deal that will see my books in bookstores (and probably on the New York Times bestseller list). I’m living my wildest dreams. Two years ago I had abandoned those dreams. <br><br>I was working a full-time job as a technical writer for the government, writing stories in my free time with no expectation (or even plans) to ever share them with the world. I’d done the math and given up on ever “making it” as a professional novelist. The difference was Amazon’s Kindle, and the e-book revolution that has completely changed publishing. <br><br>Last summer, I dusted off my first serious novel, a fantasy epic called <em>Taming Fire</em>, and added it to the short list of sci-fi titles I had already published. <em>Taming Fire</em> took off. It started selling before I’d even announced it, and within a month I’d sold more than a thousand copies. Within six months, I was making enough on book sales to quit my day job and dedicate myself full time to writing and publishing.
