I've seen two approaches for first-time authors to be successful with book sales: 1) Build a large following/author platform 2) The "Write Useful Books" approach which depends on writing a book that target readers will recommend to their friends. I'm leaning towards #2 and Id like to hear any examples of success with that method. Thanks in advance!

SXSW has chosen two of my talks to be put up to a panel vote. They use the vote tallies to choose the final ones that get to take the stage. You have to create an account (takes a few seconds) then place a heart beside the talk title. That is it!! Your votes would really help me. Thank you!! The links for my sessions so you can vote are here: https://participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sxsw26/community-voting-edu-auth/page/community-voting/session/1753456154345001c4vk And https://participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sxsw26/community-voting-sxsw/page/community-voting/session/1753454780013001gwFC