For quite a whilenow, any time there’s a gathering of authors, the one topic that is bound to come up isdwindling book sales. You’ll hear a number of reasons for sluggish sales. Some blameAmazon’s new book subscription service, Kindle Unlimited. Others point to the huge number of backlist titles that have recently been released as ebooks, either bytraditional publishing companies or the authors who have gotten their publication rights back.

Whatever the cause, many authors are hurting. I’ve...