Today I'm writing about finding success as a writer and my recent award for distinguished contributions in writing & American Letters. As a past recipient of awards for excellence in writing, merit and distinguished accomplishments, I'm honored to have been nominated. I’ve written nearly 200 full-length works since I completed my first novel in 1986, but it wasn’t until 1995 that I had a breakout hit that established me as a bestselling author. I wrote those early books for Macmillan and have since had books published and/or distributed by Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Microsoft, O’Reilly, McGraw Hill, Pearson and others. My books have sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide and been translated into 34 languages, with well over $150 million in sales. That type of success is the stuff of Willy Wonka’s wildest dreams. Still, as I wrote about in “ How I Made This Crazy Thing Called Writing a Career ”, wild success doesn’t always mean riches for the w...