With so much ink being spilled about the languishing book industry these days, I get a real kick whenever I pick up a newspaper and see it peppered with success stories about books on wildly varied subjects that have found hefty audiences. Just to get your juices flowing and motivate you to keep going, here’s a sampling, compliments of the “Life” section of a recent issue of USA Today:

Heavenly Help: Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back hit No. 1 on USA Today’s Best-Selling Books List. There are now 3.4 million copies in print and a popular e-book version as well. The book has broken all sales records for its Thomas Nelson, its Nashville-based publisher.

Atlas Shrugged Surges: First published in the late 1950s, Ayn Rand’s love note to laissez-faire capitalism is back in business in a big way. Fueled by fans from the Tea Party crowd and a newly released film version, the novel is now N0. 65 on USA’s top-book list.

Twilight Twinkles: Twilight fans just can’t seem to get enough of the series and author Stephanie Meyer is happy to relight their fires with The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, in which she provides back stories for all her bad boys and their girls. Must be lots of vampire lovers, because her book is in USA Today’s Top 10.

Fantasy Flies: In order to encourage his 12-year old son to read, the Aussie writer John Flanagan wrote a fantasy stories for him, which led to his Ranger’s Apprentice series, which has sold more than 3 million copies in the US alone and has also inspired a movie.

Wow! Just looking at the different themes represented and the different audiences these books are attracting boggles my mind. It just shows that when it comes to writing, anything can happen — and probably will! All the more reason to write on.