Ah, this business! You plug along for years, putting out book after book, hoping that your small group of readers will grow into a group large enough that you might actually pay the mortgage. You plod along at a steady pace, building slowly, while other authors evolve at lightning speed. Nothing happens for years, and then suddenly, out of the blue, your books start to sell well. Print runs go up. Your publisher tells you that they are going to do more to promote your books. Your agent pumps you up and tells you you’re becoming a Big Deal, and you get all excited, even though you know she says that to all her clients. They approach you about doing a tie-in novel to a soap opera. A what? you cry, but you do it, because you’re no fool. And then one day it happens. You’re in a bookstore, talking with the bookseller whom you’ve known for years. When another customer approaches, you walk away to peruse the stacks, and you hear that customer say, “That’s Julia London? Ohmigod! Ohmigod!” You are so glad you put on some make up and changed out of godawful linen pants you’ve worn all…