*Let me start by saying I don’t profess, proclaim or otherwise feel portrayed in theses assessments of authors/artists.

I have been thinking of writers’ readers and wonder about sales versus readership. Now you’d think these go hand in hand but I am not entirely sure. The best way I can portray this is through comparison to two singers—both Country and Western singers. Both have the same number of albums out. Both are signed with big

Nashville labels. Both are currently listed on the Billboard chart—both have gotten to about the same spot, one only two slots higher.

I have been to see both in concert locally. This is where the difference first became apparent to me. Artist A—we’ll call him, Curly. And Artist B—hence forth known as Moe.

Curly’s concert: He had the crowd going; I mean the room was filled to capacity with overflow out in the wait area. People cheering, screaming and all get out letting their thong—though it should have stayed hid—playing peek-a-boo to the beat of his third number-one hit. Everyone knows the words to the songs—a four-year-old got on stage and sang two choruses all by his lonesome.

It was AWESOME!

Cut to Moe’s concert: The room was maybe half-full—many empty tables. Management never even turned the lights down all the way. People sat and listened to the music, some cheers went up on occasion but for the most part—it felt sedated.

Now lest you think I may have left details out—the men are twenty DAYS apart. They have the same type of music and, I thought, appeal to the same group of C&W listeners. Not so much apparently.

Now here comes the part I don’t get—Moe, the sedated crowd Moe, has the better “career”. He is touted all over the music scene. Everyone “knows” him. Curly, not so much. Most of the not dyed-in-the-wool fans who know him, know him due to a less than thrilling misadventure.

In the writing world, I see the same thing. I see authors from big houses with big advances and their name everywhere, but no one seems to have read them. And then you have semi-sorta-cult-fashion authors who everyone had read who have a so-so career.

So it would seem Moe is the better, more famous artist of the two if you go by money alone. Curly is the more popular artist if you go by cheering, crazed, stalker-ish fans. At the end of the day, can you say one is better than the other?