Today is the official publication date of my new book, How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and the Best Ways to Avoid Them. (Pause for collective "Yay!") Like every author I know, I'm obsessed with the rankings of my books on Amazon.com. If you are not so obsessed, I'll explain that the site ranks the relative sales of every book it offers, from number one--currently American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History--all the way down to, oh, number 3,000,000 or so.
On pub day, or when a positive review or a national interview comes out,