Previously we wrote about the small readership Alice Munro had for the first fifteen years of her publishing career. Next up: William Carlos Williams (of “The Red Wheelbarrow” fame) whose 1935 collection of poems An Early Martyr sold just eight copies its first year.

Recall my modest goal for my novella (available now!): just ten copies to break even and launch me to Level 5 on the Ladder of Success.

And if I achieve this goal within a year I will be doing better than William Carlos Williams. Doing better in quality? Doubtful. In finding readers? Demonstrably!

Onward and upward!

Image: William Carlos Williams, 1883-1963 / Hugo Gellert, 1892-1965 / Crayon, ink and pencil on paper, c. 1930 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution